Will snow tires on the back and touring tires on the front hurt my Q?

[WVUMurray]

I have a 97 q and had two flat tires and a flat spare. SO I got towed to a tire store that said they had my tire size in stock. Instead of listening to me over the phone the guy used his tire lookup thing and got 15 inch rim tires returned on his computer lookup instead of what i told him 16 inches. So when i got there they only have two tires in my size. He said he could put the 2 new ones on the front and leave the old snow tires on the back and I could come back in a few days when he would have two more of the new touring tires I Just bought. I asked him could mismatched brand and type of tires like this hurt my Q because I thought it might. He assured me no unless I had all wheel drive traction control. Well obviously I am still skeptical and do not want to **** anything up so i came to The INF gods here. I drove the car home about 5 miles and everythign seemed fine. But I want to know if you guys think this is a bad Idea and I should garage the car for a few days untill I can get the two matching tires.Thanks

[SmithSR]

There is no real harm done. In fact, RWD cars are the only layout left that is allowed by industry standard to run only two snows on rear... but nevermind.

The tire guy is right about awd. Can't do mismatching with such full time, non-selectable drivetrain

The only important thing besides effective axle ratio, speedo, etc, that can be affected is ABS because of differing rolling diameters. This would cause the front end to react at a different rate than computed for by OEM. Take er easy and you'll be fine, but always, always, when and if you can, run 4 proper load rated, proper inflated, matching set of tires.

[WVUMurray]

Thanks, Its just temporary till they get the other two in. Hopefully by sat or sunday.Thanks Again

[Grant@tirerack]

There is no real harm done. In fact, RWD cars are the only layout left that is allowed by industry standard to run only two snows on rear... but nevermind.

I don't know if I'd want to drive any car with snows just on the rear. At least not in Winter. All of your steering is done with the front tires and most of the braking is done up front as well. Sure, you'd likely be able to generate traction to push the car forward with just the rears, but when it comes time to stop or turn the car in snow/ice, that's when it gets exciting . If you take it easy you should be okay on dry pavement but be very careful on wet pavement and take it slow till you get matching tires on the car.