If you hit a car and that car's only damage is a tire does insurance generally pay for all 4 tires?

If you damage someone else's property your insurance company is required to indemnify that person for the damage lost. In other Words, they have to put them back to the same 'place' they were before the accident happened - not better than they were before the accident. So they would typically be only required to replace the damaged tire. If it was a tire that was bald - the insurance company could take the price of a new tire, subtract the amount of difference for a new tire and a tire in the condition of the one damaged and pay the difference. Most of the time, the insurance company will just pay for a new tire and be done with it. For the insurance company to pay for 4 new tires for the claimant vehicle, it would have to be an extreme situation in which the body shop doing the repair work advises that the balance/suspension, etc. would be damaged or unnecessarily worn if only one tire was replaced. Very unlikely. By the way, if you are in an accident and the only thing damaged on your own vehicle is a tire, your insurance company most likely will not pay, even if it goes over your deductible. Most policies exclude damage to tires only.