Aaargh!!! Purchasing tires is such a confusing and FRUSTRATING thing to undertake!!You research, you've got a price range to work in, you Google and read and read and read and read until they all start to blur together. The ratings people post on any given tire range from 5 Stars "MOST WONDERFUL TIRE.....EVER!!!!" to a "Wish they had a Zero star option" All on the SAME TIRE!!So I began to throw out the 5 stars, nothing perfect you know, then I threw out the 1 stars for often people exaggerate when they are bothered by something.So I end up with Dave's 2 - 4 Star rating system.So after all of this mind numbing effort I select a tire, pick up the phone.... ring ring..... blah blah blah...."Oh, that tire is on National Backorder until April." (a Bridgestone product, Bridgestone Turanza Serenity)AAAARGH!!! Back to the computer, select another, "well, we have only three of them in stock" Huh?? Who in the world needs THREE (3) tires?? Cooper CS4)Finally this morning, pouring rain, foggy, cold. I drove my wife to work, it's her Vibe actually, and went to a place I deal with a lot (I take care of a small fleet of vehicles) on a whim that he isn't busy."Dave!!" Says I.... HELP me!!!He wasn't busy and after chatting a bit and telling him my budget he started tossing out ideas from his experience and what his inventory is.He then used his computer and looked up ratings and feed back on his suggestions.I had my list of "must haves"...I wanted a QUIET tread design, these are noisy econo boxes, I don't want to introduce extra preventable noises.I wanted very good Dry traction (even though I am and drive like an old fart!!)I wanted Good Wet traction I wanted OK snow traction (I know you won't get good snow traction from an all weather, I don't run dedicated snows, we do get snow, at times significant snow, it usually isn't a huge storm and if it is, we simply stay home (our jobs allow us this luxury) or I take the Toyota Pickup 4x4 to go out)I wanted to stay under 5 bills if I could..... Out the door price.After looking at many options ranging from $200+ EACH to no name crap for $70,I finally settled on Yokohama AVID ENVigor 205/55R16 91Hhttp://
www.yokohamatire.com/ti...vigorhttp://y ... .r.pdf$488 out the door, valves, taxes, installation, disposal fees.among other sites I used...
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...6V%29h ... s=205While some of the reviews aren't the best, they are decent overall. (no tire has all wonderful feedback) The snow ratings are hard to come by for many of these users are in Florida, California or Texas (NO snow yet they rated snow on their feedback?!?!) many others are reporting feedback after only 1000 miles or so (no real experience here, still running on emotion) and A few were long term users, 10,000 - 30,000 or more and these are the ratings I focused on. I also favored the snow belt users from Ohio, Michigan, New York, etc.I've done it, the pain of decision is over, I bit the bullet and laid out the cash, I'll see how they do. Thus far after about 100 miles they are great, but I'm comparing them to four mostly bald OEM Goodyears on a dank rainy day!!I feel I did good on the price, I feel the tire is overall a decent tire but that the snow performance remains to be seen, again, whatever it ends up being can't be worse than mostly bald OEM Goodyears!! I put a 2nd set of Goodyears on for some unknown reason, Actually it was a warranty tire deal that turned into four new tires at about 40,000 miles. The second set lasted to 99,500 miles which is today.I guess what I'm trying to say is that it was a MAJOR help to be at a tire store, talking to him honestly and using HIS computer to check out the feedback and quality on HIS inventory!! It really Pays to have friends in "high" places!!! BTW.......Yokohama has a 30 day trial period to return them if you hate them.These tires have 60,000 tread life (for what it's worth, I've made crap OEM tires last almost that long)To anyone else looking at tires intelligently....GOOD LUCK!! You WILL be needing it!!!Dave