My primary concerns are, in order:

safety (of course)
fuel economy
road noise
tire wear/life
price
country of origin (I want USA/CA)
performance


I drive about a 65/35 mix of city/highway. Where I am, it is very dry so wet driving isn't as important (although I don't want it to be really poor in the wet either). I don't care about winter driving at all because I have dedicated winter tires for that. I'm a boring driver and don't really care about "performance" in terms of driving like I'm on a track. I'm in Canada so I don't care about the TPMS. For $$, I care about VALUE far more than PRICE (yes, there is a difference). I'd rather pay more up front and save with fuel/tire life than just get cheap tires.

I've done a lot of research but I'm getting conflicting advise and tire reviews are hardly useful at all (every single one you can find "best tire ever" and "worst tire ever" in the same page).

OEM size is 175/65R15. I know there are a lot more choices in the 195/60R15 size, but does that negatively impact the fuel economy? Even a 1 mpg difference would make me not want to go this route (I've seen people say things like, "its only 3mpg so I'm ok with that"... that could be over $500 over the life of the tire!)

I was leaning toward the 175/65R15 Yokohama Avid Ascend because of its treadwear rating and low rolling resistance... but tire rack's test shows it is pretty bad in the rain. I know I said I don't care about the wet, but it looked REALLY bad in the rain and it rains everywhere sometimes!

I was also looking at the Cooper 195/60R15 CS4 but honestly I'm thinking with my wallet more on that one because of the $60 rebate. I've read it is a bad tire for fuel economy so that's probably out.

Thanks.

 

I'm really happy with the Michelin Energy tires I put on 35,000 miles ago (56,000 KM). They appear to have more than 50% tread-life left (ok that's a swag, but they look "almost new"). Plus my MPG improved 10% (3mpg) compared to the OE LRR Dunlops. And they come in the weird OE size. They handle/stop much better than the Dunlops and are about the same for noise. Wet roads they're really impressive; haven't been able to make the ABS activate with fast stops. No issues with balance or changing performance as they age. They cost more, but at twice the anticipated life of the Dunlops they're actually cheaper.

Dunno about availability in Canada. They're a bit hard to find here.

They are a summer tire. Here is the fact page from Michelin. (Pilots are good too, but won't get as good fuel consumption)

 

Thanks. I should have mentioned: I'm not too concerned about availability in Canada. I fully plan on buying the tires online and driving down to WA state to pick them up. Tire availability/selection is poor here, at best, and usually comes with a 100%+ price premium.

In fact, the only tires I've been able to find here in the OEM size (besides the crappy Dunlops @ dealers) are Chinese off-brands I've never heard of... and they're $100+ a tire.

So as long as its available online and ships to WA, I'm good. I'll look at those Michelins now.

 

Which "Energy" was it? They have (at least): Energy MXV4 plus; Energy MXV4 S8; Energy LX4; Energy Saver A/S; Energy Saver Grand Touring Summer.

On TireRack (which is by no means exhaustive), none come in 175/65R15

 

Energy Saver Grand Touring Summer. added link above. You could probably call a dealer in Seattle and have them special ordered even though they don't list them. I only see one dealer in my area that lists them (Kauffman tire).

 

Thanks. You were right about them being hard to find!

 

Tons of good tires available in 185/60/15 as well.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...60&diameter=15

I had 175, 185, and 195 and I felt the 185s were the best compromise between fun, efficiency, and cost. 185/60/15 is a super common size so they're pretty cheap.

I didn't bother trying any other 175s... better compound tires might be better than the OEM tires... with them I felt like I was constantly adjusting on the freeway it was annoying. I personally felt 175s were too narrow for the car.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I weighed the above comments and my own research. I couldn't find the Michelins, but decided (based on Steve244's comment) to try and find an LRR that might be similar. That took me back to the Yokohama AVID Asend and I re-watched the review where it trashes its wet weather performance and I noticed the competing Continental ProContact scores rather well across the board and is also a LRR tire. It happened to be on "close out" pricing at Tire Rack and then I found it even cheaper at Walmart.com.

So I think I'll go with that. Good review, reasonably good brand (I had really good OEM contis on one of my cars but also horrible Conti winters on another, so I'm personally a bit mixed), very good price... and the warranty is exceptionally high (same as the Yoko) at 80000 miles. The Cooper I was looking at also had an 80000 mile warranty and is $80 cheaper (all-$-considered), but I was hard-pressed to find reviews and its not billed as a LRR tire. The few reviews I did find seemed to indicate it yielded poor fuel economy.

Hopefully the Conti is a good choice