I gotta put my $0.02 in here
We have all-season and winter tires for our '10 Camaro and '78 Chev P/U.
I'll be the first one to tell you about summer and winter tires over all-seasons, but ....

We have Michelin Harmony tires on our '90 Olds front wheel drive and it goes through snow/rain/dry weather without a hitch. Now mind you, we only ever put it through no more than 6-8" of snow, but they are great/inexpensive tires for an all-season that we leave on all year and the wife ran that car for 20 years without snows. Even when we had over 2' of snow.

My vote goes to Michelin Harmony tires. Inexpensive, quiet, loooooong tread wear and enough performance for any low HP vehicle.

i hope thats not your daughter

And what if she were ?

first of allmost goodyears have a tread life guarentee, and seeing as your driving a small car (which should not chew through tires) I am surprised you are only getting 30,000 km out of a set of tires.

Second, a masda 3 is not a preformance/sports car so why do you want to waist money on preformance tires which are softer compound and have shorter tread life. even if it was a sports car, it sounds like you want more tread life. look for a good quality tire with a large tread life guarentee.

Steve

I ran Toyo's on my 18's back when I had them on the truck. Ran them for three summers and still plenty of tread left, and that's with adjustable suspension which can tear tires up.

I recently went with the the all season Kuhmo Ecowing tires on my Subaru. These are the new Lower Rolling Resistance tires, which give better mileage. I like them so far,.... quiet and soft ride. And OK Tire gave me a great deal...
http://www.kumhotireusa.com/tire/cat...E-A518201CA306

My previous tires were Kuhmo, and were a lot better than my original stock Bridgestone Potenzas, which are way over priced and over rated, IMO.

I'm not sure why, but it seems the size tire I need is not common??!! When I put in the tire size as it won't pull the correct size by car model, I get 8 options for tires. When I bought the car, I was told I had performance low profile tires, they would give no traction what so ever on snow/ice and were pricey. In looking for replacement tires, I've found the tires are cheap which is likely why I only got the milage out of them I did.

The dealer (not the same one I bought the car from) gave me 5 options Falken Ziex, Yokohoma Avid Vigors, Michelan Pilot MxM4, Hankooks Ventus V4, and Continental DWS, price ranging from $135 (Falken) - $228 (Michelan)/tire.

The car is not a performance car and as much as I love it, zoom zoom is an oversell...lol. It is a fun car to drive, but I can say as far as tire comfort, the summer ones I have had are hard and do not offer a smooth ride, noticably different on the snow tires. I get that's part of having "performance" tires. I will spend the money on the tires to get something that will last longer than 2-3 summers, still look "sexy" and be fun to book around in, I want quality for sure.

I love my snow tires and don't think I'll ever go without again because they do make a huge difference, but I guess that depends on the vehicle too. We've been talking about a camero...just for fun, but also talking about a SUV so we can get a boat...neither is pratical, but you only live once, may as well have some fun!

Summer tire compounds are a lot harder that the winter tire so that they can handle the heat of the road in the summer. That is why winter tires burn off faster in the summer they are a soft tire for winter traction. All season tires are also a softer compound hence the shorter life span. They need to be a little softer to have some traction in the colder winter months.

Lol it's not, but would be awkward if it was

205-55-17 is not overly common but you could always use a 215-55-17 as well which is more available, you can check out tire trends for most of your options. http://www.tiretrends.com/catalog2.php3

I wouldn't buy tires from a dealer. A 55 series tire is not low profile and you're certainly not limited to performance tires.

Honestly I'd order a set from Tire Trends, the shipping is surprisingly cheap and they'll show up at your door within a couple days. Then take them in to a tire place and get them mounted.

This is the most useful info, thank you!!