Just ordered new tires for my 1992 V6 Firebird daily driver. I do quite a bit of highway driving, at least 300-400 miles/week. Some weeks I'll put on well over 1,000 miles. It is mostly on the Interstate, but drive the 2 lane mountain roads whenever I can. I've got stock 15 inch tires.

I've beefed up the suspension and like cranking through the curves. We get a lot of rain and I wanted to have a tire good in both wet & dry. Our 3rd gens get a lot of cabin noise and I was hoping to find a fairly quiet tire. I know there are compromises if you want all weather vs. summer performance, performance vs. life, cornering ability vs. comfort, etc.

After doing a lot of research, including on this forum, I finally decided to try the new Michelin Defender all season tires. They are new this year. I found some driver reviews which had over 20,000 miles of use. The reviews said the Defender did seem to be close to what Michelin was claiming. The Defender also has a low rolling resistance which increases mpg.

Michelin claims and the higher mileage drivers report that the Defender has pretty good compromises that result in good (not great) traction in dry and wet conditions, greater fuel economy, lower road noise, fairly comfortable ride, and a long life. They have a 90,000 mile warranty, but I've never had any tire get the full warranty claimed life and be worth keeping for that many miles.

They are expensive. If they give me fairly good handling in wet and dry along with some comfort, I'll be satisfied. With the price of fuel, the claimed extra mpg will be nice. Don't know how any tire can do all that, but Michelin is really touting them.

I'm an Internet guy and do most of my big purchases online. But in this case, I called the toll free number. I was surprised when they gave me an even better price with shipping than I could get on any other web site including their own. The tire business must be fiercely competitive.

I know a lot of forum members prefer high performance and these won't meet their needs. But, for my daily driver, if they even come close to the claims I'll be satisfied.

 

what size are you getting? i assume its a 15" wheel?

 

215/65-15 It's the stock size going on stock wheels. I've looked at other wheels, but I really like the stock wheels. I plan to repaint the car, red to red. I'm thinking of painting the black parts of the wheels red. I think that will look pretty good and be unique.

I'm going to try FYRCHKN's tractor paint idea. But, first I'll practice on my girlfriend's beat up gray cavalier. She's OK with me doing it. Said it can't look any worse. Not a strong vote of support, but I think it will look great even with some bugs embedded in the paint and other minor screw ups. ha ha. At least it will have only one color compared to how it looks now.