Thanks for the reply. I went to a quite a few dealers in my hometown, most were pushing this tire and they had a $70 rebate starting October 1st. I do a lot of highway driving in winter months in Southwestern Ontario, I'd say 90% of the time the roads are bare and dry, deep snow is rare, maybe 5 times a season, more slush and ice when it does precipitate. Michelin was the only company that gives a treadwear warranty on their snow tires, so I thought it was worth exploring. One of my preferences is to have a winter tire that doesn't wear out too fast due to my dry weather driving, and I rack up a lot of miles quickly. I looked at Arctic Claw, but I try to avoid Chinese made tires for a number of reasons, though I really like Cooper Tires who makes that tire. I looked at the Blizzaks but I was told the first 50% of the tire tread is where the majority of traction is on that tire, after 50% wear the tire compound changes and you lose some traction benefits. I also looked at Firestone Winterforce, they put those on many OPP and RCMP vehicles in our region. The Firestones seemed like a good buy but I ended up going with the Michelins. Some of the other tires weren't available in the size that I wanted. My dealer also had the Continentals but recommended the Michelins over the Contis due to noise concerns as those tires wear. My dealer offered a handful of different tires as they are an independant dealer , all of the tires were within $50 on a set of 4, so I went with their recommendation. I hope it works out.
The Tirerack reviews and survey looked quite good on these tires, probably good enough for my type of driving.
