I know everyone says the MXV4's that come with our models are "great tires"! But handling-wise the $44 Sumitomo summer tires I just got blow those Michelin's away. Bit noisier, but I don't car. Ride's a tad more harsh, but that's what you get. No more all weather stuff for me - it's winter and summer.

Get the alignment done at an alignment shop as they will probably do it for half the cost of the dealer. Also, don't wait too long after getting your new tires or you could where out the front pair quickly if the problem is due to a misaligned toe setting. Whatever the problem is the alignment shop will be able to advise you.

In addition to the other suggestions on where to look for tires, if you belong to a warehouse club, e.g. Price Club, or BJ's you may want to consider buying the tires there. I have found that they usually have good prices on Michelins, and they also carry other big name tires. The tradeoff is that they usually only have 1-2 brands in a particular size in stock. I bought a set of the MXV4 plus (for a chrysler)at price club, the purcahse and installation took about an hour (I had to go else where for an alignment). In one year I have found the MXV4 plus good in the snow, rain, pretty quiet and smooth but they do not give crisp handling.

First of all, if you ever find a tire that posseses all the traits you just listed, hell would probably freeze over. "really good traction in wet and snowy/icy conditions, corner well, and are quiet on the road."

A tire like that just doesn't exist. Good dry traction and cornering almost always means poor snowy/icy traction and louder road noise.

If you really want high performance dry and wet traction tires, get a summer tire, and run snow/winter tires in the winter. I never believe in all season tires if you get snow every year. I don't care if you get snow for one month, or even less. All season tires are a compromise. You basically compromise dry traction for winter capabilities, and ultimate grip for quiter road noise.

If you are going to compromise on your tires, you might as well stick with the Michelin MXV4. That way, you get to use the same rims. You seem relatively happy with them, so why not?

BTW, M+S ratings are given out more freely than jokes about Pres. Bush's intellect. All a tire needs to get that M+S rating is to have a minimum of 25% of the area of the road contact patch be of grooves. I don't know of any all season tire that doesn't have this rating. And I will bet that the majority of them absolutely STINK when it get's cold, let alone cold snowy and icy.

If you are going to stay with your rims, I recommend staying with the OE size. Switching sizes could create a number of problems unless you do the proper measurements to insure you won't cause rubbing or odometer problems.

So when it comes to a tire recommendation, I recommend that you should run summers in the summer, and snows/winters in the winter. A set of snows on rims will cost you about $750. And the snow/winter tires should last between 2-4 seasons depending on how long your winters are.

If you want to compromise the acceleration, cornering, braking, etc, of your car, go with all seasons. And since you seem relatively happy with your Mich's stick with them. In general Mich makes great tires that cost a little more than their competitors.

As for your allignment problem. I recommend you get the tires mounted/balanced and put on your car right before you get the allignment. Purchase the tires from a shop that will do allignments, have htem mounted/balanced, and get an allignment. Or buy the tires on-line/telephone order, and have them mounted/balanced, and alligned. Basically, you want the tires on first, and the allignment to be done right away.

I recommend this because having the car alligned with out of allignment tires could limit the shop's ability to give you a good allignment. And driving around on new tires with poor allignment is like throwing money away. You'll ruin the tires in no time.

You more than likely have an allignment problem, but from the sound of things, I think you might have a faulty tie rod end. When tie rod ends fail, there will be play or looseness between the wheel and the steering. This allows the wheel to wobble.

Go to www.tirerack.com. They have very good site for choosing tire for your car and for your personnal preferrences. It also offers testing results and users feedback. I found the site very useful and their service and pricing are great. I bought four tires from them and I am very happy with them. The tires are Brigestone Turanza Revo. They rides better and quieter than OEM.