As far as tires go, I recently put a set of Yokohama AVS dB tires in 205/55ZR16 on mine. I've very pleased. They're WAAAAAAYY quiet, relative to other tires. They're also about $110/tire sourced locally, cheaper if you go through tirerack.com. This is usually much cheaper than Michelins.

I'm currently running them both on my '98 V70RAWD as well as my '94 855T. Pleased in both places.

-cj

17 mpg sounds right considering it takes 2 mlies to go to work. that's not enough time or distance for u to warm up the engine, and if that 2 mile commute is flat and u are light footed, takes forever to warm up. i get 17 mph for driving too heavy or too much city driving.

tires...well...what u looking for? check out tirerack.com and go to their selection guide section.

Do you have the fancy on-board computer? It can read out instant milage.
When cold, mine never shows more then 12 MPG for the first mile. There
really is a big difference up to the point where the car warms up. The
computer readout can show you what it is doing.

Ensure that your tire size is correct (as the previous post referenced) and you need to do a little highway driving. the ecu needs to "learn" it's fuel stragedy. you need to make sure that the a/c is on so that the ecu can compensate for engine loads. typically it takes an hour of drivng for the ecu to "re-learn" for optiumum performance and fuel economy. as it stands right now you are only driving a "metro" (city) cycle and the vehilce is only running in "open loop". that is, the hegos are not heating up to their normal operating tempature and the ecu is commanding the fuel system to run rich.
.
so take her on the highway for 1/2 to 3/4 hr and drive for (1/2 hr ) of city driving cycle.
let me know what the results of your f.e. are.

I prefer the Michelin tires, always had good luck with them, also balance well. You will get a million opinions on tires. Your mileage seems low, I have the 98 R wagon, average mpg city/hwy is 22. My car warms up within 5 minuets, I think 15 is a bit long. Your trip computer can have the tire size changed (the mechanic uses the OBD port to do this) which would effect mileage. Make sure the size of the tire is correctly entered into the computer. Do you ever drive more than 2 miles per trip? If not than 17 mpg might be correct, since the car is running "rich" for a part of the drive.

Spence