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Hi Dan,
You're right, they are very sticky :-).
As for wear, first I have to say that I get my cars aligned every spring (after a winter of NJ's winter potholes :-); and my tires are mounted and "force balanced" with Hunter "Road Force" machines - these press a wheel against the tire while it's spinning, and it not only measures the stiffness of the sidewall and tread but also somehow measures where the tire should be rotated on the wheel to get optimum balancing. Then it gives a hard-copy printout of each tire. I also have to say that I only use these tires (obviously) in the spring-to-fall; substituting 4 studded Nokian Hakka's in the winter on the OEM steel wheels.
All that said, on both of my cars (my wife's has this same model tire in 205/55ZR15 on Virgos), we get about 30,000 miles on our *REAR* tires (I really change my tires sooner than most, always before my wear bars meld with the tread surface). They wear incredibly evenly across the full width of the tread (thank you, solid axle!).
However, the fronts are a different story, depending on how they're driven. My wife gets about the same distance on her fronts as on her rears; but on my car (no doubt because of our very different driving styles) I only get about 15,000 miles before I feel compelled to replace them, so I replace my fronts twice for my rears. Both her and my fronts wear mostly on the edges, not in the middle, more so on the outer edge, as to be expected; but I just wear mine twice as fast as she does. And all this, despite our annual alignments at our Volvo dealer.
But I get these tires for their safety (traction). I've used Michelin happily since the 1970's -- once I tried a Conti, and another time I tried a Pirelli, but I got rid of both early because I wasn't happy with them; going back to Michelin each time. Being retired a few years now (but still enjoying driving :-), I'm going to stick to Michelin. Luckily I can afford their higher prices and shorter lifespan, and safety is more important than ever at my age.
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