I have a 91 940T that I bought new and I have tried a variety of tires on. I agree about putting too much on the mileage aspect of the tire. I found a problem with traction on wet pavement (almost to the point of dangerous) with a high performance/high mileage tires. Buy a tire with a softer rubber (thus lower mileage; usually less expensive) has produced a world of difference in the rain. Safety is my first priority.

With the right tire you can get all, but at a price. I currently have some expensive high performance tires that provide excellent traction in all conditions but are more expensive.

I'm not an expert on tires, I just play one on the internet. Really, I'm not, but just giving you my experience.

Gary

While I try to support local businesses if they are fairly competitive on price, I have bought tires over the net from tirerack.com and it worked out great. Their site has a lot of good info on comparing various tires of the same type. You can get a reasonable set of "name" all-season tires for around $45 each - shipping will be about $20, and my local tire shop did the mount and balance for $50. Compare that to the all-in bottom line of a discounter like Pep Boys, and see what looks best. Like the other posters, I would feel better knowing there's some decent quality under me at 70mph or so.
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Bob (81-244GL B21F, 83-244DL B23F, 94-940Sedan B230F)

It's probably been ten years since I've fooled with a Cooper tire, but at that time, every Cooper tire I came across , at about half tread life, would encounter some kind of terminal case problem ( bubbles, wobbles etc). I havn't touched one since.
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-------Robert, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel , '80 245 diesel

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....how funny you mention that. Now I know where the tires came from.

I got a '94 940 sedan from a local auction and it came with a set of some fairly new Futura 2000 tires on it. I never thought much of the tires, and the car handles pretty well and seems all around pretty good. I've never been a tire person though. They don't look like they will last a very long time though, in terms of mileage wear. I've only had the car for about 2 months, but if the tires are at a very good price at Pep Boys, I'd buy another set of 4. One bad thing, however, all 4 tires don't hold air too well, I have to top off the air pressure every 2 weeks, but who knows, I got the car used. I bought some new tires (Cornell 505) which were the cheapest I could find at Pep Boys for a 1992 Chevrolet Lumina van I had and was very happy with them.

The quality and performance of a tire should not be graded solely on treadwear (which varies, depending on compound, and testing standards) or milage warranty (which typically are prorated, some to list price).

Traction grade is only for wet traction braking. It means nothing for dry traction, cornering, or acceleration. A grade of A should be the mimimum considered. Highest is AA.

Temperature grade is the most uniform ... a B grade should be minimum, A is best.

I can't comment any further on what tires you've considered ... read up reviews on TireRack or Usenet via Google Groups.

Oh, and keep in mind that everything your car does - going, stopping, turning - relies on those 4 contact patches. I'd rather trade treadwear for the traction (wet and dry) of a higher performance tire.

-- Kane ... just IMHO.
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Blossom II - '91 745Ti/M46 ... Bubbles - '74 144GL/BW35 ... Buttercup - '86 245GL/AW70 ... The Wayback Machine - '64 P220/M40