Right, which gets back to my first question, of what is an appropriate price for good tires? Must I really buy in the highest price tier, or is there a sweet spot, as with computer technology and bicycle components, where you get 90% of the benefit at 75% of the price? That sort of thing.
I am so meh about summer tires in CO, because the season is so short, we only get thunderstorm rain, and then the winter tires go back on.
The only thing I did when I had a car (minivan) was use my winter tires over summer. At half tread for winter I would swap and get about 3 summers out of them, which is about what I got out of the winter side. Rinse and repeat. So my budget would be $0 except for a one time rim purchase off craigslist.
Having said that, I see ever increasing numbers of AWD crossovers on hybrid all weather tires. I saw a Ford Explorer on Dick Cepek rubber the other day at Alta, and I’m seeing lots of Subes and other similar cars on the BFG ko2 and other tires in this class.
They are so good in current breed that the time and effort to manage shoulder season tire swapping, especially slushy/soapy where these tires are better than winter tires, is pretty pointless. Plus, they brake and handle better in the long warm season we have where we drive up and back to winter. Most come in p-metric versions for the car sizes so you don’t have the light truck tire weight and construction, plus they are cheaper.
I don’t care what the conditions are, because my tires are good in everything. It’s hard to get over this winter tire thing until you do it, and then it’s really, really easy.
The “jack of all trades” saying actually has another part:
“Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than master of one".
So it goes with tires. And skis.