redroo

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I'm willing to pay a little more for safety and confidence. We just got our first snow/ice and expecting more today and tonight, and my current tires, Bridgestone Dueler HT that came on the Forester when new, are pretty worn now after less than 40K mi. For my previous vehicles, I've always just gone to a tire dealer and had them put on whatever they recommended or replace with the same as was already on the car. This is the first time I've researched alternatives. If I get tires either online or from a source other than a tire dealer or the Subaru dealership, is it ok to ask the dealer if they'll put them on and do the balancing/alignment, etc? Thanks.

Thanks bjworth. I want good handling, good road feel, cornering etc, low noise, good traction in rain and winter conditions. Gee sounds like I want it all. I rarely go off road, but do have occasion for gravely or snowy lousy roads once in a while. My driving style is very conservative, but I want to have confidence with sticking to the road in any conditions. I've learned that tires that are good in winter (certainly winter-specific tires but also some all-season) are noisy. The tires I have now have gotten quite noisy over time, and it's very annoying and fatiguing on longer trips. I'm not so concerned with how long the tires last, as long as they perform really well for as long as they last. Of course if they do last, that's great too. Thanks.

Hi. New to USMB. I have a Forester L '02 and need new all-season tires. I've read through 6 pages of posts here on "recommended all-season tires" and have looked through TireRack.com reviews. As expected, recommendations run the gammut. Seems it may make a difference as to just what kind of car, and even which make of Subaru, and maybe even which model of Forester (S vs L) as to how a given tire will do. On TireRack one reveiw suggested that some tires just don't do well on Foresters. And of course, many people will rave about a given tire after 500 mi and hate them after 20,000. And there are things like how great the GY Tripple Treads are, but reports of losing 5 mpg mileage with them, etc etc. My local Subaru dealer wants to sell me Firestone Affinity H/T tires, but they are rated quite mediocre on TireRack--although the TireRack ratings seem to be pooled from all car types. So...the posts on this site were really helpful, but wondering if I could get some info specifically for a Forester--if that actually does matter? And now here's the dumb question: how does it work to order tires online? Do you get a pile of tires delivered to your doorstep? Thanks for reading through all this.