Those still running stock size 205's

The tire forum has quite a bit of up sizing in it to the 215/225 tires. I'm interested in keeping the 205's and I'm going to have to replace my Yokohama 520's in the next month or so. The Costco Michelin Exalto tires look promising, but they run about 20-30 dollars more per tire than virtually everything else. I haven't bought Michelin's in the past because I thought they were no better or just slightly quieter than other tires. I'm more interested in longevity than cornering power. I also am not concerned about snow, as I live in San Diego. Any suggestions/comments would be most appreciated.

Go Michelin. They are usually worth the extra price. Its not all about being quiet, they seriously are the best thing to come out of France since crepes! Better ride quality, better longevity, and often better handling. Something about Michelin that they won't take being 2nd best. The Yokes should be pretty good tires, tho. Did you have probs? I currently have some new type of BFG directional on my car. They were priced competively, but supposedly have a really long treadlife. Either way, they are doing better than the Falkens that I bought it with, that looked brand new but were badly worn 10,000 mi later and slipped and slided in the rain like Jerry Lewis in a banana peel skit.

I got 31k out of the original Toyo's and I've got about 36k on the Yoko's. The Yoko's were definitely better than the Toyo tires, but with a 520 rating I expected them to go a lot further. I rotate every 5k and drive mostly highway. I have also heard claims that Michelin tires give better fuel economy, but I'm wondering if its just a marketing machine. I have a scangauge and take fuel economy pretty seriously. With gas over 3.30 plus a gallon here, driving over 22k miles a year is an expensive proposition and I'm always looking for an edge.

What I'm looking at doing is to downsize to 205/55 R16 which is the standard winter tire size, as well as the OEM size on the 2012 Mazda5 Sports.

Take a look at www.discounttire.com, they show the mileage warranty. www.tirerack.com is another good source. For the Michelin Destiny (which is, I believe, the same as the MXV4 Plus*) it's an 80,000 warranty and there is a Michelin with a 90,000 mile warranty (the Hydroedge). For our current size (205/50R17) the best mileage warranty on a Michelin is 45,000 miles.

Also, supposedly the road noise is less on the 205/55R16 tires.

The downside to this is that you will need to buy new wheels (rims) and you would probably want to buy new TPMS sensors. Nice allow wheels run about $100 to $130 each, and the TPMS sensor is about $60 to $70 per tire, so about $800 for alloy tires and TPMS sensors. You can get basic steel wheels for about $50 each if you really wanted to cut some corners.

But... the tires will cost $30 to $40 less per tire when you replace them, and they should last at least 50% longer so you won't be replacing them as often.

* For larger retailers, Michelin will rename popular tires. Any Michelin Destiny you see was sold by Discount Tire, Sam's Club has their own name for it, etc etc.

I thought about the downsizing, but I think I'll stick with the 17's for now. The cost/benefit of doing the downsizing is too far down the road now that I have 67k on the car. I'm just weighing in to see if its worth it to go with the Michelin's or stick with the Yoho's.