So we took the CX-9 to COSTCO today to get the new Michelin Lattitude HPs put on, and to our surprise, the tire guy said, "Hey, uh, you don't really NEED new tires right now. You have 17K miles on the stock ones, and they still have 5/32nds tread left."

He said that's "half-life" left (which is BS...2/32nds is legally bald), and that we SHOULD get another 20K out of the tires, but would likely need new ones about the middle of winter.

So anyway...long story short, we're running on the Duelers a little longer, then putting on new tires in October, which is when the next COSTCO $70 off promotion will run. THat works well with our suddenly cash-tight budget (thanks to the emergency vet and Doc bills), anyway.

Here's the kicker, though -- he thinks we should put on WINTER tires, and keep them on all year long. He thinks that'll give us the winter traction Jen needs while not harming our summer traction that much. ANd he thinks we'd get about the same tire life out of them that we're getting out of the Duelers if we left them on all year. I'm not wild about that idea -- I think that'll make the 9 noisy, lower gas mileage, and hurt us with wet and dry traction.

What does everyone else think?

Wet traction probably won't be too bad actually since winter tires have such deep tread blocks, the water is easily displaced. Dry traction, and dry traction on a hot day, however will be severely compromised. I've noticed that I tend to flirt with lockup with my winter tires when it's warm out. Winter tires tend to wear like butter in the summer. The rubber is just too soft when it's warm out.

On my VUE, I run all seasons the other 3 seasons and winter tires in the winter. The all seasons are good enough for those early or late snow storms, but handle the summer heat way better than the winter tires would.

Do you have the 20" wheels on your CX-9?