I have an 04 AWD V8 with Michelin Pilot 235/60VR18 on fronts and 255/55VR18 on rears

Well I should have visited this forum 5 months ago to bone up on my tire knowledge. After reading through numerous tire threads, it looks like many people have switched to different brands and have changed to 255s on all 4 wheels.

Unfortunately my fronts were like racing slicks this summer so I went ahead and bought new Michelin Pilot 235/60s figuring the engineers had optimzed the vehicle for these tires, so who was I to change it up. So now I am stuck with those on the front for a bit. I decided to wait a few more months to buy new rears since there was plenty of tread left and it would let me spread out the cost a bit.

I planned on just buying the stock Michelin 255s, but now I am second guessing that a bit.

Would it be a bad idea to buy 235/60s for the rears so I could rotate them now?

Would it be a bad idea to have a different brand and/or model with a different tread pattern on the rears?
Would it be a bad idea to have H-rated tires on the rear when I have the V-rated on the front?
The Belle tire guy was recommending the Michelin Lattitude Touring HP 255/55. He said that Michelin wasn't offering the Pilot 255/55 anymore and that he has been putting the Lattitudes on the SRXs.

The Pilots are still showing up as backordered with an unknown availability on Tire Rack so I might believe the whole "Michelin not offering them anymore" story.

But a couple of the other Belle Tire locations said they could still find some of the Pilots, so I could still go that route if I chose.

He also recommended getting the H-rated ones to save a bit of money. This would obviously also affect the ride and handling, but I'm not sure to what degree. Especially with the V-rated fronts.

I looked on Tire Rack and the Lattitudes were rated pretty well (#4) in their category, while most people seem to dislike the Pilots.


I guess my options are

1 - Stick with Plan A and buy the Michelin Pilots 255/55V for about $510.
2 - Change to the Michelin Lattitude 255/55V - rated for about $490
3 - Change to the Michelin Lattitude 255/55H - rated for about $395
4 - Change to a different brand and model entirely (Goodyear, Pirelli, etc) but stick with the 255/55 size
5 - Change to Michelin Pilots 235/60V so that I could rotate in the future. I didn't get a quote for this yet, but I think would be about $490-500.
6 - Change to a different brand and model entirely (Goodyear, Pirelli, etc) but go with the 235/60V so that I could rotate. Prices would obviously vary.
7 - Same as 6 but with an H rating to save a bit of money.

Any advice would be appreciated, otherwise I will probably stick with the stock Michelin Pilots 255/55V. I am in Michigan and have to deal with snow and ice in the winter if that is a factor.

Thanks in advance.

I would not mix speed ratings as it is just not a good idea, as for brands I would do it if I had to.

But now IMO and this is what I will be doing on mine come spring, get a full set of Kumho STX for less than two of the Michelins.

There is nothing wrong at all with Kumho tires, I trust them on the race car and every other car I own including the one with my kids in it.


just my $.02

Thanks for the input. I kind of thought it was a bad idea to mix speed ratings.

Yeah I probably would be looking at 4 different tires too like you, if I wouldn't have already invested in the fronts. When the fronts wear out next time, I'll be switching them all up.