Tires MICHELIN or Firestone

The defenders are all I ever buy. They will rot before they loose tread lol.

I've used Michelin Defenders for years and have been very happy with them.

Michelin tyres. They’re one of the most reassuring in wet road conditions. The car behaves predictably in heavy rain conditions with those tyres fitted.

I have cross climates on my truck and I can't believe how good they are. It's the first time I've ever been impressed with a tire

Given that you live in Toronto I would say Michelin Defender. All season tires, but absolutely amazing in snow.

I also live in Vegas, just had Firestone Firehawk Indy 500’s put on a month ago and have 0 complaints

Firestone Indy 500 Firehawk

Very reasonable price for the quality, and they last a while. I had Toyo Proxes T1 Sports before and they were great, but very expensive, and they did not last at all. I prefer the Firestones for daily driving.

The Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 are an Ultra High Performance Summer tires and have been a great for me. They were super popular when I last bought tires at least. Maybe there is some new hot affordable performance tire? Definitely would recommend checking them out. They handle a stage 2 tuned mk7 gti pretty well for what it’s worth.

As other have mentioned, that tread issue does kinda remind me of how my Firestone snow tires looked after a couple of summers driving on them and doing a fair amount of burnouts and drifting in my 350HP E23.

Bottom line for me, the Michelins haven't stood up in the desert heat and I've had them as OEM tires on a few vehicles. By 25,000 - 30,000 miles the rubber is cracking. How safe is that? Once again, I'm just sharing my perspective from my personal experience. Everyone else can do what they think is right.