Tires MICHELIN or OEM Subaru

More sidewall rubber gives a softer ride and absorbs winter roughness better, so a good idea. I went 29 inch 235/60R18 x-Ice for even more rubber and they are great.

Once I put Pilot Sports onto my V40 that thing just came alive. It didn't have crazy power obviously but you could use all of it, all the time and I kept up with or outran much quicker BMWs, Mercs and VWs because it could handle corners (especially once I got the hang of heel-toeing).

Been on the Defender m/s2 for 26,300mi. Still at 44mph average speed. 2.25mi/kwh. They have better steering response and overall grip than A/T which anyone would expect, quieter but not silent, lacking in the looks department, wearing better than Pirellis but faster than the Michelin treadlife prediction. Tire noise has not gotten worse as they age, possibly quieter but I deal with a lot of wind noise so not sure.

Got the Michelin 275/60/R20 for the past 10k miles and getting good efficiency. Ride was comfortable as well.

Just did the same switch myself and it’s the best ever.

I just bought winter tires and went for the Michelin X-Ice snow tires. We'll see how they work out once the snowy weather gets here, but they've been well reviewed.

Has great luck with the Michelin x-ice. They last forever, and they offer good ice grip even though they have no studs.

The first number is the width in millimeters, and the second is the sidewall height as a percentage of that width. So a 235/45 has a 106 mm sidewall. If you drop to 235/30, that shrinks to about 71 mm. The rims will handle it fine since the width stays close, but it’ll affect your speedometer and gearing.

When your original 45s show 120 km/h, the 30s will actually be doing around 109 km/h. The annoying part is your odometer will climb roughly 11% faster than the real distance you’re covering.

Edit: smaller sidewalls also mean less grip and a harsher ride. The contact patch shrinks a bit, so while you’ll lose traction, you might enjoy how much easier it is to kick the rear loose if that’s your thing.

I replaced my stock tires with Michelin Defender 2’s. They seem pretty good so far (in Eastern Canada).

Tires not lasting. Needed to replace them at 12k miles and I’m not super hard on the car