The tires on my Camaro are still in good shape, but it's only a matter of time before they will need replaced. They have a relatively long tread life warranty and I think I'm starting to see some dry-rot from age (very minor though). I can't/don't want to put it up for the winter, so I'll need good tires for year round.
I know the smart answer is to get performance tires for the "good" months and dedicated rims with snows for the "bad" months, but unfortunately being a single-income family of 4 makes that impossible. So an 'all-season' it has to be.
For whatever reason Chevrolet decided to curse Camaro owners with "one-off" tire sizes, on my car it's 245/55R18 (try looking that size up on TIRE RACK and see how many options you get ... exactly 4). My stock tire, a BFG Radial T/A spec, a Kumho Ecsta PA31 - which I've been told by several sources has very poor wear characteristics. A Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval - which isn't exactly an all season, and a Goodyear Ultra Grip dedicated snow tire, which would be nice, BUT I would tear it up fast driving on it in warm weather/summer conditions. Very short tread life is not an option.
Now, if I look at POLICE-rated tires, Goodyear's RSA/police comes in a 245/55R18 (which happens to be THE standard tire/size for ALL Ford Police Pursuit vehicles from the factory) where the "standard" RSA does not. I had decent luck with the RSA on my Z24 (the canary yellow Cavalier I totaled in '06) they were decent in the snow and with my driving habits (95% steady state highway - no tracking or other hi-jinks), I got almost 60,000 miles out of them.
Lastly, I just learned about a brand new tire from Cooper, the Zeon RS3-G1. It's rated as a high performance all-season radial, BUT it's only been out a few months and there is no feedback on how it does in the snow & slush.
So just for tires, I am looking at between $800 - $1,100 for tires/mounting/balancing + an alignment, so this is an investment I can only make every few years.
Just as a fun fact, new rims are ~200 each, not including tire pressure sensors etc, so you can see why having 2 sets of tires is out of the question.
Please help me decide!