Originally Posted by NC_X5_Guy

Paul, you are lucky I guess......my opinion with the cheaper not really off brand, but lower budgeted tires gave my X-5 a load roar. I went with the kumhos as well, it was like a 4 x 4 off road tire it roared so much. I wound up buying another set of stock wheels and had some michelins mounted on them......no road noise now period. I got right at 57,000 miles on the original michelins, you'll go thru two sets of kumhos and coopers in that mileage range. I will say the kumhos did seem to hook better than the michelins in turns and all, but the wife hated the road noise. So....it comes to a couple of different justifications for you.

1. Buy the Michelin replacement now and spend the money all at one time, taking care of them will get you 55-60K miles with every day driving styles, no road noise, no roar, and a good all around tire.

2. Buy kumhos, cooper, other brands and pay a little more than half the cost of the michelins, but get half the tread wear also....these tires aren't bad and will work, you'll just wind up spending the same money in the long run.