Stepping down to H or T rated tires from V

I have an '05 2.5i wagon used mainly for freeway commuting, but I will hang the occassional corner here and there.

 

Three years ago I got a set of 205/55V/16 Conti ExtremeContacts (predecessor to the ExtremeContact DWS), and they're just about toast 55,000 miles later. I was rotating them every 5K miles in the beginning, but got lazy about halfway through and spread the interval to 10K.

 

I've been happy with the tires, so the logical replacement choice would be ExtremeContact DWS's, but I'm going to be doing a lot of commuting, so I'm thinking of trying something with a longer treadlife warranty this time. Also, when I bought the ExtremeContacts in '07, they were $87 each, now the DWS' are $126 at the local tire shop. Big price jump, but you gotta take inflation into account, and now they're W rated instead of V.

 

It seems like most V rated tires with 50K+ mileage warranties will run $125 and up, so I'm thinking of stepping down to an H rated tire or maybe even T to stick to my budget of $100 per tire.

 

I was looking at the following H rated tires:

Conti ContiProContact (400AA, 60K warranty, $87)

Yokohama YK520 (520AA, 60K warranty, $100)

 

I'm also looking at these T rated tires:

Pirelli P4 Four Seasons (760AB, 85K warranty, $100)

Yokohama Avid Touring S (620AB, 65K warranty, $86)

Pirelli Cinturato P5 (760AB, 85K warranty, $98)

 

Any feedback on these tires, others worth considering, or thoughts in general about stepping down to H or T from a V-rated tire?

If you can get the Avid Touring S. I have a 2.5i with the 17" wheels and I can't get those in my size. I currently run the Avid Touring S on our Civic and had them on our last car before the Civic too and they are phenominal tires for the money. They ride really nice and smooth too and hold the road well in rain and snow. I would look into those for sure.

 

I'm trying to figure out what to go with on our legacy wagon. I was pretty happy with the Dunlop Sport Signatures I put on last time, but they got kind of noisy after about a year. I've thought about going down to an H rated tire from a V but I wouldn't go any lower than that for yours as it might make the handling a little too sloppy. Now that I say that i'm not sure if you can get the AVID Touring S in an H Rated. Yokohama just came out with the AVID ENVigor that I think I'm going to try this next go around because I like the AVIDS on our Civic so much.

I can't say much bad about the contiprocontacts. They are cheap, comfy for the long drive, and on almost every BMW/Merc ever made. If money is your main MO, these should work well. If you want to spend a little more, check out the Goodyear Assurance Comfort Tread Touring in the H rating. Gets a little better in the handling dept and better tread life than the old version (80k now vs 65k on a good day).