For climates where you will get snow I think the Continental Extremecontacts would be best...the have a great rating and awesome snow rating for a performance tire...tirrack price is insanely cheap too. Unfortunatley when I needed 2 tires (the rears were baldies when I got my SC4, they were a real soft compound), tirerack was backordered, so I ended up going with Goodyear GT+4s (like what comes on the car and the same tire as the fronts, which were only down to about 9/32s). I was a little weary because they didn't get great reviews and I've read a lot of complaints about them and their wet and snow grip, but I went with them to match up with my fronts and play it safe (at least this time around...lol). They have handled surprisingly well! Very well! Dry they never loose grip, even when I try my damnedest to break them free (lol), I've only gotten them to break traction briefly once, when throwing the car around a turn. In the rain they have also been amazing! The !Removed! of the car stays put even on on/off ramps at higher than posted speeds. Haven't tried snow yet and hopefully my mind won't be changed...lol. I'll let you know if they give me a problem. Here's the kicker though...GT+4s are usually under $100 a piece...a lot cheaper than a lot of other brands. I did hear that they are hard to balance and must say that I have a slight shimmy from 70-75 mph then it goes away...probably a bad balance job from those dumbasses at Sears (just had them mount the 2 and balance all 4), I'm gonna bring it back and see if they can rebalance and make it better. I'll post any new results later. Peace