I can't remember the last time I had any tires get that old, LOL!

ROFLMAO! Gotta love clueless salesmen.

That is one of the problems with 4 drivable cars with 2 of them having 2 wheel sets for summer/winter.

I haven't been able to build my BBS E50s for the 84, have new A008s for those, have been using truly ancient RE11s on the car. They are shockingly still soft and I inspected them carefully yesterday so they are at least good for mildly spirited driving.

Yep, different tire construction can impact comfort without necessarily affecting ultimate handling. A stiff sidewall will make a ride more harsh and steering response better.

Years ago, when I had my miata, I tried a slew of tires trying to find the best balance that was available in 15". Lots of folks liked Yoko AVS ES100s, so I tried them. Stiff sidewall so great response, but grip was lower than most of the other tires that I'd tried, so I got rid of them before they were used up. What I settled on were some Toyos (don't remember the model). They had REALLY soft sidewalls but GREAT grip. It took some getting used to the delayed response, but once you learned to trust the tires, they were great. They were also very comfortable (noticeably smoother ride than the Yokos). I also had a similar experience in the boxster with a couple/few different tires but not so extreme. I didn't like the Bridgestone RE050 that is the "N" spec. They had good feel, but lacked grip. With the 19" wheels, I'm happy with a softer sidewall as long as the grip is there.

I’ve used the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 on a bunch of cars, they are excellent tires and very similar to the RE11 but less money. The E63 really chewed through them though, I don't think they liked the weight.

I just have a hard time imagining buying Firestone tires since the Explorer fiasco. And I feel like they didn't have a good rep in the 80s or 90s or 00s or something too for some reason that I can't remember.

But I think Firestone does own Bridgestone, so in theory there should be some cross contamination.

Yup, same same. Also that was forever ago, not something that really registers in my decision process.

Other way around. Bridgestone owns Firestone

Price of tires is up dramatically over the last several months

I own 4 cars/trucks (including my wife's) and the 5 sets of tires I own are: 2 sets of Michelin 4S's, 1 set of Michelin Cup2's, 1 set of Toyo R888's and 1 set of BFG K03's. So yea, I'm a bit of a tire snob :D .
I get so excited when I'm getting new tires. I feel the same as when I was kid getting a new pair of tennis shoes that were going to help me run faster and jump higher!

When we used to drive up to Colorado at least once a year, I had a set of snow tires too. Strangely enough, when I asked my local tire shop if I was his only Houston customer with a set of snow tires, he said no.

My truck needs new tires, and other than the price I’m excited. Going with an oversized minimally aggressive AT tire that will be decent on gravel but still drive nice on the road. It should look and drive much better.