Thought I'd both ask the community what tires you all recommend and also share some results of my own research...
I have a 1998 Civic DX hatch which will need new tires rather soon (spec'd for 185/65R14). So I began looking for what tires offered the best balance of price, fuel economy, handling, and tread life. I know that optimizations for any one of those factors tend to work against the other factors, so apparently I'm looking for some physics-defying super tire, heh.
Anyway, after preliminary research, my top pick was the Michelin Defender. Although relatively expensive up front, it's a low resistance tire that reviews say still has good handling and has a high tread wear rating and long warranty, which all helps to offset the higher up-front cost.
However, I did some more research and looked at more tests on Tire Rack, and noticed another tire that is probably an even better deal... the General Altimax RT43. Based on the Tire Rack test results and my own calculations, it offers a better price/performance ratio in basically every category when compared to the Defender. Most surprisingly,
it even beat it at the MPG rating (although not by enough to really say it's outside the margin of error).
So at this point I'm leaning towards the Altimax tires.
Another less quantifiable point that still worth considering... since the Defenders last longer, there's a greater chance of having one of them damaged (nail, etc) during the lifetime of the tire, so in that sense there's more risk of wasted value with them vs a quicker wearing tire that is cheaper (like the Altimax).
Below is a link to the sheet I made to compare them. I'm open to any comments or suggestions on my research and the tires I've looked at, as well as suggestions for other tires to consider.
Tire Comparison Sheet (Google Drive)