The Michelins are good tyres but in my view nothing special compared
with other premium tyres to justify their significant additional cost. I
would believe any premium tyre from Pirelli, Goodyear, Bridgestone,
Avon, Continental etc. would give similar performance and wear depending
upon your preference of tyre type from these manufacturers (be it max
performance or something more conservative) so it will come down to what
is on offer, paying 20% more for a tyre that lasts 20% longer just saves
you the hassle of changing tyres sooner.

26,000 without rotating the tyres - yes you must drive like an old lady!
Any performance front wheel drive car wheel get through fronts in in
half that mileage with spirited driving. A softer tyre like a Pirelli
PZero Assimetrico lasted 6000 miles on the front of my wife's GTV with
the same 2.0TS engine.

See above!

I replaced my Contisports with Bridgestone Potenza S-03s. Very pleased
with the significantly increased grip in the wet, however a minor
increase in noise (which may not be so minor to you). Dunlops are harder
tyres - long lasting but lower grip.

A good site to compare tyre performance is here:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp

It contains surveys from the public. Remember despite the UK weather we
use summer tyres all year around when comparing.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Tony

I drive on cheap makes (TURBO and FIREBIRD) like a buffoon, get mega grip
and my tyres last well over 35000 miles... my car has now only done 51,000
miles and is only half way through its second set of tyres....

Here we go again........
What kind of driver are you? (lazy, sporty, wild, comfort, high speed....)
What kind of roads do you frequent? (..% motorway. ..% city, ..% country,
..% etc)
Where to you drive? (temperature/dry/wet etc)
What tyre size?
Lowered suspension?
Every tyre has it's own "signature" and in my experience all "brand" tyres
will do the same mileage per penny spent, so what you seem to save in the
beginning will get back to you later.
And when you calculate the tyre costs by the mile, you will only see a
difference in the 4th, 5th digit......
From the factory, Alfa are set up for the tyres mentioned in the manual
which usually is Michelin/Pirelli and in some countries Firestone.
I consider myself a moderately sporty driver, pushing the pedal to the
bottom on good roads, and sticking to the law in city limits, never go for
traffic light sprints (I'm always faster, so what am I to proove...) and
love those curvy country roads.
Many years of Alfa experience (over 1.5 million km's -1 million miles- in
Alfa's since 1972) has put Michelin way in front with a good average on
sportyness, mileage, dry/wet perfomance and noise.
Good second is Pirelli however lower mileage and a lot of noise when they
age and a tendency to "cup"
On my 156SW (215/45*17) I also had a pretty good experience with Dunlop
SP9000 and Goodyear Eagle F1
The original 1st set Pirelli P7000 were gone after 15000km (10000mi) the
second set after 20000km, The Dunlops and GoodYears did 30-35000km!!
Now on my Alfa GT I have Michelin Pilot Sport 225/40*18, a dream to drive I
must say (now 25.000km - 15500mi 4-4½mm profile left so approx 1/3 to go
which is good) which is most likely due to the ASR which perfectly prevents
the front wheels from spinning on acceleration (and a dream in snow as
well).

Pirelli P6000. I've had them on several cars now and, IMHO, they can't
be faulted.

Second choice would be Goodyear Eagle Venturer (worked well on my
155),or Goodyear NCT5 (ditto).

Avoid, at all costs, anything unknown -  I've bought used cars with all
sorts of crap on them, and nearly paid the price several times. Can't
remember what the 155 had on it when I bought it, but they were leathal.
My Marea has 'Roadstone Dark Horse' on the back.... yes, I laughed too.
They need to go ASAP.

Our 156 has P6000s on the front and the Michelin Premacys on the back.
My 75 has P6000s on the back and Dunlop SP200s on the front.

I'm pretty happy with the tyres on the Alfas, but the Pirellis are still
my favourite choice.

If you fancy a gamble on something a bit cheaper, and can find someone
who stocks them, Marangoni have had decent reviews in AutoItalia, and
Cooper (parent company of Avon) do some decent tyres, too (we ran our
Cinq. Sporting on them). To really do it on a budget, Colway remoulds
have an awesome reputation in competition and are on my 'try it' list
for the 75 when I get some track days under my belt next year.

On the other hand, if wear rates don't really matter.... Yokohama. Just
avoid the Novaboy special S309s. ISTR my last set were A539, but I could
be wrong, however my 33 16v stuck like the proverbial with them on it.
Wore 'em out in 3k miles on the front, though.....

I used all of them and the one I prefer now is the Pirelli P7.
Good grip, also with wet road, and a good life. I am not able to judge
"sound" since for me it's not relevant. :)
I have to say that I used Pirelli (P6000) and Dunlop with my old 147 and I
preferred the Dunlop but now that Pirelli introduced the P7... well, much
better!
My GT loves them too! ;)
Don't even think about buying Goodyear Eagle!!! Terrible!!!

Ciao, Flavio

An alternative interpretation might be that you are a driver of some
quality who appreciates what tyres do on tarmac and that loosing grip,
shredding or being very heavy on them is never a sign of a genuinely
quick driver - just somebody that can press the brake and/or
accelerator hard and who is unlikely to corner at the quickest
possible speed.

An old lady/gent would be through about 6 clutches at your
mileage..have you?  ;-)

Couldn't find the url earlier, but here it is: http://www.tyretest.com
Click on EN for the English site.