I need to get 2 front tires, and I'm quoted a price of $350 ($175 per tire) for 205/55/16 S03's, which includes mounting and balancing. Does this sound like a fair price? Also, what's the difference between S02's and S03's? They told me that the S02's would run me $200 a tire.

 

I think that's a very good price. It's close to the TireRack price without shipping and includes mounting/balancing. I'd jump on it. You must consider that mixing S03's with S02's may cause some handling problems.

S03's are a Max performance tire designed for high performance cars, and will work better in the wet than the S02's but won't be quite as good as the S02's in the dry. The dry performance difference is probably unnoticeable by most, but by all accounts the wet performance of the S03's will be a great improvement over the S02's.

Personally I wouldn't mix any other tire with the S02's. If you're going to S03's, then all four tires should be S03's. Use 245/45/16 for the rears. If you're going S02's then all four tires should be S2000 S02's.

 

I just purchased a set of SO3's and am quite satisfied with them (I have never experienced driving on SO2's though since I bought my s2k used).

I paid $170 per front tire and $214 per rear tire (mounted and balanced).