Since price is most important and performance is not, I would suggest considering the best "budget performance" tires out there, rather than the best performance tires out there that are considerably more expensive (and aren't available in your sizes anyway).
Basically, these break down into two categories: (1) tires that are inexpensive and have pretty good performance, such as the Yokohama ES100, Fuzion ZRi, Avon Tech M500, and Dunlop Direzza DZ101, and (2) tires that are a little bit higher in price as well as performance, such as the previously-recommended Toyo Proxes T1-S and Kumho MX. Unfortunately, many of these tires aren't available in the 18"/19" sizes you're looking for, which is one of the downsides of oversized wheels. For those that are, here are prices (from
Tire Rack except where indicated):
Fuzion ZRi 215/35-18 $119 275/30-19 $197
BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW 2 215/35-18 $159 265/30-19 $249 275/30-19 $241
Bridgestone Potenza RE750 215/35-18 $162 275/30-19 $213
Toyo Proxes T1-S 215/35-18 $167 265/30-19 $243 275/30-19 $258 (prices from
Sierra and
Frisby)
Of these choices, I think the Toyo is better in most respects than the similarly-priced BFG and Bridgestone tires, and is very well-respected. So I agree that that's a great choice. Or, if you want to save money, you might try the cheaper Fuzion ZRi, which is a new tire on the market and has done well against other budget performance tires in Tire Rack testing.
Hapa88 said:
Any recommendations on what tires to get and where to get them? (I'm in Los Angeles/San Diego, and they'll need to be mounted and balanced)
Can't you get them from the dealer that is selling you your wheels? Most wheel dealers also sell tires at great prices and don't charge extra for mounting and balancing.
Otherwise, your local Discount Tire shop can get most of these,
Les Schwab sells Toyos, or if you're getting tires from the Tire Rack, you can use one of their 3,000 recommended installers (you can use
their website to find one near you).