i\'ve got neuton NT5000s on the front of sti at the moment. were well under $200 ea in 205/50/16, and seem a reasonable budget option compared to many i\'ve had in the past on other cars.
have only done 1500 or so km on them, but they seem assured in the wet and fine in the dry. the car is purely road going. at this stage i\'d be happy to put another pair on the back when the time comes.
have got DZ101s on mx5, have been really good. they have worn the shoulders out, but i guess thats inevitable with hard cornering and dubious alignment specs
would definitely steer clear of triangle / kingstar / linglongs / bluestreaks etc.
as mentioned above its true that in general the more you spend the better the tyre, but the cost vs performance increase gets more and more marginal IMHO. at some point spending $600 a tyre for 5000k of driving just stops making sense