Richard you beat me to the punch.

pkme, I took a closer look at the TireRack.com site (I've been purchasing tires from them for nearly ten years and love their service and prices), and have come up with the following tires that meet your criteria:

• $123/$494 -- BFGoodrich -- g-Force Super Sport A/S H&V
• $128/$512 -- Continental -- ExtremeContact DWS
• $113/$452 -- Dunlop -- SP Sport Signature (H&V)
• $193/$772 -- Goodyear -- Assurance TripleTred
• $115/$460 -- Kumho -- Ecsta LX Platinum
• $163/$652 -- Michelin -- Pilot Exalto A/S
• $157/$628 -- Michelin -- Pilot Sport A/S Plus
• $133/$532 -- Yokohama -- ADVAN S.4.

For winter conditions the Continental ExtremeContact DWS has the best ratings, and given its price point, it is probably the best tire going for your needs; I highly-HIGHLY recommend these over any of the tires you came up with as not one of them will do well in winter conditions).

I have the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires on my car now and highly recommend them as well, however, they're more expensive than the Continentals and don't have quite the winter traction, however, given the utility I'm getting out of my set, I can say that they work very well with the idiosyncrasies of the Mazda3 suspension setup.

Keep us posted.

 

Well, y'know....
Actually I was so tired that I went to bed very early last night, so I was up in the middle of the night, but I had been thinking about running the numbers on her tires even yesterday.

To offer my feelings and opinions from your selection, Dale,
I used to run BFG's, though not on the Mazda and found them to be a little hard for a smaller car in all conditions... especially winter weather (when I still lived in Pa.)

Dunlop is also a tire I have never been all that happy with and since they are part of the BadYear family, have chosen to stay away from them too. They are known to ride very hard and get noisy if not already from the get-go.

Kumho's? Hmmm. Where to start: Between my wife and I we have had 4 sets in the past few years, only one set were we truly happy with. I will NOT be replacing the ASX's currently on my car with the same. I find Kumho's ratings and specs to generally be.... optimistic. I did consider the Platinum's for the wife's new Vibe, but instead went w/the Conti's.

And the Michelin's: Almost always a decent to very good bet in most categories, but always pricey. They can be hard too, which is how they manage to get the mileage out of them they do. Though I know you love yours, Dale, to me and my wallet, they aren't worth the extra cost.
I had one guy @ Discount Tire REALLY trying to push them on me when they failed to have either the DWS or Platinum's in stock or available at the time. That didn't sit well with me and I have not been back to Discount since. I do my research and do not like to be hard sold by someone w/an ax to grind. Of course that speaks more about the dealer than it does the tire itself.

And, need I say it? BadYear is BadYear. They may or may not make great racing tires, personally I don't know as I have no experience w/them. But if you look you will realize that most of the racing series they run their tires in these days are GoodYear specific, so the field is even. There is no way to judge just how good or bad they are compared to others. This really makes me wonder about them and their marketing strategy.
But as far a road tires and customer service are concerned, they can keep whatever they produce as far as I am concerned. I am DONE with GoodYear as a rule. Too many personally bad experiences with them as a company and with their products. And their specs are also more often than not, inflated and optimistic.

edit: WOW!! I just re-read my own post and HOLY COW!!! I know tire tech is forever changing and it's very hard to know just what to go with. I know I have felt that I've made my share of "mistakes" choosing new tires over the years as well, but I don't have much good to say about any of the ones I have reviewed here... exception, and except for their pricing structure, the Michelin's.
I am sorry if this post (and my opinions) comes off as extreme, it certainly did to me as I re-read it, but I have done my homework as well as had some personal experience w/many of these companies products over the years.

 

A couple of comments:

• I agree that Michelin tires are as a general rule a bit more expensive, however, given that I'm likely to get an easy 45,000 to 50,000 miles out of the set I put on back when the car was new, I'm thinking they will be a bargain when their finaly mile has been driven.
• I know that lots of folks have had bad luck with Goodyear tires (me included), that said, I ran two sets of Goodyear Assurance TripleTred tires on two of our minivans and have nothing but good things to say about them. That said, those were the "T" rated version of the TripleTred made for family cars, and the 205/50 R17 size are the new(er) "H" rated version with a much lower treadwear rating. They're probably not much of a bargain in this case.
• That leads me to the Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires; assuming they continue to get the glowing reviews that they're getting now, I'll probably opt for a set of these next time around. This in spite of the fact that I've been generally unimpressed with Continental tires.

 

Would it surprise you to know that I agree w/you, and that until now Conti's never impressed me either. I never even gave them a second look until these came along.
And the two "complaints" I have read about them are a slower steering response (typical of Conti's softer ride/sidewall) and while very good to excellent in light snow, not so much in heavy snowfalls. To me, this is to be expected from any A/S tire since they are a compromise. I don't even consider these valid complaints just observations of an excellent tire, still an excellent value (but going up fast!)

On our Vibe which as stock is not the very best handling car anyway (needs to be lowered, but the wife....,) I have noticed slow steering response, but also noticed that w/the GY Vivas they replaced as well.
The ride is softer which for the Mazda, especially on " sport springs," that could be a good thing. I guess I will find out in a month or two....?

 

Thank all of you SO much for your replies & your time in researching the tire question. I have learned a lot! Taking it all under advisement, & I feel sure my new tires will be much better & longer-lasting than the last set.
Again, thank you very much!
~PK