The tires are ok when they are relatively low mileage. My grip dropped substantially around 7k. Around 12k I would chirp consistently under very tame driving and felt borderline unsafe as I knew I couldn't rely on them to grip if I needed them to. It got worse from there and seemed to get worse a little bit faster as the miles went by (though this was probably because I was beating the hell out of them at this point). At that point snow traction was pretty much nonexistant, though wet traction didn't suffer quite as much as snow or dry for some reason. I got better grip in dry weather with dedicated snow tires than I did with the MXM4's when they had 7k on them, and the snow tires were quieter and more comfortable as well. Though, the mxm4's did wander very slightly less, but not much, and considering that this was really the only upside that was meaningful to me, and that the competing tires were snow tires, I thought it was pathetic considering that the mxm4's are currently considered grand touring tires on tire rack (though I believe before they were listed as performance all-season tires and were actually listed for $250 instead of the current $199). You might get a little more mileage out of them before they start to lose their grip, but this seems to be a common complaint with these tires (among other things) so I wouldn't expect much different. Another complaint is uneven treadwear. I did not experience this, though that may have just been because I didn't have them on long enough to really wear all that much. You can probably get a bunch of miles out of them, but I would rather not waste miles being frustrated with a poor set of tires given that I will probably only go through maybe 3 or 4 sets of tires before I sell the car in a few years. I decided that Id rather spring for a quality set and continue to enjoy driving rather than dreading it.
I agree about the stereo. It's not the best stereo I've ever heard, but it's relatively clear, and loud enough for me. I usually let the volume sit at around 20/40 when I'm on the highway or moving at a decent speed and it seems loud enough. I doubt I'll ever upgrade anything on the stereo, though I may add sound deadening, but that's not to improve audio (more to just make the car sound more solid and lessen road noise). As far as mp3's go, I just added a USA SPEC Ipod adapter. It works well, and there are a lot of options for installation if you get creative. One gripe about this is that the steering wheel input functions when controlling my ipod sometimes cause the usa spec unit to crash and it has to be powered off and then on again by switching inputs. This does not happen frequently, though it is worth mentioning (I would buy the unit again). There is also a composite audio in if you want to connect another device. I have mine run through the cubby, I have pictures on the cardomain page if you care at all.
If you want to hear a bad stereo, go sit in a base cherokee (the regular cherokee, not grand cherokee) w/ the base sound system. Those have to be the worst sounding speakers I've ever heard in my life and the wattage was complete crap, not like the speakers would have been able to handle more anyway. Good thing that was a fun little truck to drive with the manual, because it certainly wasn't luxurious. I didn't even have power windows or locks.
