Different tire size recommended for front and rear????

Ok, I went to the tire shop today with the intent of buying the tires, even though my car isn't thru (got a little over $600 in rebate debit/credit cards from different car part purchases that all expire the end of this month, and I have been saving them to use toward the tires). Anyhow, the tire shop couldn't get me prices on stuff today cause the suppliers or manufacturers (or whatever) were closed. I was telling the guy the wheel sizes and the offsets mentioned in my previous post. Well, he said that in order to keep the car more "level looking" (as opposed to looking like one end of the car is higher than the other end, like some members have made reference to previously on the forum), that I should get the 225/40R/18 size tires on the front, and get the 225/45R/18 size tires on the rear... I actually wrote it down TWICE, and I wrote it opposite ways each time. One time was saying I needed the 45R's on the front, and the 40R's in the rear. Any takes/opinions/clarification on that line of thought they presented to me??
I went into the place, after thinking I had decided on the Continental Extreme DWS, after reading what others thot of them on the forum (despite the not-so-swell reviews on TireRack.com). However, this representative at the tire shop said I should seriously consider the Sumitomo HTRZ3 ( Sumitomo HTR Z III 225/40ZR18/XL | Big O Tires carries the HTR Z III by Sumitomo in 225/40ZR18/XL ), as well as the Nitto NT-GEO Neo Gen ( Nitto NT-GEO NeoGen 225/40/18 | Big O Tires carries the NT-GEO NeoGen by Nitto in 225/40/18 ). Having only about 11-ish days left to use the rebate money toward tires (before it expires), I am in a bit of a crunch to get this done... (I know....procrastination).... Have any of you got any experience/knowledge about either of those tires? He also mentioned a Cooper ZPT, but the name Cooper on my tires......not exciting. He also threw out the brand of BFGoodrich GForce Sport, right before I ended up leaving, but there appears to be a variety of the sport ones, so I'm not sure which one he was referring to.... ?!?!!?! Please help! ray:

 

Having coilovers, also, a simple adjustment seems to be easily enough done to compensate for an "unlevel car" anyway, or am I wrong in thinking that?

 

Well, better handling at high speed is important to me, cause I travel 200 miles round trip to work and back (whenever that can be fit in my schedule now!), and it's all interstate, and I go 90+ the whole way. I believe in leaving in 1/2 the required time to get somewhere! lol! But, yeah, rotating would be a biotch.....

With all your amazingly extensive tire data you had in the other post(s), did you have any feeling(s) regarding any of the other tires he mentioned?

 

I remember Macmaster mentioning a handful of times before, in other posts, about an unbalanced car rake (either the front lower or the rear lower) from some factor that he knew about......but I've slept since then!

He has a new Camry, he said (the guy at the tire place).....if that makes him any wiser one way or the other....

 

Yep, yours looks level! lol! I can't, for the life of me, figure out what the guy was thinking when he was telling me to use taller tires on either the front or the back. Guess I should have asked more stuff, but I was so totally confused after he bombarded me with all these OTHER tires that I hadn't even heard of.....plus I had snuck off really fast and left my grandmother home alone (ssshhhhh).....so I just went back home more puzzled. I don't care one way or the other about the whole more aggressive stance thing (or I'd have gotten a wide body kit!), but I was just freaking out a tiny bit about the thought of my Prius being potentially tilted one way or the other if I put matching tires on it...

 

Well, the tire shop said today that the price for the Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires in the 225/40/18 is $200.99 apiece. Is that a good price, ya think??

 

Consumer Survey Results By Category


So, it looks like it's ranked #1 here, if that means anything...

 

I just drive 200 miles round trip on the Interstate when I go to work, and then 3/4 of the year it's in torrential almost-impossible-to-drive-in rain. I've hydroplaned 2x when I was younger and totalled my rig both times (while going quite slow), and broke my back 2x. SO, I'm a bit neurotic now when it comes to the whole rain thing, plus I drive over 90mph 3/4 of the way there and back (always pushing the time envelope)..... So, that is my only real desire --- to have ones that perform well in rain and at high speeds. So, an actual safety reason for once! lol

I was a little confused on the Continental tires, cause there's 2 different kinds noted: Extreme DW, and Extreme DWS. I'm not sure about the difference.... I do know that I originally had intended to get the Continentals, but then started going to all these websites and reading reviews. I'm trying to go with a sportier feel, and I repeatedly read over and over about what a disappointment they were when people went from sportier tires to the Continentals, and how soft the sidewalls were, blah, blah.....so that kinda turned me off to those tires, assuming all the reviews are truthful/accurate. The Michelin Sport tires are standard fare on many highend sports cars, and come with rave reviews, so I was kinda influenced by those factors. I have yet to sign on the dotted line yet, though, and am open to any other arguments/suggestions.

 

I just want something rated very highly, because I travel LONG distances to work and back, normally driving over 90mph the entire way. And, I frequently drive in torrential rain with water standing all over the interstate. Having had previous bad experiences with hydroplaning/wrecking, I want excellent water/wet stability from the tire, also. My car will never see snow, so it seems like the Michelin would be a great choice of tire. How would the tires HURT the mileage, as opposed to some other aftermarket brand of tires? I'm not a stickler for the mileage thing (didn't get the car to push the good gas mileage envelope, and I will probably be losing a chunk of the car's gas mileage from the mods when they're completed), so I don't know what else to look for in a tire, other than the few characteristics I mentioned specifically wanting. Cornering is also important, as I take a number of exits that are extremely sharp (U-turn-ish), and my stock tires now definitely "roll" when flying around them. I'm used to having sports cars, so that's kinda the mindset I have always been accustomed to....although I may have kept a car long enough twice to actually be faced with the tire-buying dilemma. I've pretty much traded for a new car every year for many years now, so the tires usually look new still when I sell the car. With the Prius now, though, I have sunk so much money into it that I will probably be holding onto it for a while to enjoy the various things I have done to it.

So, what tire would you suggest buying?