I'm a big fan of buying quality tires only. I know it's expensive, but in my experience (worked in repair shops for almost 10 years), the cheaper off brands AND the cheapy tires that the big brands sell just aren't worth it in the end. The best tires I've ever seen are the Goodyear Assurance. They come in a fancy looking triple tread design as well as a more normal looking tread design. Three factors set them apart from every single other tire I've worked on, mounted, balanced, etc.
The first factor is in the original construction. When I mounted one of those on a rim, I was always amazed at how straight and true these things are. have you ever noticed the pink, blue, and grey lines that are drawn on the tire tread? Those lines are for the manufacturing machines. As the tire spins on the machine, an electronic eye tracks the line to see if the layers of rubber are going on the tire straight. If the line wobbles too much, the rubber isn't straight. When a new tire is put on the balancing machine at the repair shop and spun, it's easy to see if the tire was manufactured straight or wobbly. Every tire always has some wobble in it. Cheap tires can have an inch or more! That's a lot of wobble. the Assurance tires have less than a quarter inch.
Also, while that tire is spinning, it's easy to see hop. Hop is when the tread seems to move up and down as it spins. Off road truck tires seem to be the worst in this category. Most tires are made from full width layers that overlap at the ends. This makes a bump in the tire. If these overlapping sections are at the same position on the tire as the subsequent layers, the lump get's bigger and bigger. I've seen tire hop on brand new tires of well over 2 inches! The goodyear assurance has less than a quarter of an inch of hop. This is partially due to the construction technique. These tires are carefully clocked in the manufacturing process so that none of the overlapping sections coincide. This spreads the lumps evenly over the tire eliminating hop.
The second factor is in the wear characteristics. Ever notice that front tires always wear out the edges first? That's because when you turn a lot of extra friction and pressure grinds the rubber off of the edges. The Assurance tires have slightly different type of rubber on the edges to keep them from wearing off too quickly. As a result, the tire wears quite flat. I have a pair of year old Assurances on the front of my van right now. I've put a little over 20,000 miles them, and the tires are still square on the edges.
The third, and most important factor is inclement weather!! Around Cincinnati our winters can be extremely dangerous for driving. When we get snow, the temp is always right around freezing. Because of this, we tend to get a lot of winter mix. That's snow and ICE! Cheap tires get hard when they get cold. When tires are hard, the traction goes WAY down. The Assurance has superb cold/wet weather handling. I've slid the front end a few times in really bad weather, but I've never felt that completely out of control sliding that I've fealt with any other tires.
Still I understand that at around $100 to $200 per tire, these things are pricey, but after my experience both personal and in repair shops, that's the tire I get for all my cars. To keep the expense down, I buy only two. A year later I buy two more and I do the first front to back rotation. BTW don't ever rotate from left to right! I know the tire shops will tell you that you should, but they are in the business of selling NEW tires, so it makes sense they want your old ones to wear out, doesn't it?. When you rotate from left to right, the tires spin in the opposite direction. This causes the layers of the tire to shift and seperate, ruining the tire within the next 6 months.
As a bonus: In the end, I actually get the full mileage out of these tires. I've never even come close with cheap ones. The cheapies may say 60,000 miles on the label, but I've never had one of those cheap tires last more than 20k. The Assurance actually survives to it's mileage of 80,000. They are worn out by then, but you'll spend 4 times as much money replacing cheap tires every year and a half.
BTW I don't work for nor do I have any vested interest in goodyear, I'm just reporting my suggestions and experiences in the industry. Check 'em out and decide for yourself:
http://www.goodyearassurance.com/
