About a year or so ago I decided to change the way I buy tires. I put roughly 30K miles on my car a year, so I go through a lot of tires. I used to buy 80K mile rated tires, but I could never keep all 4 tires for the duration of the mileage rating. At least one tire would always go bad and I'd have to end up replacing it, then I'd end up with a mix of old and new tires.
I decided to start buying the least expensive tires I could get, which are almost always 40K mile rated. Knowing this, I also knew I'd be replacing these tires more often, which means new rubber more often, and nicer riding, quieter tires (because new tires are softer). Today I noticed a nail stuck in the tread of one of my tires, so I took my car into Discount Tire, which is the place I always deal with. They replaced the tire with a new one, and because they pro-rate all of their tires, it only cost me $10. Gotta love discount tire.
Overall, I would say I prefer buying the cheaper tires and replacing them more often compared to buying higher mileage tires and running them longer. I usually get the rated mileage out of whatever tires I use, but the 80K mile rated tires tend to get noisy and start losing their grip over the last 20K of their life. I haven't noticed that with any of the 40K mile tires. To me, the extra tire changes are worth having new tires more often.
I decided to start buying the least expensive tires I could get, which are almost always 40K mile rated. Knowing this, I also knew I'd be replacing these tires more often, which means new rubber more often, and nicer riding, quieter tires (because new tires are softer). Today I noticed a nail stuck in the tread of one of my tires, so I took my car into Discount Tire, which is the place I always deal with. They replaced the tire with a new one, and because they pro-rate all of their tires, it only cost me $10. Gotta love discount tire.
Overall, I would say I prefer buying the cheaper tires and replacing them more often compared to buying higher mileage tires and running them longer. I usually get the rated mileage out of whatever tires I use, but the 80K mile rated tires tend to get noisy and start losing their grip over the last 20K of their life. I haven't noticed that with any of the 40K mile tires. To me, the extra tire changes are worth having new tires more often.