4 Cheap Tire Brands With High-Mileage Options

Shopping for new tires can be a headache-inducing affair for many, if only because there are, arguably, a few too many options available to consumers these days. Frankly, even limiting a search to the more widely recognized major tire brands could prove daunting to consumers. That's particularly true for prospective buyers should they choose to look past the majors and work into the second-tier level of tire brands that might offer more budget conscious products.

Whatever side of the consumer coin you currently reside on, as you're scouring the various tires available on the market, there are important factors to consider other than brand recognition. Chief among them are tire size and, of course, the average cost of new tires at the time of purchase. Consumers should also pay close attention to mileage rating (part of a tire's Uniform Tire Quality Grade), which, in essence, estimates how long its tread should last when a vehicle is operating under normal driving conditions.

Yes, a higher mileage rating number signifies that the tire should provide a longer lifetime for the owner. And yes, knowing what that mileage number is can make it easier to find tire options that offer the best mix of durability and price point. In searching for cheap, high-mileage options for this article, we set the tread wear benchmark at 60,000 miles, and scoured the market for tires that also met our criteria in terms of price (below $125 per tire) and overall reputation. Here's what we found. 

If you count yourself as a more budget-minded tire shopper, you are no doubt acquainted with the Cooper Tires brand. That's because Cooper — which is now owned by another major American tire maker – has been cranking out quality tires for more than a century to this point. After so many years, the company continues to operate under the guidelines set forth in its famed "Cooper Creed," in which Ira J. Cooper promised the company bearing his name would always deliver, "good merchandise, fair play, and a square deal." 

Good merchandise and a square deal are all most consumers are really looking for when they need to outfit their vehicle with a fresh set of rubber, and that's exactly what you'll find with Cooper's all season Adventurer Tour series. As far as the deal part of that equation goes, Cooper's Adventurer Tour series tires are affordable and then some, with Pep Boys currently selling them for $76.98 a piece. It appears this make of Cooper is not available through many other reputable online outlets, so your purchasing opportunities may be a little limited.

Being a low-budget tire, Cooper's Adventurer Tour series is also not the highest rated option by consumers, who've given them four stars out of five rating on the Pep Boys website, listing complaints from excessive noise to questions of durability. However, the positive reviews far outweigh the negative, and we can't help but think the tires' 75,000-mile warranty might help smooth the waters for potentially unsatisfied owners.  

We should probably clarify that a warranty is not exactly the same thing as a tire's actual mileage or treadwear rating, which is typically designated by a three-digit number between 100 and 800 on a tire's sidewall. However, mileage warranties are generally reflective of the rating, and signify a guarantee from the manufacturer regarding the durability of a tire's tread, as well as a responsibility to replace it if it fails before their estimated mileage. That being the case, the warranty is as good a place as any to judge a tire's durability, and Sumitomo's HTR PO3 tires front an impressive 65,000-mile guarantee.

Sumitomo Tires is, perhaps, not a name that is known to the average consumer. But the company has existed in some form since the 17th century. Of course, Sumitomo was not manufacturing tires in the 1600s. In fact, tires came much later, with Dunlop helping create Sumitomo Rubber Industries in 1909, and the company producing its first automobile tires in 1913. 

Still, the Sumitomo brand is now well-established in the market, and is known for producing high-performance tires that are both durable and affordable. Among the brand's high-mileage options, you'll find the HTR A/S P03 All Season Passenger Tire, which will currently set you back just $114.99 each when purchased through Walmart, and come with a 4.5 out of five stars rating from actual owners. Perhaps just as important as the tire's cost is that Sumitomo backs their quality with that 65,000-mile warranty, meaning you should get plenty of bang for your proverbial buck if you do purchase a set.

When it comes to tires, there is, arguably, no bigger name in the market than Goodyear. With its origins dating back to the late-1800s, Goodyear is actually the second-oldest tire maker in America, and eventually got so big it outright purchased the only company that beat it to market, Kelly Tires. While Kelly is still a major player on the tire scene, Goodyear has become a legit market leader, offering high performance products for cars, trucks, and SUVs of all shapes and sizes. The company also offers competitive high mileage warranties, including the 65,000 guarantee that comes with the purchase of its Assurance Touring tires.

Those tires are designed by Goodyear to live up to their comforting name. The company boasts that the Assurance Touring brand is fit with all-season wide groove tread that will deliver a smooth, quiet ride to drivers whether they're traversing dry, wet, or even snowy terrain. The company offers those, ahem, assurances at a cost that is just as competitive in the marketplace, with Goodyear currently selling its Assurance Touring tires with a sticker price of $103 each. You can also purchase them through Amazon if you prefer, though you'll pay a bit of a premium there, with the online retailer listing Goodyear Assurance tires for $118.89.

Should you choose to pay a little more to buy Goodyear Assurance Touring tires through Amazon, that price is still relatively palatable. That's even more true when you consider that the tires are backed by a mileage warranty from one of the most trusted names in the business.

Though less known than Goodyear, Hankook is a name that is very familiar in the tire arena, as the brand has been outfitting vehicles with fresh rubber since the early 1940s. In the decades since, Hankook has become one of the most trusted names in the tire game — one that is now producing upwards of 100 million tires every single year, and exporting them to more than 160 countries across the globe.

Yes, among the millions of tires being manufactured at Hankook's many production facilities you will find a few lower-cost options with impressive high-mileage ratings. We're specifically singling out Hankook's Kinergy PT lineup here, as the tires come with one of the better high-mileage warranties we found in a budget-friendly package. And even if a warranty is not a direct reflection of a tire's high-mileage rating, when the numbers are as high as Hankook is offering with the Kinergy PT, it hardly matters. 

As for the Kinergy PT tires, Hankook sells the premium touring all-season radials with a warranty of up to 90,000 miles. That warranty applies to Kinergy PTs with either an H (up to 130 mph) or T (up to 118 mph) speed rating, with the Z rated tires (above 186 mph) boasting a still impressive 75,000-mile warranty. Even more impressive is that H-rated Hankook Kinergy PT tires have earned a 4.7 stars out of five rating from owners on Amazon, where you can purchase them for as little as $111.91 each. And yes, it's pretty crazy that you can actually buy new tires with a 90,000-mile warranty for under $115. 

As we previously noted, the sheer number of tires and tire brands on the market today is legitimately head-spinning. Nonetheless, we did our best to examine as many options as we could in search of brands that offer cheap tires with high-mileage ratings. Whenever possible, we also considered reviews from actual customers who have used the listed tires themselves.

In the end, the brands and tires that made the cut were solid fits when it came to our set criteria of price, reputation, and a mileage rating of at least 60,000 miles. Despite our attempts to assemble as comprehensive a list as possible of qualified high-mileage tires, the ones we've presented should not be considered the only options worth looking at on the market. As such, we heartily encourage you to do your own research on the subject before you spend any of your hard-earned cash on a fresh set of tires.