Buying tires: how do you choose the brand and model

Question

I need to buy four tires for my car. I go on the Costco website and the prices go from $230 (Michelin - Pilot Sport 4 SUV) to $163 (BFGoodrich - Advantage Control) each, with lots in between. I live in South Carolina with no winter. My inclination is this: these are just tires, BFGoodrich is a "known" brand, why would I need to pay any more than the lowest price? Any recommendation on what I should be looking at when choosing a tire will be welcome.

Answer 1

Here in the UK, tyres are all given ratings in three categories - wet grip, noise and fuel economy. IMHO the wet grip ratio is most important, so I'd never choose one with a rating below 'B' there (they go from A to G, in the same way as our appliance efficiency ratings do). Do you have something similar over there?

Reviews can also be useful these days, especially if you can find some from people with similar cars and climate to yourself.

Finally I usually ignore the cheapest (which are usually no-name 'ditchfinders' in our tyre shops) and go for something about a third of the way up the cost bracket - which the last few times has been something from Uniroyal or Toyo.