Your question and others you should ask are best answered by this page at the TireRack.com website:
Tire Tech - Uniform Tire Quality Grade (UTQG) Standards
Basically you should be looking at the Uniform Tire Quality Grade Standards (UTQG) Treadwear Grade for the tire. Each tire will have one. What you will notice is that treadwear and traction may not go hand in hand. Generally, the softer the tire the less treadwear you will get.
Summary:
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Uniform Tire Quality Grade Standards (UTQG) were originated to provide consumers with useful information to help them purchase tires based on their relative treadwear, traction and temperature capabilities. While it is required by law for most passenger car tires sold in the United States, it is not required for deep treaded light truck tires or winter tires.
When looking at UTQG ratings it is important to realize that the Department of Transportation does not conduct the tests. The grades are assigned by the tire manufacturers based on their test results or those conducted by an independent testing company they have hired. The NHTSA has the right to inspect the tire manufacturer's data and can fine them if inconsistencies are found. While most new tire lines have their grades established when they are introduced, they are allowed a 6-month grace period to allow the tire manufacturer to test actual production tires. Once a grade is assigned it must be branded on the tire's upper sidewall and printed on its label.
Unfortunately, the rating that is of the most interest to consumers is the one that appears to be the least consistent. While the Treadwear Grade was originally intended to be assigned purely scientifically, it has also become a marketing tool used by manufacturers to help position and promote their tires.
Treadwear Grades
UTQG Treadwear Grades are based on actual road use in which the test tire is run in a vehicle convoy along with standardized Course Monitoring Tires. The vehicle repeatedly runs a prescribed 400-mile test loop in West Texas for a total of 7,200 miles. The vehicle can have its alignment set, air pressure checked and tires rotated every 800 miles. The test tire's and the Monitoring Tire's wear are measured during and at the conclusion of the test. The tire manufacturers then assign a Treadwear Grade based on the observed wear rates. The Course Monitoring Tire is assigned a grade and the test tire receives a grade indicating its relative treadwear. A grade of 100 would indicate that the tire tread would last as long as the test tire, 200 would indicate the tread would last twice as long, 300 would indicate three times as long, etc.
The problem with UTQG Treadwear Grades is that they are open to some interpretation on the part of the tire manufacturer because they are assigned after the tire has only experienced a little treadwear as it runs the 7,200 miles. This means that the tire manufacturers need to extrapolate their raw wear data when they are assigning Treadwear Grades, and that their grades can to some extent reflect how conservative or optimistic their marketing department is. Typically, comparing the Treadwear Grades of tire lines within a single brand is somewhat helpful, while attempting to compare the grades between different brands is not as helpful.
From a practical perspective, my
Eagle F1 DS-D3 tires have a
280 AA A UTQG rating, which translates to a
treadwear of 280,
Traction Grade of AA (highest) and a
temperature grade of A (highest). Basically, if you want a long life of treadwear you should get a tire with the highest UTQG Treadwear Grade you can find, just know this "hard" tire will handle like crap because it will suffer in the traction grade department. By comparison, if you bought the
Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tire (track tire) the UTQG rating is
80 AA A. This is a very soft tire and would probably only see 4 to 5 full track days if the driver was very good at handling the car.
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