All tires have trade-offs, i.e., better grip usually means higher wear/less life.
I've got about 40K on my Contour's Goodyear Eagle HPs (which are performance, NOT touring tires); they grip well IMHO, and have been a very good value overall. I remember several years back when my brother had Mickey Thompson's on his hot rodded Mustang. The tires gave super grip compared to the stock type tires, but they only lasted about 8K miles.
I also have a ZX2 that came from the factory with stock Goodyear Eagle RSAs. I only have about 15K on this car, but haven't driven the car to the limit to test the tires. Otherwise they seem good to me.
