Tire Price Index Methodology

Last Updated: November 2026

About the Tire Price Index

The Tires Easy Tire Price Index (TPI) tracks tire prices over time across a stable, defined basket of 24,215 tire products (SKUs), spanning 13 tracked categories and two price tiers: Value and Premium. Figures reflect this stable basket, not Tires Easy's full, constantly changing catalog, so movement reflects real price change rather than the basket's own composition shifting under it.

Two data sources, always disclosed. The Index draws on two distinct, real sources of Tires Easy's own data, and every figure names which one it uses. Both prices are measured on the same stable basket of tire products. List Price, the price shown on tires-easy.com, shows whether the price of the same tires is rising or falling. It builds the index from July 2026 forward, and its history grows with every edition. Sales Price, Tires Easy's completed, order-level transaction prices from January 2023 forward, shows what Tires Easy customers actually paid on average. That also reflects the mix of tires they bought. When the two move apart, that gap is itself a finding. No figure in this Index blends the two without saying so.

How the Stable Basket Works

The Tire Price Index tracks a stable basket of tire products: the same set of tires, priced month after month, so that the Index reflects real price changes rather than changes in what happens to be for sale.

Tire assortments change constantly as manufacturers introduce new models and retire old ones. If the Index simply averaged whatever was available each month, a wave of new premium launches could look like a price increase, and a round of discontinued models could look like a decrease. The stable basket prevents this.

Twice a year, in January and July, the basket is reconstituted: new tire products that meet the eligibility rules are added, discontinued tire products are removed, and category weights are refreshed to reflect current Tires Easy unit sales. In the month the basket is reconstituted, the monthly change is measured only on tire products that appear in both the old and new baskets. From then on, the Index continues with the updated basket. Previously published Index values are never revised, so every month remains directly comparable with every other month.

Each reconstitution is disclosed in the Index Update History, including the number of tire products added and removed and the new basket size.

Basket eligibility

Not every tire in a category makes it into the basket. In seven core categories (All-Season, All-Terrain, Highway, Summer, Touring, ATV/UTV and Highway All-Season), a tire product must have been listed on tires-easy.com in at least 30% of the last 58 weeks we tracked. This is the stability filter. It keeps out tire products that show up only briefly, so the Index follows tires shoppers can actually find from month to month.

The other six categories (All-Weather, Crossover/SUV Touring, Mud-Terrain, Sport Truck, Winter/Snow and Winter Studdable) work differently. This isn't about how many tires they sell. They offer a narrower range of tire products, and their stock comes and goes more often. Applying the same filter would leave too few tires to measure, so every tire product listed during the tracked period is included.

All 13 categories count toward the headline Index. Only the seven core categories get an index of their own; the other six are reported as average prices.

Price tier reflects the tire industry's standard brand tiers (Tier 1 through Tier 4), shown here as "Premium" (industry Tier 1–2) and "Value" (industry Tier 3–4). Tier describes brand positioning and typical price point, not product quality; all four tiers are tracked separately in the underlying data.

Tires Easy discloses the number of eligible tire products behind every reported figure; it does not disclose which specific SKUs are included or any sales-volume figures.

Data Sources at a Glance

Key Metrics

Data note: carried-forward prices. 1,371 basket products had a List Price on record in an earlier month but no new List Price observation in October 2026; their most recent List Price is carried forward and used in this month's figures rather than treating the tire product as unpriced. A separate 1,619 basket products have no List Price on record in any month since July 2026 and are excluded from every List Price figure in this Index until a price is observed.

Data note: Winter Studdable has no Value-tier eligible tire products priced this month. This is disclosed here and on the relevant section page rather than shown as a blank or zero.

Replacement Cost Methodology

The table below estimates the full cost of a set of 4 replacement tires for 20 popular U.S. vehicles, matched to each model's exact factory-equipment (OEM) fitment: tire size, load index, and speed rating. This section blends three sources: tire price as listed at tires-easy.com as of October 2026; sales tax and recycling/disposal fee as a weighted average percentage of tire price across Tires Easy sales as of September 2026 (7.78% and 0.68%); and installation cost pulled live from tires-easy.com/tire-installation's listed installer-partner rates (23 partners, $28.45/tire average), each partner counted as one unit. Cost of 4 = 4 × (List Price × (1 + sales tax % + recycling/disposal fee %) + installation fee).

OEM fitment methodology: each fitment reflects the model's base/lowest trim at model year 2024, verified against official vehicle-fitment lookup, chosen to reflect Tires Easy's observed average gap between a vehicle's purchase and its first tire replacement. Costs use the same basket-filtered List Price data used elsewhere in this Index, matched on exact fitment (size, load index, and speed rating; run-flat styles included), not a separate full-catalog pull.

*OEM fitment sizes are locked reference data, verified against Tires Easy's own vehicle-fitment pages, and do not change monthly. Models that share the same exact fitment (size, load index, and speed rating) show identical Cost of 4 figures. "None available" means no basket product matched that exact fitment and tier in October 2026.

Price per 1,000 Miles of Tread Warranty

As of October 2026, across the 14,644 tracked tire products with a published manufacturer tread warranty (of 22,596 tire products priced this month), tire products average $3.43 per 1,000 miles of manufacturer tread warranty. Value-tier tire products average $2.58 per 1,000 miles (n=8,711 tire products); Premium-tier tire products average $4.69 per 1,000 miles (n=5,933 tire products).

This metric divides a tire's list price by its manufacturer's treadwear warranty mileage, expressed per 1,000 miles. A treadwear warranty is the mileage a manufacturer guarantees the tread will last under the warranty's terms, which typically require regular rotation, correct inflation and proper alignment, and usually cover the remaining miles on a prorated basis. It is not a measurement of actual tread life: real-world wear varies with driving habits, road conditions, climate, vehicle and maintenance. Warranty terms also differ between manufacturers, so this figure is best read as a comparison of stated warranty coverage per dollar, not of how long tires will last.

*Coverage, October 2026: 14,644 of 22,596 priced tire products carry a published manufacturer mileage warranty. Coverage is highest in All-Weather (94%), Highway All-Season (86%), Touring (85%) and All-Season (83%), lower in Winter/Snow (15%) and Mud-Terrain (10%), and 0% for ATV/UTV and Winter Studdable.

Price Variability Percentage by Category

This score reflects how much prices vary within a category: lower means more consistent pricing; higher means a wider opportunity to find a more affordable price for a product with similar specs. Winter Studdable (37.9%) is the most price-consistent tracked category in October 2026; Summer (69.0%) shows the widest spread.

Tire Price Index Q&A