Tires: How to buy tires with longer thread life., sport pkg, utqg ratings

Question
Hello Barry, I'm shopping for a new brand of tires. The current ones run great, OEM Continentals 225/45 R17 91w, but just don't last.  The thread life is about 20 - 24k miles or about a 1yr and half of driving.  So in my search what can I look for or ask tire dealers that will help me choose a brand of tire that will give me a longer thread life, plus a good rating of course.  FYI - tires are for my BMW 325i w/Sport Pkg tires.
Appreciate your help
Dennis  

Answer
Dennis,

First you'll want to read up on UTQG ratings and what they mean.

Use a search engine and enter "UTQG".  You should get quite a few hits.  But here's one I suggest you start with:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=48

Second, you should be aware that tread life is traded off to get better traction and rolling resistance - you can't have all 3.  So if you want better wear, be prepared to pay for it somewhere else.