A naive question about automotive ugliness

I have an '05 TC. They are fitted standard with 17" rims. The car has over 100K on the clock and I have had three sets of tires. The stock tires were crap and have a replacement cost of $250 each, I then opted for some other summer tires at $180 each, also crap. I finally opted for Continental DWS UHP All Season tires … fantastic, reasonably priced ($120 ea.) and have a 50K treadware rating. The DWS are a fantastic tire, I do not notice the difference between them and the others in performance, except that the DWS perform exceptionally well in the wet.