I love the OP sentiments. It is exactly the opposite of my preferences though. Getting new tires is like opening gifts on Christmas morning. They roll so smooth and grip like nobody's business in the corners. Woohoo! I can't wait for my old ones to wear out so I can GO GET NEW ONES!!!
Seriously though, I run extreme performance tires and expect them to last about 6K or one year on my car. If you don't care about performance and just want a long lasting tire that doesn't suck, choose an A/S tire with the highest treadwear rating you can find. That is probably 420 in tires that fit our cars. I run a 700 TW on the grocery getter.
The other trick is to spend $100 and get an alignment that emphasizes tire maximum tire life. A very neutral alignment will probably double the tire life on our cars.
Good luck!