Although there were four circular rubber things mounted on the car, they were only technically tires. The PO had been upfront about their condition... if not the price of replacements. They were of the bias-ply variety, manufactured sometime in the late Cretaceous Period and vulcanized in Pompeii, and had more cracks in them than George Clooney's straight-guy facade. So we decided that new tires would be at the top of our road worthiness list.
There are a few things to consider about new treads before tire shopping, or even car shopping for that matter. The first issue is availability. This is going to be based primarily upon tire size and popularity. If your car requires a fairly common tire size, such as P205/70R14, you will have little difficulty finding tires and can likely pick some up for less than $70 a piece. If, however, your car takes an odd sized passenger tire - such as P205/70R16 - the price could run substantially higher.