He (like me) is in the UK - unless you go for a brand name, many of the tyres people run here are low quality import tyres - while 10k is low, my ICE has occasionally only got 20k from a set, but that is mainly due to the tyres cracking from sun damage (still got over 4 year out of them before that happened).

Cheap tyres are often a bad investment, but I drive country lanes with a higher risk of punctures and I was burning through brand name tyres, a full set is worth more than my car!