The front tyres on the Dacia had worn on the outer edges, which I assumed was because the tracking was off. This had bugged me a bit, but on a recent long journey (its usually doing local trips) it did understeer quite a bit on a wet and greasy roundabout which has focused my mind on getting them fixed.

I fired up tyreleader.co.uk and ordered a pair of Kumho Ecsta PS71s, I have a full set of these on my Lexus and have been very impressed with them. If they do the business on a 200bhp RWD car then they ought to be fine for a 90bhp FWD hatchback. Unfortunately, Tyreleader emailed me back about 10 hours later to say they were out of stock and refunded me. So I went for the next best option, Kumho Ecowing ES31s. These are a bit cheaper, and less performant in the tests but still a solid midrange performer from what I could see. I placed an order for two of them.

As usual, they arrived within 24h and were date coded in week 48 of 2024 so nice and recent.

I called up the local tyre fitters who are happy to fit tyres that they don't supply (and do part worns too) and mooched over to them today. As usual they sorted it out there and then, swapping the tyres and putting in new valves and balancing them for me. Their prices have gone up a bit, but not outrageously and cost for tyres + fitting was comfortably cheaper than anything that any of the supply & fit places nearby could do so I'm happy with that.

The old ones were a bit more than just badly tracked I think though

This is the outer edge of the passenger side one, but the inner edge had worn the same, as had the inner edge on the drivers side. The middle of the tread was fine though, so I think that what has actually happened is that they have been run underinflated which has worn both shoulders. I'm usually pretty on it with tyre pressures so I suspect its prior to our ownership that the majority of the damage was done? Hard to know, I'll probably take it and get it tracked at another place before long just to make sure its not that as I don't want these tyres worn out in 20k miles time because of something totally avoidable.

On the drive home the new tyres seemed good. Granted it was a dry day  but they were definitely quieter than the old Hankooks. I'll need to drive them a bit to wear off the casting gloop but they seem to be decent. I'd definitely recommend Kumhos for most applications. I've used them quite a few times now and as a mid-range tyre they're totally adequate.