A South Korean tire maker, Kumho Tire is a 60-year-old company that is now a part of the Chinese conglomerate Doublestar. Formerly known as Samyang Tire, Kumho supplies tires across the globe from its 8 tire plants located in South Korea, China, the USA, and Vietnam. The world’s 18th largest tire manufacturer rolls out tires for passenger cars, light trucks, SUVs/CUVs, and commercial vehicles under various categories such as all-season, all-terrain, performance, winter, mud-terrain, and commercial.

Among the ultra-high-performance, all-season tires, the Kumho Ecsta PA51 scores high when it comes to offering great traction, noise-free rides, longevity, and excellent high-speed performance. It’s a super quiet tire that can even challenge the top-brand tires in its segment.

Backed by a 45,000 mile limited manufacturer tread life warranty, the Ecsta PA51 features superb handling with precise steering response, race-proven technology for impeccable performance, super quiet drive, inspiring traction and grip in dry and wet conditions, and longer tread life. The Ecsta PA51 looks promising on paper, but does it live up to the expectations? Let’s find out in this Kumho Ecsta PA51 tire review.

Features and Benefits

The Kumho Ecsta PA51 offers excellent grip, handling, and dry performance on paved roads. Let’s have a look at its features and benefits to know how it does that.

• Longer tread life: The asymmetric tread pattern of the Ecsta PA51 ensures even wear and effective grip. The innovative rubber compound not only assists in lending superior handling but also aids in enhancing the tire's service life. The solid shoulder design with sipes resists uneven wear and promotes gradual wear.
• Quiet and comfortable ride: The variable pitch sequencing dampens noise generated from the contact patch of the tread and road. The combination of grooves and sipes ensures there is efficient grip while braking and accelerating. The tread's grooves and sipes nicely interlock with the road surface to deliver a comfortable and noise-free ride.
• Confident ride, every time: Circumferential grooves evacuate water quickly from the surface and retain traction to avoid the risk of hydroplaning. Strong shoulders with deep sipes and a continuous center rib not only improve grip while cornering but also enhance stability at high speeds. A special silica compound ensures effective wet and light snow performance.

Pros and Cons

Although the Ecsta PA51 has some great traits to its name, it comes with a handful of disadvantages as well. Let's see what those are before taking the final call. Here you go.

Pros

• Excellent steering response and feedback at low and high speeds
• Good handling in dry conditions
• Excellent performance in light-snow conditions
• Quiet ride quality
• Strong shoulders offer great cornering traits at high speeds
• Among the best value performance tires

Cons

• It offers low levels of comfort compared to its peers
• It has an average braking distance for an all-season, performance tire

SimpleTire’s view on Kumho Ecsta PA51 tires

An all-season, performance tire, the Kumho Ecsta PA51 (starts around $98) takes on the likes of Yokohama Avid Ascend GT (starts around $112), Falken Ziex ZE960 A/S (starts around $84), and Nexen N'Priz AH8 (starts around $86).

While the price falls in a similar vicinity as its competitors except for the Yokohama, which are priced higher, the Kumho Ecsta PA51 performs better when it comes to handling and traction. The Falken, Yokohama, and Nexen offer similar handling and traction.

So, if you want a tire that lends you the best traction in its category, great handling, and longevity at an affordable price, the Kumho Ecsta PA51 is the tire you should pick.

Vehicles the Kumho Ecsta PA51 is a replacement tire for

The Ecsta PA51 is an excellent replacement option for passenger cars and performance vehicles such as the Lexus ES350, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Camaro, BMW 3-Series, Mazda MX-5, Subaru Impreza, Honda Civic, and many more.