Our five year old Renault Clio Sport Estate 1.2 75bhp petrol had covered only 36,000 kms since new, but the original fitment Goodyear tyres on the front were about 70 worn. The main problem was they were cracking/perishing a bit and the r/h/s front had worn on the shoulder a bit due to the number of roundabouts in fhe Treviso area. The car is driven mainly on short to medium length journeys only. The Clio does seem to be quite kind to tyres and the tracking well set up at the factory, unlike other new cars I have bought
165/65 15 is an odd size, so you are automatically restricted on your choice. A large tyre centre offered us Pirellis or Formula brand which we were told is a subsidisry of Pirelli and made in Europe. Tyres are a rip off in Italy as unlike France or the UK, there seems to be a resistence to an Internet sourced tyre supplier being started. So comparable tyres for the Clio were about 30% more each than what I would have paid via AlloPneus in France.
The Formula Energy tyres were €145 for two balanced and fitted.
The precious Goodyears were not very grippy in the wet, and the day the Formula tyres were fitted the weather was terrible with a lot of water streaming across the roads and pooling too. Driving around the same roundabouts and other stretches of road the Formula tyres demonstrated good grip in the slippery conditions where the Goodyears would have let go. Aquaplaning resistance was excellent too as the tyres cut through standing water.
The Formula tyres have an asymetric tread and look really good. They are much quieter running than the Goodyears obviously because they are new and have more rubber, but also because the tread pattern consists of two deep sipes to disperse water and a continuous type pattern rather than a block type. I also noticed that directional stability was improved with these tyres, and the car responded more enthusiastically to steering inputs.
Long term I am not too concerned about wear as we cover so few kilometres, but for the money if you do not have a high performance car, these tyres are to be recommended.