skinny on tires?

[tessmc at eskimo.com]

Hi guys,

I've been driving my mom's Mazda Protege 5 for about a year now (long
story, and unfortunately the 80Q is sitting in the garage probably dead
now because I forgot to disconnect the battery.)

Anyway, my mom had new tires put on about 18 months ago and I've noticed
these tires are soooooooooooooooo inferior to the ones that were
previously on the car. (She called them "the cheapest she could find.") We
agreed that when the tires wore down I'd find something with more traction
in an all-season tire.

This week I go looking for tires that are 195/50 16.

What I find are the Kumho Ecsta 4X, which has fairly good reviews .... But
then I inspect the sidewall on my mom's current tires and they turn out to
be Kumho Ecsta ASX.

How similar are these tires? Do I need to worry? The 4Xs are about in the
same price range as the ASX were.

Any opinions out there?

Thanks!

Tess
Seattle/Bellevue area