Having had a puncture from running over a stray screwdriver head at 70mph (ish) on her commute to work last week I have this morning had some Uniroyal Rainsports put on the rear of Mrs Pasty's car.

On discussion with the tyre place it would seem the rear tyres were the original Conti Sport Contact 2's manufactured in week 34 of 2004 - is 8 years and 45,000 miles a record?!

Upon getting it up onto the ramp though it became clear that the inside shoulder of the front driver side tyre was bald and the rest of the tyre only just legal but the passenger side is all fine.

They pointed the finger at knackered console bushes but having checked them they are the second gen X-bar type rather than the sh*te original T-bar ones and seem fine (which i would hope for after just 45k)

Is it likely to just be tracking or is there anything else to check?

If the bushes are fine, get a full geometry check done on the car.

http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/

that was the plan sam

just wondered if there was anything else obvious I'd overlooked

45k in 8 years for rear tyres is not a record lol! I've seen rear tyres over 10 years old with a lot more miles on them. The side walls were brittle with hundreds of cracks on them due to damage from uv rays over the years . These were not my tyres btw but a friends who is too tight to buy new tyres!

To be most reassured, get the geo checked. Then take it from there.

Tyres changed.

Alignment checked.

One wheel with negative 6 degrees of toe found.

Adjusted back to straight.

All good now

No wonder it wore a bit oddly then!