Owners most consistently favour the Falken FK452 for dry grip and value for money, with comfort and steering response also attracting more praise than criticism. Wet grip is less convincing: positive accounts outnumber complaints by about two to one, but a substantial minority lack confidence in the rain. Tread-life opinions are almost evenly divided, with roughly one in four owners describing disappointing wear. Noise is similarly split, with nearly as many finding it loud as quiet. Returning owners have varied experiences, so there is no consistent pattern of grip holding up or deteriorating as the tyre wears.
What owners mention most counted across 192 reviews
Dry grip is not to bad considering the power that is going through them,road noise is good,as is the wear rate.
In the wet is a different story,i have 275/30/18" in the rear & the car looses traction very easily pulling out of junctions,roundabouts etc etc.Yes the car has lots of power/torque,but its just crazy how easy the back steps out even with very little throttle.
Fitted these to my MG ZT 260 to replace some fast wearing Avon ZZ3's after reading many glowing reports online. Only good thing I can say about the 452 is that it doesn't wear that quickly. Dry grip is average, but grip in wet or even damp conditions is pretty poor, for what is sold a high performance tyre. The feedback and progressiveness is not all that inspiring. I found grip levels in cooler conditions to be so poor that this year I invested in a set of winter tyres.
Fitting those has really highlighted just how much the 452's struggle for grip in the wet or cold. The winters have made a huge difference to the drivability of the car, I no longer have to tiptoe along damp or icy roads for fear of the back end stepping out.
Come spring when the winters come off, the 452's will be binned, despite having a good 15-20K miles of life left in them, and replaced with another set Avon ZZ3's, which although they wear pretty quickly, far out perform the 452.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tyres perform against premium summer and winter tyres!
I replaced the Continental sport 2s after 13000 miles from new and got 4 Falken 452s, 7000 m later still as new very impressive. Road noise was a concern when I read some comments below, but it's about the same as with the factory fitted tyres. I would recommend them.
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Put 2 of these on Astra VXR Front to replace the Dunlop SP2000's which are 2x the price.
would say they are in fact more comfortable and more precise when steering, if your looking to reduce your tyre bill for as little effect to performance as possible, these are your option!
Have managed to lose the car in the wet with them and hit a curb, but to be fair its a fwd car and the back managed to swing around and hit the same time the fronts did so they must have dug in so to speak.
Had a couple of sets of these on my BMW 330Ci. Grip in the dry is excellent, never had it lose grip on me - but haven't tried, either. In the wet the grip is not as good - you can get the back end waggling on the exit roundabouts if you want to/bit aggresive with the throttle, which is part of the reason I chose them again - they're good fun! However, they seem to have enough grip still for emergency stops in the wet, which is reassuring - if I thought they were dangerous I wouldn't buy them. They are comfortable and wear well - approx 15,000 miles for rears, which on a 330Ci is good going. I think some 'Premium' tyres are a bit quieter from what I have read, but I have no complaints about these.
Had seen good reviews of these but had them fitted to a 200bhp / 300ftlbs golf anni tdi and thought they were quite poor, they roll around on the tread blocks quite allot - a kind of double bite if you will which is a bit scary the first time it happened to me and did not inspire confidence .The only way to stop this is to over inflate but then they wear out really quick.I swapped mine for Goodyear assy 2's after only a few thousand miles and sold them on Ebay.The Goodyears are dearer tyres but I have done double the miles I did on the Falkens with no real signs of wear.Dry and Wet grip on the Falkens was ok but nothing special.Road noise was a bit high at slow speeds but fine at motorway speeds.My fuel economy was ok with these fitted.Would not buy again simply for the wear issue as I reckon I would do 3 front sets of these to one of the Goodyears and it's not as if there a 1/3 of the price,so a false economy really.Guess these suit some cars better than others but did not feel they were the best choice for mine.
I have had three sets of these tyres. One set on a BMW 120d on 18" alloys and two sets on a BMW 330d on 18" alloys. On the whole they are an excellent tyre which is very good value for money. However I had already decided not to buy another set (even before knowing about this site) because of the road noise at slow speeds. I see that one of the other reviewers has also mentioned this. My experience is exactly the same - the road noise at these low speeds is so bad that you think a wheel bearing has gone. I had the wheel bearings tested and then even paid over £200 for a full 4 wheel alignment because I was convinced there was something wrong with the car.
I also had some similar problems with balancing of the tyres and them losing their shape.
I have a BMW 320d SE tourer (with the steptronic gearbox) and purchased these tyres 10 months ago, I have 255/35/18 on the rear and 225/40/18 on the front (BMW spec').I don't drive the car like I stole it,after all I'm not 21 any more but I don't dawdle along at 40 miles on hour either;although the handling in wet and dry is brilliant, I'm disappointed that they have been fairly noisy from new and what hurts more is they need replacing now,they have worn out down to the markers in less than 10 months and 9,500 miles.After reading other reviews on these tyres I am surprised that I haven't got more out of them.Granted living in Cornwall the roads are not in the best condition and are twisty so maybe this is where I lose out as straight line driving very rarely happens down here unless on the A30, unfortunately I'm going to try another brand, they do look good on the car but hey looks ain't everything.
These tyres are a mid range tyre . Using them on a car with 300bhp weighing nearly 2.25ton was a bit of a risk but i have had no problem. I have had them on my Audi S6 for over 2 years and never whinced . I am an older person but drive spiritually when possible but you must drive according to road conditions .No tyre is going to give you the same grip in the wet as it does in the dry . I rate these tyres and am about to buy a new set,the grip in snow is never very good for a summer tyre and even with 4wd i struggled . Drive sensibly and these tyres are GOOD
Bought a full set of Falken FK452s to replace Continental Contact3s on my Insignia. The Contis were not only expensive but were quite noisey in my opinion. Out of the Falken FK452 and ZE912 I opted for the FK452, due to the fact that my Insignia SRi sits quite low and the sportier look of the FK452 appeared to be the better choice for a sportier drive. I was not wrong and delighted to have chosen not only the Falken brand but also the 452s. I travel the country covering 20,000 miles plus a year and have now covered approx 9000 miles on the Falkens.
They have performed well in all weather conditions and show little signs of wear (although my driving style is probably quite conservative).
I bought these Tyres from Camskills who delivered within 48 hours. Will definatley buy again.
A reasonably priced tyre with excellent performance. No issues with grip wet or dry. Perhaps they don't hold on quite as long as other more expensive tyres such as the michelin ps2 but give plenty of warning before they completely let go making spirited driving quite fun. My car's got sport suspension, with these tyres, it's a fun and safe combination.
HOWEVER!! There seems to be a quality control issue with these tyres. One of my tyres has a manufacturuing fault making it virtually impossible to balance. The only time it's come close is when put on the Hunter Roadforce balancing machine, but it didn't last for very long. Recently had vibration, took it to local tyre fitters with newly calibrated machine, took over 115g of weights and it's still not right.
Another big flaw in these tyres is that they can make a horrible grinding noise at low speeds, much like a failed bearing. My first set of 452's did this after a few k miles of use, I put it down to a bad batch. When they wore out I fitted some more, at the same time my father had all his tyres (on an e39 540i estate with same size tyres) changed to 452's. Nice and silent at first, then both of our cars developed the same roaring/grinding noise. So clearly it's not an isolated incident, this is an inherent flaw with these tyres, not had this problem with any other tyre. It may be isolated to certain size/ratios of these tyres, but I know that I certainly won't be buying them again - which is a great shame as I love the performance and the price.
92%
Member
BMW
225/40 R18
1,000 miles
A Combination of Roads
Spirited
Fantastic tyre for the money. Performs easily as well as 'premium' tyres costing twice as much. Quiet, comfortable, sticky - what else can you ask from a tyre? Too early to judge how well they wear, but even if they don't last quite as long as other tyres, they're still better value for money.
