Federal SS595 SUPER STEEL Reviews - Page 5

Rubbish.
Bought them in desperate trying to have brand new set of average price tyres (because my brilliant Pirellis completely died), can't find Hankooks Evo S1 for a week, decided "okay, this couldn't be much worse" and that was a huge mistake.
Dry grip is pathetic. If trying hard on throttle, they can burnout from other side to another without any sign of "grip at last!" technique. It looks like they can never have right temperature when you need it even in, well, spirited driving across the city or B-roads. Losing grip at the front without LSD is not a surprise, but that's something Nostradamus was writing about - you just know it will happen, but you know it did JUST after it did and car goes forward endlessly without trying to have sweet relationships with the tarmac ever again. If you have some skill on how to get your front grip back, then the other two wheels came out, annoying your ESP system (if on). So, it's dangerous to go fast.
They looks very aggressive, though. Lada and KIA drivers are appreciate them very much. Huge "pinetree" grooves looks like massive effort for the wet weather, but it's not even close to that. In fact, in the wet it's even more dangerous, unpredictable and f**ing annoying even at 50 mph, and this is happening on the car known as excellent "moose test" passer on Pirellis.
So, maybe they are good on average speed and silent and comfortable? No. Nothing from that list. Durable and strong? Not a chance. Blown up after fall in small ditch at speed 2, leaving huge mark on wheel. To be completely honest, it was then glued, transferred to the back and now is okay, but that was ditch I once came across in PZero Nero at the same speed (my bad, forgot about this little a**hole second time) and just moved on, swearing hard.
This is the worst thing I could do to my car - buying this tires. I'm so sorry.

My expericence with these tyres has been a very good one to say the least.
I was put onto them by a local tyre company, after my Toyo Proxies had hit their limit.
I had originally gone in to order proxies at £90 a piece, but was given the hard sale for these federals.
I was a bit skeptical at first to stray away from proxies as I'd had such a good experience with them, but after a few minutes of examining the tyre and been told his experiences with them, he told me the price. At the time they were £54 a tyre which I couldnt really argue with.
Bottom end budget prices with apparent high budget performance, even if they turned out to be dud I hadn't lost alot.
Its safe to say I now swear by them as a brilliant budget tyre.

The dry grip they have almost rivals the Proxies and even when you seem to hit their limit their still easily controlable to bring back. Obviously its a mix between your cars setup and your own driving style, but these match both of mine near perfectly.

The only downside I have come to know about these tyres are this:
-They are quite noise (A high whirring noise when at high speeds, although does not make the slightest in difference to myself as you cant really hear it over my Buddy Club Spec IV lol.)

-As good as they are in the dry, the wet is another story. They do grip well for fast paced driving but in my experience going anywhere near the limit could be fatal. There is not alot of coming back once they have lost grip, but if you know the limit and know anything about driving a car you should know not to be anywhere near that limit in wet conditions on public roads.

Overall for their price they are an exellent tyre, unfortunately they are now in the price range of £70 now for a set of 205/45/16 V83, which is closing in on the higher priced tyres but I will continue to use them unless they go any higher.

A few extra cosmetic points about them:
They are a very pretty tyre for any wheel and can set your car off nicely opposed to some of the budget tyres you can get with an almost flat side on them, federals however have a nice tight curve and lip protectors which is always nice to have.

To sum up, if your wanting higher budget performance tyres but not wanting to fork out the extra these are a great alternative.
Handle amazingly in the dry and quite well in the wet, aswell as getting good mileage, motorway and or pleasure driving.

As a budget tyre 9/10
As a performance tyre 6/10

I suppose it depends what you're expecting from a budget tyre. I imagine that, when compared to the premium brands, they're not as good all-round but I don't believe that they're that bad. I've recently replaced these with some Continental SportContact 5's as I have a personal preference for Continental tyres and won't mix brands. As I don't drive on the limit then I can't comment on breakaway etc. but under normal driving conditions they are no where near as noisy as some say, at least on my XF and felt like any other tyres in normal use. I always keep at the back of my mind that when reading 'professional' reviews on any product, the media in particular have a vested interest in exaggerating the differences between products. If they didn't, and instead kept saying that x is a little better than y here but a little worse ther etc., then we wouldn't bother reading their reviews and they'd soon be out of a job.