Best Tyres for the Honda Civic 1.5T

After, now, 6 winter seasons: these are going in the bin.

From new, wet performance was abysmal and concerning bordering on alarmingly bad. Damp roads, wet roads, slush, or anything with a breath of moisture in the air: wet traction is just outright bad.

Dry performance is just fine for a midrange winter tire. I do need to adjust my driving style when I first mount them for the season but nothing I wouldn’t say is “bad”. On grooved concrete roads, though, the tires will try and wander - it’s a bit disconcerting the first time.

Snow and ice performance, unlike the damp, is actually quite good.

These are not something I would ever buy again. The wet performance is unbelievably awful, and as temperatures float above / below freezing : it’s just unacceptable.

Have just completed 1 front set of these tyres, replaced faulty Michelin Primacy 4's (developed slow puncture after only a few hundred miles - gutted!), and I only bought them as that's what the first tyre place I pulled into had in stock, and were recommended by the owner...

For a so-called "budget tyre" this one thinks it's a premium! I have been really impressed with the wet & dry handling (loses it in the snow + ice, but it IS a summer tyre, adjust accordingly). The wear is phenomenal, it has lasted as long as the Primacy 4's (on the back with 10,000 miles on them), on a FWD car, meaning all the weight & wear is over them, and they have now all died around the 32,000 mile mark! The only aspect to these tyres in a negative sense; is the handling/feedback, which is lacking...but something has to give for the grip and longevity. Road noise is also an issue, as if you feed these fresh tarmac, all good, but on the old worn and knackered roads (increasing more and more lately sadly), the noise is bad, vibrations and transfer through the steering, and not in a good way; the feel and feedback you want...but it IS a heavy tyre. On that point, the economy is also lacking, but there are far worse out there in the world. These will never compete with the likes of the Goodyear EfficientGrip, but equally all those positives HAVE to have a drawback somewhere...they aren't the worst! They handle/perform predictably right up until the very end, with no major fluctuation in behaviour, which is also to be praised.

Would I buy these same tyres again? Yes. I don't really understand why they are so close in price and almost all areas, to the Azenis (in some places are actually more expensive), to be fair I believe these have a longer mileage/life all things being equal. I have chosen to replace all 4 wheels with Goodyear Eagle F1-Asy6's, and the only real reason I did, was because the outlet offered 20% off a set of 4, which TECHNICALLY made them cheaper per unit than the Falkens.If it wasn't for that, I would likely have picked these again.

Context: I have been driving these Falken tyres on a 2018 Reg Honda Civic Sport (Hatch), for their entire lifetime. I bought the car at only 1 year old (10,000 Miles) and it was shod all-round, with Michelin PilotSport's which I understand are factory standard on this car; so likely originals. Those were fine, but during covid "stay@home" period one of the rear tyres developed a slow puncture and needed changing (which broke my heart as was still plenty tread left! :(

Life: I opted for the Falken's as the fitter rated them and said comparable to "premier brands" without the inflated price associated. I swapped the Michelins to the back and fitted new rubber to the front (being a FWD car). They are now at the end of their life, running out at the same time more-or-less as the rears, having just completed 32K miles. My driving style is very steady & careful, I avoid over accelerating or braking wherever possible, preferring to make full use the engine braking/natural deceleration instead. I am very happy with the wear on these, and consider 30,000 to be pretty standard with the condition of UK roads currently!

Performance-wise: I would say that these tyres are absolutely as good, if not better, than the Michelins they replaced. The wet & dry braking is fine, nothing exceptional, but that said my driving style and not having an accident would support that. Where I have had to stop quickly I was never concerned. They do however wheelspin excessively under hard acceleration, especially from standing start (even more so in the wet), which I put down to the car rather than the tyre, being high torque/FWD arrangement. Feedback is better than Michelin but still quite poor compared to high-end, cornering the same, wear; slightly worse than PS's as I have evidenced above. The one area I would say these Falken's really let the side down, would be the road noise. On poor quality road surface they are really not pleasant, and even on standard roads they are noisy, my little one moans every time how noisy it is inside the car!

All-in I would say: Better than I originally expected TBH, but in no way a "Premium tyre", so if you're expecting that, look elsewhere & spend more money. This is a very decent, reasonably priced mid-tier tyre for a family car. If you place grip, reliability & wear utmost in the list when buying, these will suit you perfectly. If you plan on taking every corner (wet or dry) as fast as possible and don't mind changing after 7-10K miles...don't bother!

Full disclosure, these tyres are only fitted to the rear of the car.

These tyres have one of my top three worst attributes in a tyre, tread block movement. At speed (and not much better slower) the float from the tread block moving around is so unnerving. Applying even a small steering inputs at a steady pace along a motorway, the first impression is what on earth are the back tyres doing? The feeling is often on winter tyres; because of their soft, tall, siped tread block. This really shouldn't be on a summer tyre. Will this improve as they wear? Probably, but that's a lot of miles of second guessing what the rear of the car is doing.
Initially driving them from the tyre fitters was hilarious, but ultimately in a disappointing way. ESP was in full use. I was hoping this was released agents etc being removed, but the improvement wasn't fundamental, but it did improve.

If you push on, it gets a bit more interesting, but probably not in a great way. They do seem to have decent grip, but you really have to have the throttle applied through a corner, no trailing throttle or being suspect about what's ahead.

The standout feeling with these tyres at even remotely fast speeds is the two bites at every corner. I can't recommend these for that reason alone.

Price is clearly their bonus, but not worth it in my book. I'll be going back to Goodyear eagle F1 aysemtric 6's.

I’ve been using the Turanza 6 for 16 thousand kilometers and this period includes alternating temperature (between 9-35 degrees Celsius) with mostly sunny weather with dry roads and little bit of rainy weather with wet roads. In addition, for my tyre size, I only have 2 different load and speed indexes, which are 93V SL and 97W XL, I use the 97W XL variant. My opinion is, the XL version is a lot firmer and not so good in absorbing little snags on the asphalt. In the mid life of the tyre, it evolves to a consistent vibration which just ends in smooth asphalt. But let’s not slander this tyre, It’s really good about furl consumption, tread wear, and both dry-wet grip consistency with a sensitive steering wheel feel. So for conclusion, I really suggest you to buy the standard load (SL) version of it (even with a comfortable 55 section size) to both have good grip in all types of weather conditions and comfort with a good degree of snag damping. Maybe, I should have chosen the SL version :/

If the tire is between 0 and 5 years old, I can recommend it. From the 5th year onwards, the tire deteriorated for me.
After approximately 40,000 km and 7 years, 4 mm of tread depth remained (the first indicator on the tire profile was reached), which is a good mileage.
Negative points from the 5th year onwards: loss of grip in wet and icy/snowy conditions; rapidly hardening rubber (despite underground parking); summer tire-like ride (direct steering feedback, harsh impacts, hardly any damping effect from the tires); when going over potholes, the rear axle became unstable, i.e., loss of grip and poor rolling characteristics.

Great, affordable and grip tyres available in my area, surprised for the price with such performance. Will Purchase again.

Tested on a '19 Honda Civic 1.5T, in the UK. Tyres are mid-life, and noticed that their water clearing ability in heavy rain is a lot poorer than summer tyres I'd had on previously (Goodyear Eagle F1s). Wet grip is slightly down versus summer tyre referance as well, but less noticably so. Dry grip is good, but I'd say steering feel is lower than summers (although with numb electronic steering, attributing it to the tyres only is likely unfair). Noise levels do seem quite high in the civic, although I'm led to believe this is due to no noise insulation in the wheel wells. On smooth tarmac they hum even at low speed, and on rough roads the noise level is quite high.