Neogen vs Falken vs Other Options

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Hey guys, I looked through some old posts but didnt quite see what I was looking for. I'm about to order some 17's for my SVT from Discount Tire and am in a debate on tires. It is between the Falken Ziex 512, Azenis 112 and Nitto Neogen.

I drive about 50 miles a day on straight and curvy roads, plus some city stop and go. Whatever tire I get needs to be able to handle drag launches from a stop as well as an occasional autocross (maybe 1 or 2 a year, not often) So basically I need straight line grip as well as cornering and I'd like for them to live for a little while.

If you have any other suggestions I am open, just make sure they are available at discount tire and competitively priced.

thanks guys, this is just one of those issues where the only thing that helps is other peoples experiences.

Definitely one of the falkens, not sure which though. I think everyone has been very happy lately with the ziex 512s at the drag strip. Of course azenis are nice and are famous for use in auto-x, but that's probably the other model azenis that I'm thinking about.

yeah I just noticed that there is an Azenis Sport model which is the race tire, I saw the low treadwear rating on the nitto's so they are out of the running. it is down to the two falkens, I am just lost on which one! I emailed the store to see how much the wheels weigh, maybe they will have some insight on the tires.

BTW Kremit how do you like your Rage wheels? I wanted the 5.0's but they dont have them anymore, I think I am going with the Breakers

There OK. When I got them they were scratched up, so I can't comment myself on how well the paint holds up, but another CEGer said the paint doesn't hold up well at all. I probably wouldn't get a Rage wheel again.

Hi,

You can take a noob's, to this forum, opinion for what you like. I used to be on shotimes.com forum for awhile and have been reading here for 2-3 months, just never joined or posted till now

You were asking, so, I got Falken Ziex 512's for my SHO+ and liked them alot. The treadwear seemed to be standing up pretty well considering the abuse I gave 'em over the time I still had the car. Handling was much improved

over the previous tires, somekind of ordinary tire I think. Traction in wet weather was pretty good I would say and in snow was not bad (as in adequate as long as you paid attention to the fact they were not snow tires)

I would consider buying the 512's again as I got them at a pretty good price comparatively.

.02

Falken ZE-512 is an AWESOME tire. I have them on my stock E1 wheels. I would have bought them for my 17's but Tirerack doesn't carry Falkens and Luke talked me into some crazy race tires so I said why not? Depending on how I like these, I'll definitely be going back to the Falkens. They have very thick tread, extremely soft, good looking tread pattern, launch awesome(2.13 60' time for me) and handle really well also. Not to mention they are very affordable.. Good luck with your decision.

Mark

I have the Neo Gens and while they are a good tire, if I could do it again, I'd go with the Falken 512s.

DO NOT get the falken's. Those were the first tires i had on my rage 5.0's, and in the first 5,000 miles they cracked on the outer edges. I talked to my dealer and he said for years they were great tires, but recently they are having trouble with them. I took my car back and got 4 new toyo proxes for free. So, i definately wouldn't get the falken's especially if you are buying them online.

There's a couple " traction troubled" SVT's on the Forums. And they like those 512's. My Brothers Alero has them and they are very good.

Quote:

DO NOT get the falken's. Those were the first tires i had on my rage 5.0's, and in the first 5,000 miles they cracked on the outer edges.

This is the first thing I have heard bad about these tires, a LOT of people like them. That has to say something. Maybe you just got a bad tire or two.

I have the Hancook Ventus......I love these tires!

Dry...they are phenomanal.....yet to test them on wet.

Yeah I don't know. Like I said, my dealer said they were good tires for years and they didn't have trouble until recently. It was all four of them though, it wasn't just one or two. The other thing, when I called to ask him about the cracks, he knew exactly what I was talking about, because it had happened before with other people. I got the toyos with no questions asked. The other thing, I got terrible gas mileage with the faulkens. I"m talking like 26 on the highway. When I got the toyos, it immidiately shot up to 30, now i can get 34, but I won't contribute all of that to the tires. I also could not get the falken's to balance worth CRAP! My car would shake like mad at 80mph! At first I just thought it was bad balancing, so I took them off and rebalanced them. We took off the quater inch margin on the balancer, and got each wheel like .06, which is about as perfect as you can go. It helped a little, but the car still shook. When I got the toyos, my dealer balanced them at like .3 WITH the .25 margin ON, and I was kind of worried, but when i drove away I could tell an immediate difference. The car was so much smoother and did not shake at all. Everyone who rides in my car comments on how smooth it is now!.

As far as performance goes, I couldn't really complain about them too much, especially for the price. They were pretty responsive tires. I must say though, that they aren't nearly as sticky as the toyos and don't corner as well. I don't launch my car a lot, but i did notice smoother launches with the toyos. THey appear to be wearing better too. I got the falkens originally because they were cheap, but now that I have the toyos I will never go back, they are definately worth the extra money.

It is possible that falken has corrected the problem with those tires since i've had them, whether it was quality control or bad rubber i don't know, but I would hope the company would fix the problem. I know my dealer stopped pushing to sell them, but I don't know if he dropped them completely.

If you get the tires and have problems with them, you can always send them back and hope they give you credit for them, but that would be a lot harder if you buy them online. All I had to do is drive to the tire shop, and 8 minutes later(exactly, they are fast!) I had 4 brand new tires on my car, no hassle at all.

Personally, I wouldn't get the falkens because of the experience I had with them. They might have corrected the problem, but for me it wouldn't be worth the hassle again. Also, I like the tires I have now MUCH better.

But hey, whatever you decide to do...GOOD LUCK

I had the ziexs on my old 300ZX and they sucked. No wet traction what so ever. Not much better in the dry too.

I have Parada spec 2 Yokahamas on my CSVT and I live them. I've yet to even feel them give any sign of breaking traction while driving aggresively. I would highly recommend them.

Quote:

I have Parada spec 2 Yokahamas on my CSVT and I live them. I've yet to even feel them give any sign of breaking traction while driving aggresively. I would highly recommend them.

He's also looking for a street tire for a daily driver, not a weekend fun mobile.

The Ziex 512 show to be a good compromise. He is looking for longevity as well as lower prices I believe, considering he mentioned the "low" treadwear of the Neo Gens, which is only 280.....I believe the Spec 2 are somewhere around 240 or so, right?

On a side note, my Neo Gens grip nicely in a straight line, but the sidewalls feel a little loose in the turns. This is at 33-34 psi. And this is compared to the NT450s which had worse traction but were a little more predictable and solid in turns.

Dude, up the psi, I can't stand being below 35psi with low pros. Ride is too bumpy.

No thanx. What kind of tires are you running? It should be more bumpy as the psi increases so why would I want to up the psi? The Neo Gens are plenty cushiony with their soft, pliable beef so I'm not "bumping" down the road anymore. Night and day difference between the ride with the 450s and the Neo Gens. It feels like I have gone back to a 50 series sidewall.

Not to mention I don't wish to get within 10 psi of the max pressure on the tire. Not the best idea.

I still havent made a decision lol, kremits comments on Rage wheels has me worried now, but nobody seems to have Enkei RS5's in stock and time is important, almost hit an idiot SUV driver yesterday who pulled out in front of me, somehow my bald tires found the grip to slow me down but i was worried. The customer service guy at Discount reccomended the Azenis since I like the handling, and you guys are ravin on the 512's so I'm still clueless.

I would try and buy local but since we have such a common bolt pattern everything has to be ordered, no deals etc. some 17's with some kinda crappy tire would be at least 1200, which is retarded

I personally take what people behind the counter of tire shops say with a grain of salt. They are selling tires, not necessarily out testing them out. Now I haven't tried all of these tires out that you mention, but in comparison to a tire such as the BFGoodrich KDW's that came stock on my car, the Falken ZE-512's actually rate higher in my book. They don't look QUITE as nice as the KDW's do, but they are softer, grab better in straight line, handle comparably in cornering, better value, and definitely lasted longer by almost 8k miles. Now it's your decision, but I(along with quite a few others on this board) definitely recommend the ZE-512s..

Im not sure who was posting negative remarks about the Falkens, but they never really stated WHEN they purchased them, and WHAT MODEL they purchased.. But once again, good luck with your decision.

Mark

Originally posted by JonnySVT:
No thanx. What kind of tires are you running? It should be more bumpy as the psi increases so why would I want to up the psi? The Neo Gens are plenty cushiony with their soft, pliable beef so I'm not "bumping" down the road anymore. Night and day difference between the ride with the 450s and the Neo Gens. It feels like I have gone back to a 50 series sidewall. Not to mention I don't wish to get within 10 psi of the max pressure on the tire. Not the best idea.

I mean, like with lower psi it's bumpy in the way an old person's car rides. With about 37psi my car rides good, absorbs bumps well, with none of that cushiony feeling that sorta makes the car go up and down.
And umm, getting within 10psi of the max is no big deal at all. Heck, putting it at/near max for like auto-xing isn't uncommon for most people, and it's at that time that your tires will see the most heat, and yet they don't explode. There is a reason that is the max psi, because that's the maximum safe amount of pressure you can run without blowing up a tire. So anything below it is fine (though really high pressure could cause bad tire wire, screwy handling,etc.).

Dammit Kremit, for once, you're right. I could have sworn Warmonger said something about the pressure, but I just searched and have demon saying 40 psi up front and so on. I'm about to go bump those b&%$s up! WooHoo!

40 in the front 36 in the rear. the 512 last longer than the kdw cuz i think they r allseason vs the kdw summer tire. the azenis are a hiperf summer tire that have lower treadlife. if u want allseason then try the 512. otherwise the falken beta 451 are a hiperf summer tire that should last longer than the azenis.

Originally posted by JonnySVT:
Dammit Kremit, for once, you're right. I could have sworn Warmonger said something about the pressure, but I just searched and have demon saying 40 psi up front and so on. I'm about to go bump those b&%$s up! WooHoo!

Naw mang, for twice.

You'll love the extra psi. At anything below 35psi, the car just feels, ack. Play with pressures until you're happy with a good combo of handling/ride/tire wear.

The max on my NeoGens are 50psi. I beefed all 4 up to 42psi, from 34-36 range before and it already feels more solid.

the rear dont have the weight of the engine on them. i found less than 40 to work well in the rear.

Originally posted by hmouta:
the rear dont have the weight of the engine on them. i found less than 40 to work well in the rear.

True.

I just ordered some Rev Model X in gunmetal with 215/45/17 Falken Ziex 512's from Gotwheelsandtires.com Thanks so much for all your suggestions!

Azenis 112
I will get about 40 000 kms before they need replacing. I bought them to use in the rain - and they work great. I believe there is more tire than car......

Originally posted by topgunz_1:
I just ordered some Rev Model X in gunmetal with 215/45/17 Falken Ziex 512's from Gotwheelsandtires.com Thanks so much for all your suggestions!

I promise you won't regret that decision. Definitely get some pictures on here when you get them on. I'll have some pictures by this weekend

Mark