Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Neogen vs Falken vs Other Options

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.

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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.

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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

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!