Who's running Falken's..??

[mtechnik]

thnx Jay (Mystikal ) !

[elguapo84]

I'm running ZE512 205-50-16s, and I'm really impressed with the performance you get for the price. One really nice feature is that they protrude around the outer lip of your rim to protect it from curb rash. Granted, curb rash is totally user-preventable, but it is nice to have the added protection nonetheless.

[3SerieSensi]

I have AZenis and I love them. I am buying them again. 65 a tire. CANNOT BE BEAT for performance and price IMO. They just last like a a hair over a week though.

I had teh fk451 before, i would go with teh fk452 they offer now for good performance....

[Al Canuck]

put a set of 512s on a friend's AWD Eclipse, great tires, showed no signs of wear at all after 5000mi or so. You sure you're not thinking of the older 502s? That, or maybe Falken supplies Canada with a different 512 than we get here?

Definitely the 512. I was actually a Falken tire dealer for nearly a year. Pushed soooooo many of them out the door, on everything from VW's, BMW's, to friend's parent's Chevy Malibu, and even an old Honda Odyssey Van. To a person, the FWD cars owners LOVE them. Mom's Jetta, Honda, Malibu. ALL of the BMW's I've put them on, have since been replaced due to terrible treadlife, or people hating them.

1 customer has a 318is, and had Yokohama AVID H4's on it before. We replaced them with 512's, and phoned me 3 weeks later, to tell me how shitty they were. I offered to buy them back, but he decided to burn them off, and then put something decent on.

I'm not talking about 2 or 3 isolated cases here, either. This is like dozens and dozens and dozens of tires. EVERY SINGLE person, who has since replaced them, has told me how much better their cars are on good tires.

Friend of mine had a set on his 2002(195/60/14), and another set on his GC equipped E30(205/50/16). He blew 2 tires on the 02, and wasted them on his E30 in about 10k miles. The 02 was eating so many sidewalls, he was afraid to drive it out of town. We mounted a set of RT615's on it last summer, and he's now happy. His E30 has a new set of 452's, as of last month. He immediately reported that the car was more planted, turned in faster, and the wildly swinging tail antics were now finally tamed.

Do we need more examples of how BAD these tires are? I have plenty. I'm a tech, and I happen to own a BMW indi repair shop. I'm surrounded by various BMW's all day, every day. We also have tire equipment, and sell tires. I'm a big fan of Falken, but not the 512's. The 502 was better, and so far, it appears the 912 is vastly superior as well.

Personally, I've gone back to Yokohama, which is what I ran for 10 years, before Falken popped up. I just mounted a set of Yoko S.Drive's on my 325is, and couldn't be happier. I wouldn't even say Falken 512, and Yokohama S.Drive in the same sentence. Oh wait, I just did, oops.

Al

[Al Canuck]

Al,

I got 24,000km out of my 225/50/15's, and that included HARD driving and even an auto-x championship. On that note, I placed first in class and third overall in that said championship, despite running on all-season tires that are supposedly "garbage".

Plenty of grip. You're seeing that much bodyroll with GC coilovers! I am a huge fan of the 512's, I will say that their only downsides are treadlife, sidewall stiffness at typical PSI, and winter traction. But then again, 24k in my driving is actually quite good.

Jay

Hey Jay,

No disrespect intended at all. Yours is the first time Ive heard this many positives about the 512. That said, try your car on something GOOD, and watch it get even faster. I messed around with tire pressures on the 512, and no matter what I did, they squealed all over the place. Terrible tread squirm, unpredictable handling, just awful.

Get an Azenis on that car, and report back how much faster it has become.

Al

[Mystikal]

Hey Jay,

No disrespect intended at all. Yours is the first time Ive heard this many positives about the 512. That said, try your car on something GOOD, and watch it get even faster. I messed around with tire pressures on the 512, and no matter what I did, they squealed all over the place. Terrible tread squirm, unpredictable handling, just awful.

Get an Azenis on that car, and report back how much faster it has become.

Al

lol, Al, no disrespect from me either but understand I have experience with more tires than just about anyone on this board. My car has had various sizes of RT-615s, RT-215s, R-S2s, etc on; I am not in a position where I do not have experience with the field. I will not argue that my car isn't faster on more aggressive auto-x targeted tires, but do realize that for a bargain all-season the 512 has been proven to be an extremely capable performer. You can have your opinions, but keep in mind numbers speak louder than words.

Just for fun, here's a video of one of my early runs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5CYswgIKFw

Jay

[Al Canuck]

You can have your opinions, but keep in mind numbers speak louder than words.

Jay

It's not an opinion, it's a fact that these tires have been absolutely horrible in my experience.

Numbers, eh?

- 3000km is a number. The number of km I got out of a set.
- 10000km is the number of km a customer received out of a set
- 2 is a number. 2 blowouts on the same car(75 2002). These were both sidewall blowouts while cruising down the highway
- 1 is a number. 1 customer who spun his 318is on a corner he drives every day, after switching from Yokohama to Falken 512
- 5 owners who complained about steering shimmy from their cars after we installed 512's. ALL of these cars were E30's. ALL of them were cured of shimmy, after I test fitted some old bottlecaps with no name all seasons that I have in the shop.

Those are hard numbers, numbers which made me go "wow, I gotta quit selling these things to people".

Falken has discontinued the 512, and are now selling the 912 as a replacement. The 512 really wasn't on the market very long, either. For a tire that was rated "best in class" by CR, doesn't that seem odd that it would be killed so quickly by the manufacturer?

Al

[sarcasmkillsme]

I just got the falken 912s and I like them alot. Good grip and stiffer sidewall than the 512s. There is no use arguing about the 512s because they are discontinued. So good luck trying to get them. Only downside to the 912s is that they are heavier than the tire they replaced.

[Al Canuck]

Only downside to the 912s is that they are heavier than the tire they replaced.

I guess Falken realised that actually need to use more rubber, to stop the damn things from blowing up! lol

912 looks like a winner, I'm going to order a set for my 630csi.

Al

[mtechnik]

The BIG BOYS , read Mystikal & Al Canuck, are having a conversation.. Good thread,great thead :D Makes it "balanced" :up:

Well early this morning I put my order in for the Falkens. 512's because their supplier can't promise delivery of any 912's in the foreseable couple days.
I went with this decision cause I need to pass inspection in a couple days.

Same goes for the Michelin Exalto PE2, also out of stock cause over here most suppliers are still focussing on supplying winter tires till spring. I could have gone to another shop and scored ZE-912's but these people i bought from give me some real deals.

I'll report back to you guys on what my personal experiece with the 512's will be, I am pretty much sure that it will be a performance improvement over my current TRULY SHITTY no-name all seasons.

Next month I will go over to Exalto PE2s for sure.

Back when i had some 195/45/R15ss ZE-502s in 2002/2003 I found them to be pretty decent.

[scabzzzz]

I love my 512's seriously. Best bang for the buck besides a Kumho SPX

[Mystikal]

It's not an opinion, it's a fact that these tires have been absolutely horrible in my experience.

I had no idea sharing personal experience wasn't an opinion.

- 3000km is a number. The number of km I got out of a set.
- 10000km is the number of km a customer received out of a set

Fine, anecdotal experience with unknown cars and driving habits. You cannot really believe this is representative of the entire line of tires, otherwise Falken would go bankrupt honoring treadwear warranty claims.

- 2 is a number. 2 blowouts on the same car(75 2002). These were both sidewall blowouts while cruising down the highway

Probably underinflated. Again, anecdotal evidence that cannot be used against a tire of which millions have been sold.

- 1 is a number. 1 customer who spun his 318is on a corner he drives every day, after switching from Yokohama to Falken 512

lol, there are so many problems here I don't know where to start. Oil/sand/gravel? He's just an idiot driver? You can't seriously use that against a single tire.

- 5 owners who complained about steering shimmy from their cars after we installed 512's. ALL of these cars were E30's. ALL of them were cured of shimmy, after I test fitted some old bottlecaps with no name all seasons that I have in the shop.

Pfft, bad batch. If you want to still use tiny sample sizes I can name 4 E30 owners locally that have run 512's (and all are on this board: ZiMMie, T.dot_E30, Axxe, 641215). Not a single one of them had any sort of quality issue. I also didn't with my 2 sets, nor the set that is still on my sister's RSX-S. Again I'd never use this tiny population to make any sort of grandeur claims against the quality of a product, but since you seem to think it's relevant then I'll step down to your level.

Falken has discontinued the 512, and are now selling the 912 as a replacement. The 512 really wasn't on the market very long, either. For a tire that was rated "best in class" by CR, doesn't that seem odd that it would be killed so quickly by the manufacturer?

What are you talking about? The ZE-512 enjoyed like 4-5 years on the market, pretty much average for any competitive tire model. I have no idea where you are basing all of these claims/judgements from, but it definitely isn't factual.

In any case, as I said, the ZE-512 is still rated #4 out of 15 all-seasons tested, beating out the likes of the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S, and Bridgestone Potenza RE960 AS Pole Position just to name some of the big boys. It is an excellent tire that dozens of members on here have used with great success, and should make most owners very happy. The ZE-912 is a worthy successor to it (rated #1), and is good enough that I'm considering putting it on my M3 for daily/auto-x. While the expression of experience and opinion is always welcome on this forum, we have to take them with a grain of salt.

Jay

[scabzzzz]

pwned.

[mtechnik]

Keep the input coming, it can usefull for future reference; albeit the ZE-912.

Hope no one getts amiffed in this thread.

[ejnight]

I got a set of 512's today 272$ installed at tire factory,for the price I could not Say no. I will let you know how they perform.