Just wanted to share my experience here.
With over 15,000 miles on them, these tires have about half their tread left. Not bad for supposedly performance-oriented summer tires and aggressive BMW alignment specs. Also, at $124 each, they weren't too expensive compared to their competitors. That's the end of the good things I have to say about them.
The noise alone would be enough to make me want to get rid of them. When they were brand new, they were slightly worse than my old worn-down set of ContiSportContact 3s; now they roar like my car is a steamroller. The ride is almost as bad. It simply is far too harsh, presumably due to the heavily reinforced sidewall. The combination of noise and harshness makes the car a bit difficult to tolerate for more than 30-40 minutes at a time.
I would feel a lot less annoyed if the tires had some dynamic advantages in exchange for their shorcomings. For example, it would be nice if those rock-hard sidewalls provided decent steering feel and response. Such is not the case. Grip is nothing special, steering is dull and vague, and the car requires constant corrections to stay on-center regardless of alignment.
To attempt to put this into perspective: My (also half-worn) 225-section winter tires are better in literally every respect, except possibly ultimate grip levels (on which I can't comment). They track, ride, handle, feel, and sound better, by a substantial margin. For winter tires to have those advantages over performance summer tires that were supposedly made for "luxury" vehicles (per Falken's marketing) is... a bit strange.
I'm sure other sizes of this tire without the XL rating would be much more tolerable, but this particular size was junk. They saved me a lot of money over some of my other options, but they made the car almost unpleasant to drive. Definitely not worth it.
With over 15,000 miles on them, these tires have about half their tread left. Not bad for supposedly performance-oriented summer tires and aggressive BMW alignment specs. Also, at $124 each, they weren't too expensive compared to their competitors. That's the end of the good things I have to say about them.
The noise alone would be enough to make me want to get rid of them. When they were brand new, they were slightly worse than my old worn-down set of ContiSportContact 3s; now they roar like my car is a steamroller. The ride is almost as bad. It simply is far too harsh, presumably due to the heavily reinforced sidewall. The combination of noise and harshness makes the car a bit difficult to tolerate for more than 30-40 minutes at a time.
I would feel a lot less annoyed if the tires had some dynamic advantages in exchange for their shorcomings. For example, it would be nice if those rock-hard sidewalls provided decent steering feel and response. Such is not the case. Grip is nothing special, steering is dull and vague, and the car requires constant corrections to stay on-center regardless of alignment.
To attempt to put this into perspective: My (also half-worn) 225-section winter tires are better in literally every respect, except possibly ultimate grip levels (on which I can't comment). They track, ride, handle, feel, and sound better, by a substantial margin. For winter tires to have those advantages over performance summer tires that were supposedly made for "luxury" vehicles (per Falken's marketing) is... a bit strange.
I'm sure other sizes of this tire without the XL rating would be much more tolerable, but this particular size was junk. They saved me a lot of money over some of my other options, but they made the car almost unpleasant to drive. Definitely not worth it.
