Driving Used Falken FK452 Performance Tires

Typically, tire reviews are done when the set is new, but tires won’t be new forever. We know a lot of you can’t always afford to buy a brand new set so I wanted to do a review on a set with some wear already.

I’d heard that many tuners enjoy these tires and recently I bought a set for my VW Rabbit. To my knowledge I am currently the 2nd owner of these tires, bought from a GolfMkV forum member last month. They probably had about 15,000 miles on them and experienced some pretty heavy driving, so I only expected to get another 5,000 miles on them before they went bald.

For the past month I’ve had them installed and have been to Southern California and back with no problems. Dry traction is decent. It doesn’t work well with my daily driving, but once they warm up they can grip. Unfortunately, if I’m just driving normally and when I need to punch it, the grip isn’t there yet because the tires haven’t warmed up enough from my daily driving.

I can’t comment too much on the wet traction. My only experience was one random rainy weekend and they performed just like any other tires in the wet. I never pushed it hard so I can’t say I know the full limit of these tires in the wet environment.

Noise is usually not a factor for me because I’m typically driving with the windows down and music pumped up. But, when I am cruising on the freeway or just want some quiet time I do hear some regular road noise, though nothing excessive.

Let me break it down…

• Would I buy the Falken FK452′s again? Yes, maybe just to try them out with my own driving habits. But, I wouldn’t buy a used pair again because I can find cheaper alternatives that perform just as well.
• Hydroplaning and wet traction: I do not have enough info because it’s pretty hot here in the middle of summer.
• Dry traction: the traction is there, but only once you get them warmed up. Daily driving might not be enough to warm up the tires to get that extra grip when you need it.
• Cornering and steering response: is up to par and I felt comfortable, but also confident, in any turn I was making with these tires.
• Ride comfort: seems to be a little bumpy but since I am lowered I grew accustomed to the bumpy-ness. The lower profile tires are expected to make it bumpy as well.
• Noise comfort: is good for daily driving and quiet cruising on the freeways.
• Tread wear: seems to have a lot of potential, but since they are directional you can’t get the maximum  tread out of these tires.

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