Given
56%
while driving a
BMW E39 5 series
(235/45 R17) on
a combination of roads
for 6,000
average miles
A reasonably priced tyre with excellent performance. No issues with grip wet or dry. Perhaps they don't hold on quite as long as other more expensive tyres such as the michelin ps2 but give plenty of warning before they completely let go making spirited driving quite fun. My car's got sport suspension, with these tyres, it's a fun and safe combination.
HOWEVER!! There seems to be a quality control issue with these tyres. One of my tyres has a manufacturuing fault making it virtually impossible to balance. The only time it's come close is when put on the Hunter Roadforce balancing machine, but it didn't last for very long. Recently had vibration, took it to local tyre fitters with newly calibrated machine, took over 115g of weights and it's still not right.
Another big flaw in these tyres is that they can make a horrible grinding noise at low speeds, much like a failed bearing. My first set of 452's did this after a few k miles of use, I put it down to a bad batch. When they wore out I fitted some more, at the same time my father had all his tyres (on an e39 540i estate with same size tyres) changed to 452's. Nice and silent at first, then both of our cars developed the same roaring/grinding noise. So clearly it's not an isolated incident, this is an inherent flaw with these tyres, not had this problem with any other tyre. It may be isolated to certain size/ratios of these tyres, but I know that I certainly won't be buying them again - which is a great shame as I love the performance and the price.