Given
70%
while driving a
Opel Astra G
(185/65 R15 H) on
mostly town
for 3,000
average miles
This is from the early age of eco tyres, and it sums it up quite well.
Dry grip is good, wet grip is not so good. To be fair, I used the tyres in question on the 2003 Astra I got from my grandfather after he decided no to drive anymore. He put about 15.000 miles into the car (and its factory fitted tyres), so they were definitely old, but there was plenty of tread left. And would you like to throw away a set of tyres only because they are overaged?
Neither do I, so I decided to let them go out in style: a trackday at the Hungaroring (don't laugh) (please).
Despite these tyres aren't designed for this sort of usage, they behaved pretty well. The grip level might not be high, but I could feel when I was about to exceed it, which is a big plus for a not-so-grippy tyre in my opinion. Road feedback isn't that bad either. As for the wear, the tread depth wasn't gone, however, smaller water channels disappeared as teared out bits of other tyres have "baked" into those channels. The surface of the tyre looked like the surface of the F1 tyres after a race.
If you are about to go to a trackday, take this into account. And don't get surprised if you find rubber marks on the roof of your car.
As I said, its early-age-econess doesn't make things any better. Wet grip level is pretty low, unlike rolling resistance, which is still high. After I replaced these Firestones with a set of Goodyear EfficientGrip Performance, I was shocked by how easy the car rolls on those (you can read my review of the GYs where it belongs). I didn't only change make, I changed size as well: I went for the other homologated 15" size for this car, 195/60, because I think this size is better for summer tyres, but expect them to be more expensive than 185/65 winters.
I don't think you can buy a brand new set of the Firestone F700, but if you're planning to buy a set, just forget these. There must be better offers on the market.