Owners generally rate the Falken Azenis FK520 highly (average 79.6%), most often praising its strong dry grip and capable wet grip for the money. Comfort and refinement also come through well, with many describing it as quiet and compliant for a UHP-style tire, and around one in five explicitly calling it great value. The main recurring drawbacks are mixed steering feel (some find it sharp, others a bit numb) and a smaller but notable group reporting vibration/balance issues; wet handling is also more divided than outright wet grip.
What owners mention most counted across 48 reviews
I replaced the Pirelli P-Zeros that came on my car with these after I had the rear end step out at very low speed on a wet roundabout with the Pirellis.
Straight away I felt more confident in wet conditions. The MX-5 being a light, rear wheel drive car, I don't go too crazy when there's standing water but I was at least comfortable to drive in bad conditions compared to the old Pirellis.
In the dry my feelings were similar. I could throw the car into corners without so much as a squeak from the tires. Everything feels very assured.
I primarily daily drive the car but I took it to a track day and they held up remarkably well. The car would bite down into corners and you could feel a natural drop off in grip as you nearest the limit. At that point the tires had already done about 18,000 miles and after the partly melted tread had come unstuck, it seems that they have a lot more life left to give!
I drive them on a Golf 6 GTD, 170ps, automatic. Not the most powerful car, but I get a lot of wheel spin when accelerating a bit more aggressive. Temperature around here is between 30 and 39 degrees Celsius (hot). Tires are brand new with a fresh dot (several months from production). Breaking is normal, I did not feel the ABS till now. Wet performance I did not test, cause of the dry summer. Cornering also normal. Otherwise the tires don't make noise and are comfortable. If I have to buy now, I would probably search for a softer tire, with more traction on dry hot asphalt.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
Bought these after seeing good initial reviews to replace my worn pair of Hankook Ventus 4s and driven on them for about 2500 miles since.
The grip is good in both dry and wet, decent ride comfort and noise but the handling characteristic leaves quite a lot to be desired. The sidewall is very soft, during hard cornering there's little feedback and you can feel the tire trying to roll over itself before finally settling which makes for a rather unpleasant experience when driving in a spirited manner. Overinflating them to 38psi does help the handling a little but they're still a far cry from the Hankooks handling wise.
All in all it's a well gripping touring tire with good ride quality and noise but it definitely isn't designed for hard driving.
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Very happy with these tires. The previous one which were fitted to my car were Goodyear Assymetric 6 which performed well but wore quickly and started cracking after only a few months. Initially these were slightly down on grip in the wet but now they have a few miles on them they perform just as well and appear to be wearing much better. Couple that with the much cheaper purchase price and you have a great tire which I will buy again. Things like comfort, handling are all good, they are a relatively stiff sidewall tire which translate to a sharp turn in, but this appears to have not affected comfort in a noticeable way.
I had to change the tires from Pirelli Pzero and i choose to take the Falken FK520 instead of the PS4, because there is a huge price difference (1000€) in Austria. And i was not disappointed .. the tires are really performing.. its crazy .. never expected that..
Initial 100 mile review of the Falken Azenis 520s has left me impressed. Having just ditched the Dunlop Sport Maxx GT RFTs that came on my E70 X5 when I purchased it, the following was apparent - Review is based on intial subjective impressions.
1) The ride was significantly improved on dual carriageways and undulating country roads. The perceived feedback is that it feels more compliant and better damped than the RFTs.
2) The wet grip and traction was impressive. I couldn't notice a difference in braking performance on wet corners on country roads. Turn in felt responsive and was expecting some understeer at 50mph on my local S-bends, but it tracked very predictable on throttle. It hasn't spun up any of the corners on aggressive throttle applications.
Time will tell on how long these will last, but if I'm able to get 12000 miles before I need to replace them, I'll be more than satisfied. My use case of living in a hilly area with loads of NSL roads means that they wear will be quite high due to the constant braking and acceleration.
I was quite impressed with the ZE914s I had on my Celica 8 years ago, so if these perform as well as they did, I'll be buying them again. Will revise this review with wear.
The dry grip feeling is really superior, the sensations are that of a Bridgestone Potenza without a doubt. In the wet, the grip is very good, greater than the audacity of any average driver. Due to the width of my tire (245/45 R17), when hitting a deep puddle, the braking is felt on the suspension wishbones, like with any other tire of this width. I would recommend it for use in summer and rainy days, although with deep puddles and wet road markings you have to take the same precautions as with any other wide sports tire.
I've put on a lot of miles on these, done the nc500 twice, the dry grip is better then average, the wet grip i was actually impressed with it as you can launch of without wheelspin but the reason i wouldn't buy these again is they are absolutely rubbish when you hit even the smallest amount of surface water. I nearly spun out twice within few minutues on a flat straight, speed limit was 70 and yet i was doing 50mph. The rain was the heaviest and surface had a lot of water. But the car behind same as mine with same setup but had toyo proxes actually didn't aquaplane at all which is shocking as they usually get bad reviews for wet. By the way Both cars were 192 hp celicas
I chose the Azenis FK520 for my Tiguan because Falken advertised it as a high performance SUV tire. Having driven it for aprox 2500 miles so far I can say it is a good tire for dry an wet conditions. Never lost the grip so far. However I have to addmit it is not very comfortable, as you would expect in a SUV. The sidewall of the tire is very stiff, so it gives good feedback, but it also transfers every small bump right into your seat. I had to lower the tire pressure to 1.9bar/27psi, to get a somewhat decent ride. If the tire is inflated to 2.2bar/32psi, you can definitely feel a radial wobble and vibrations at higher speeds. Did not expect this from Falken. I would not recommend it for SUVs, maybe it works good on sportier cars.
Had them fitted for the past 7 months and they're bloody amazing. Was kind of reluctant to put on a "performance" tire on a hybrid daily driver but I don't regret the decision at all. Traction control barely kicks in anymore, the braking and the grip while cornering is amazing and they don't seem to have worn at all almost.
These are cheaper than the ps4s and after my front PS4S had worn I decided to change. I had Falken fk510's before which I loved on my previous car (Type R) so when Falken introduces the new FK520's I knew I had to buy these. Without any air in them they already have stiffer sidewalls. The turn in and steering responsiveness is way better than the PS4S you feel it straight away ! It is a harder compound tire so u do need to warm them up slowly but overall it is an improvement !
