Noise and wet grip dominate criticism of the Federal SS595 SUPER STEEL, raised by roughly four in ten of 127 owners, and neutral ratings form the largest group. Dry grip is more often praised than criticised, though 20 drivers dislike it, so confidence is far from universal. Value and tread life are recurring positives, with several longer-use accounts describing substantial mileage despite a smaller group reporting rapid wear. Steering feedback is evenly split, and comfort complaints come from a smaller minority. Several later-use accounts describe noise increasing, but repeat reviewers show no shared decline: one becomes less satisfied while another stays positive.
What owners mention most counted across 127 reviews
I have these on a modified S10 pickup that I use for autocross, track days as well as being my daily driver. In the dry the grip is astonishing for the price; wet or cold weather traction not so good, but these ARE UHP Summer tires after all. For a 240 rated tire the wear is very good. I put 20000 miles on my last set and just replaced them as the tread wasgetting too hard for good , spirited handling. I have and will buy these again. Best bang for your buck.
OMG!! Never buy these crap tires!! I bought a used 350z with these on them and in the year since I have owned the car these tires have gotten louder and louder. They vibrate SO bad that I literally can't hear my engine anymore. I have all the plastic pieces in my interior being vibrated loose. Never owned a set of tires that were this bad. The vibration issue is SO bad, that it really doesn't matter about any other factors of handling or wet road grip, etc.. Just say NO to these tires!!
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
My car, a 2000 Mercedes Benz SLK 230came with these tires. Staggered fitment with a wider aspect on the rear.
Overall very pleased, i rear them as a aummer tire, as i live in a desert area. Plenty hot, and dusty. Top down every chance, so road noise is negligible. I trust these tires, they give good feedback, with a little twitch. Hot summer road temps help with a sticky feel to the road.
Always buy the best tires you can afford. And don't expect more than what you pay for. For me these tires will drive.
Which tires do you drive?
Researching the Federal SS595 SUPER STEEL? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
Good ratio price/quality. I bought them as I knew they are quite soft, so they didn't last that long, but I'm used to this. Great dry grip, especially when they were new (I had some good starts at street racing, better then with T1R's). Don't have good feeling on the wet (especially when there is a lot of water on the road), but I could easily drive on highway with 130kph on rain.
Definitely will buy again. For me, they are the perfect compromise between semi-slicks and street tires.
There tires are really bad. They came on my car when I bought it, they had about 1000 miles on them at the time. Dry traction is okay. Wet traction is scary. Never tried them in snow. They are also the very loud. I thought I had wheel bearings going out at speed. During tight slow turns in a parking lot I thought my LSD was growling. Now that I have new tires I can actually hear the exhaust note (stock exhaust). Lane changes on rutted roads can be a nasty experience too. The car would snap in and out of the ruts throwing the car latterly. I don't know that I will ever look at a tire with the "V" pattern tread the same way again. Stay away from these tires. If they are your only option in stock, order something else wait patiently for them to come in and then be glad you did. They wear pretty slowly, but I am counting that as a con because it means you will be stuck with these awful tires for even longer.
Pretty woeful.
Put these on my old 1.4 corsa and even the mighty 80bhp was too much for these tires. They would happily spin up in the dry let alone the wet.
Even had some oversteer on a wet roundabout a couple of times, and this was hardly even pushing them. Worse thing was it wasn't even progressive, would just let go out of no where.
Quickly changed to yoko's spec 2's. Awesome tire in comparison.
68%
Member
Alfa Romeo
185/55 R14 V
2,000 miles
Mostly Country Roads
Spirited
Reading the reviews, I really wonder how people *test* their tires.
My ride is an Alfa Romeo Sprint QV with the 1.7 engine. It is a classic as well as a coupe, so use is for track days, historic rallies and minimal daily rides.
As a daily ride, the tire is perfect. It gets noisy on the highway but only at a specific speed, which is totally fine. On the rain, I was afraid at first because of the reviews. My car park has an enormous slippery hill to climb each time I drive out, and with heavy rain the tire, while still cold, works fine.
As a rally tire on tarmac, it is PHENOMENAL. The car finished on the Acropolis Rally after 1000ks of twists, turns, speed, on gravel and roads. It performed like a charm. You don't believe me? Here http://www.autodelta.info/#!Passion-for-Race/czjb/57583e190cf24c9615a526e8
As a track tire, it disappointed me. It doesn't warm up quickly enough, and turns seem flimsy. Still, I dropped my times. But yes, it is not a real tire for track. Still, enough for fun - they do drift.
As an overall tire, for the price, are you kidding me? It is perfect, and will soon be fitted on a Lancia of the same period too. It just makes sense.
40%
Member
Alfa Romeo
225/40 R18
10,000 miles
Mostly Town
Spirited
Awful tires! Very noisy, awful grip both dry and wet. The ride is very bad. I bought the car second-hand and it came with these tires, fitted 500km before the guy sold the car to me... I changed them for barum bravuris 3 and the car is transformed. I think every driver deserves better tires than these....
these federal ss's came on the 96 trans am ws6 I bought. I read some reviews before winter hit ( I live in northwest Montana) and was expecting to have a very exciting winter! What I have found is they were not as bad as every one is claiming ! First dry, they do well gripping better than other tires I have owned on my 82 trans am with less horse power than this 96. the only complaint is they WILL spill your coffee trying to change lanes on rutted roads! That was easily fixed made a wooden box I can seat belt into passenger side with correct sized hole for my cup on top! Seriously, they jerk enough one wonders what the people behind you think when changing lanes from one paved rutted lane to the next, and its the front end first that jerks over then the back its CRAZY!
Wet, they are not good at all on wet cement, we only have one intersection that has cement the rest of the roads are paved. it does not matter how long its been raining, on the cement I cant take off from the light with out spinning, however, they never squeal, just spin, I have never gotten a squawk out of these tires, smoke sure, but not squealing. on pavement if it has rained enough to actually wash some of the calcium chloride and sand off they grip , not like race tires, but they will hold the back end accelerating around corners fairly well.
Snow. Ahahaha! gotta love not being able to drive with the back end behind you!! I actually got stuck trying to back into my drive in the middle of the road because of the crown of the road!! that was on snow pack. wet snow is even worse! I would say snowed more than one inch.. don't drive it! of course if it snowed more than three inches I am shoveling snow with the nose any way! I found though much to my surprise, if you can have snow pack that is sanded these tires once again shine! I guess the width and the sand on the snow makes it comparable to studded snow tires (on my 97 dakota) Seriously! I could stop faster than I could on wet cement! ( Did I mention the amount of deer, elk, moose and bear we have on the road ways here in North west Montana? Trust me a moose is VERY!! intimidating when sitting in a trans am!!)
Like I mentioned earlier, I have only had these tires since I bought the car last fall, I drive it every day I can to work 17? miles one way in the next town, so I get it up to seventy on the four lane, and have to drive through two small towns, the three weeks of dry roads I had were actually pretty awesome with these tires, with the exception being they really do have flat spots for about two miles at 60mph when the temp starts to dip. enough so, I was wondering about u joints or bearings! then they did great! the other five months I have yet to have dry roads with out sand or calcium chloride. black ice or frosty roads are ridiculously fun and exciting! touch the gas the back end starts around, touch the brake, the back end starts around! I am getting good at shoving the shiftier into N. because this trans am has a posi trac. when I come creeping up to a stop sign, and push the brake to bring it to a complete stop, it just pushes the front tires locked and of course the front end starts sliding which ever way the road is sloped. The couple hundred pounds I put in trunk to not get stuck in middle of the road helps, but increases the front end just sliding not stopping problem
wet it gets worse but the worst thing about this tire is how it reacts to the road and its unevenness, also it is EXTREMELY NOISY, i couldnt tell if my wheel bearings were out or the tire until i changed tires....
being a hardish compound, hence the name super steel, its wear is pretty good but thats the only plus!
Owned a set on my JZX100 Toyota Chaser. Abit noisy in the dry and steering feel is at tad numb with the soft sidewall.
In the dry these tires have good to decent grip and not to mention progressive too. Tires talk back and can drive close to the limit before it screeches.
In the rain these tires are terrible. Dont even hope of having grip what so ever. Can barely get traction off the line, just spins the rear wheels. Dont dare to drive fast in the rain, you will stack your car into a tree or gutter.
But it is run the rear out in the rain at 20/30/40 km/h.
Cant comment on tire wear, but hope these wear out soon, excuse to get new tires.
