Best Tires for the Ford Focus Zetec S Ecoboost 180

I bought these due to the "good" reviews they had received online - great value for money, not budget, more mid-range apparently. The "Ultra High Performance" tag should be removed, the sidewalls feel like they are made of paper. It feels like the car has 4 flat tires at the correct pressure for the car. They flex so much in turns, and make the car handle very badly. Changing lanes on a dual carriageway / motorway really feels dangerous. I replaced them after 6 weeks and bought some Goodyear Eagle AS5 - the difference is night and day, don't take the risk for an extra £40 a tire...

Best tires I have ever had.I do about 40K miles a year and they served me well. Did 55K miles on the front tires and the rear ones are on 85K miles at the moment, still about 10K left on them. What more do you want?

Had 4 of these on my Focus Zetec S and have now covered over 16000 miles ,,great all rounder ,,just drive sensibly and they wont let you down ,,will buy again

Had two of these on my car for nearly a year and around 11-12k miles now. They still have 4.5mm tread left and have spent most of their life on the fronts of a 180bhp Focus Zetec S ecoboost, so really can't complain about the wear rate.

I had them on the back from spring through summer last year as I wanted to minimise wear and save the nice all season treads for the winter, but tbh I couldnt wait til the winter to swap my Michelin Primacy HPs from the front to the back as with the Sailuns on the rear it felt twitchy with the back stepping out on cornering wet or dry. I think a combination of the softer sidewall and less grip than the Michelins. Never any major panic moments but I didn't like it.

So I lasted until Sept before I swapped the Primacy HPs back to rear and the Sailuns to the fronts. Much better/more predictable. I then drove like I was driving miss daisy to avoid wearing them down before the snowy season so never really pushed them hard but still noticed them approaching their limits and never felt confident with them. At this point I was already thinking about what I would get next and and it wasn't going to be these...

Now you're probably wondering why the high review scores?

Well, when the snow and ice finally came this winter they had maybe 5mm tread left and I have to say I was impressed! If I was to rate previous tires I've had such as Conti Sport Contact a 0/10 when driving on snow/ice, and Nankang Snow SV2 a 10/10, then I would say the Z4 AS's were about a 5 or 6/10. Much, much better than summers on snow, so as a year round tire in the UK they get a big thumbs up from me.

And now that we are probably past the coldest weather and I'm not in tread saving mode anymore, I've started pushing them a bit harder and even though it's still cold and wet I am finding they are better than I thought... yeah the ultimate limits are maybe only 85-90% of a good summer tire but they are very progressive for me and let you know they are losing it without snapping, lift off the throttle and they start gripping just fine again. I've no doubt they would let go and scare anyone who doesn't drive progressively, but if you drive sensibly you can make good progress with these tires just fine. In the hands of someone who doesn't push their (or their car's limits) they would probably never know the difference between these tires and a premium brand costing twice as much or more!

Also contrary to some other reviews I've not noticed terrible road noise (maybe pressure related? I run mine slightly higher than recommended (32) pressure at 35psi), and wearing nice and evenly too. Reckon they'll last 15k miles easily before getting to 3mm at which point I usually change my tires.

My verdict: a perfect budget tire for all year round use in the parts of the UK that are prone to snow on occasion.

Caveat: Don't mix them by fitting on the rear with a stiffer sidewalled/grippier pair of tires on the front axle. Fitted to fronts or as a set of 4 recommended.