Given
67%
while driving a
Kia Motors Optima
(205/65 R16 H) on
a combination of roads
for 40,000
spirited miles
To preface, I drive my car hard and love taking backroads. This tire has a surprising amount of cornering grip and imparts a nice firm feeling into steering wheel. These tires egg you on to put more power in the corners to a point but they don't lose control. On center feel is a bit vague but steering is very responsive. Comfortable ride even if tire noise is a little louder than I'd want it. Very good handling and around town performance in dry conditions. Surprisingly these tires allow a 1500 kg FWD car to rotate into turns ever so slightly.
In the wet, the experience falls apart some. Wet traction is just not that good. Accelerating from a stop or turning and accelerating from a stop when there's even the thinnest layer of rain water on the road is difficult. My engine makes peak torque from a low RPM (1750 RPM) so I've learned to baby the throttle in those situations. Too often do they cause the traction control lights to flash. They caused the car to terminally understeer on a highway exit ramp after a horrible rainstorm and I noticed it hydroplaned slowly when I was going across an intersection. Luckily no one was around or else I would've slowly drifted into the adjacent lane and might have caused an accident. Very slow and very steady is the way to go in the wet with these.
Braking performance isn't great but it isn't bad. It gets a bit worse in the rain.
Overall, for the price, these tires are very good in the dry but if you need something that's confidence inspiring in the wet, make sure you do your research on all the available options.