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 tires, and it sums it up quite well.
Dry grip is good, wet grip is not so good. To be fair, I used the tires 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 tires), so they were definitely old, but there was plenty of tread left. And would you like to throw away a set of tires 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 tires 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 tire 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 tires have "baked" into those channels. The surface of the tire looked like the surface of the F1 tires 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 tires, 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.