Tires OEM Mazda or Falken

Since the last road rally I've changed out the OEM Firestones for OEM sized Wildpeaks. With the OEM tires I basically had to do the whole event in 4Hi. I've got so much more traction now that I was able to do all of yesterdays event in 2WD with Trac Off.

I tried the Pirellis on Saturday and was sliding around a bit. Used the Falkens on Sunday and once I got the pressures right, I had good grip with no understeer or oversteer.

Put 215/65/16 Wildpeak Trails on my 2007 x2.5 last week and have similar sentiments as you. Big slower off the line and a bit stiffer but overall really happy so far. Got to hit a long gravel road out hiking this past weekend and the ride felt great. My old michellins would have me fishtailing on a corner over 50km/h, was able to take same corners at 80km/h with confidence.

I’ve got Wildpeak AT trails on my lifted bugeye and I love them! I got them back in November and took them in snow, mud, rocks, gravel, and pavement and was so impressed. They gripped so well I was able to pull my friend’s 4Runner out of a snowy ditch in my little NA Impreza! I cannot recommend these tires enough! They’re also pretty quiet on the road and are totally comfortable to daily on pavement.

I have the Wildpeaks and love them cause they are pretty damn great for just about any occasion or scenario. Between Subaru's symmetrical AWD and the Wildpeaks, it Handled it pretty damn well. I was super impressed with how well my car handled it.

I ran the RE71R's last year. I'm running the Falken Rt660's now. Its a very good tire that's on par with the Bridgestone. I'd say check that one out.

I’m guessing he is referring to the falken rt660. I use them on my fiesta st and am actually going to order another set next week. Pretty good tires for the price, great dry performance but wet performance is not great.

I went a different direction and fit bigger tires on stock suspension. Looks like they are about 1" bigger in diameter and a little narrower. It was real tight in there so I wouldn't have gone any bigger than the 215/65/16s I ended up with (Falken Wildpeak AT, late model Audi rims) on factory setup.

Around Thanksgiving last year, I had two Michelin MXV4 Eco+ OEM stock tires that were worn and need of replacing. I followed suggestions of colleagues and Consumer Reports and bought two Falken Ziex ZE-512, and installed them on the front of my 1998.5 Turbo Passat Wagon. Although I kept the same size (195/65/R15) I was impressed immediately: much better handling, steering response, road feel, as well as seriously improved wet and dry grip. Extremely stable at 90mph+ speeds, and good cornering. After about 1000 miles however, I thought I had front-end or transmission problems, as there was this terrible WHOO=WHOO sound coming from the front. I took it to a shop and they said no trouble, just tire noise. Noise worsened, so took to VW dealer in Maine while on the road; they said that car was aligned perfectly per spec, but Falken tires were \"cupped\", and worn on the inside.

Car was on all seasons that were almost new(falken 912's). Going down the highway at 35 in 4th gear, I was running about 1k rpm and any touch of the gas would spin the tires. Starting on a hill was impossible.