Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire Review [2023 Updated]

By Tire Expert, Joe Steffen

Were you searching all over the Internet for an unbiased, in-depth review of the Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S?

You have come to the right place. I will give you a review based on my nine-plus years of experience in the industry. My experience and knowledge, combined with feedback from real people like yourself, create the best tire reviews out there.

Most reviews on tires will tell you how great a product is and reiterate information found on the manufactures website. That will not be the case here. I will give you a complete understanding of the product to help you make the best decision for your needs.

Today I will review the Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S, an all-season high-performance tire manufactured by Falken Tires. It offers Falken exclusive technology that provides safe traction in cold and warm temperatures while being more durable in its lower profile tire sizes.

Falken states that this tire is built to offer optimum all-season traction, handling, and longest treadwear life from any of their high-performance tires. Manufactured in over one hundred sizes for a wide range of fitments, you will surely be able to find this tire for sports cars, passenger cars, or crossovers.

Now let’s see how well this tire stacks up to the competition!

Feel free to jump to any sections below if you want a specific review of this tire.

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Pros

Cons

Ratings

2.5

3.0

2.5

3.5

2.5

3.5

Wet Traction:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Dry Traction:

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Snow Traction:

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Ride Comfort:

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Handling:

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Ride Noise:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Hydroplaning:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Tread Life:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Value For $$$:

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Traction - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

When driving on the Falken Ziex ZE950 AS, you will notice the overall dry traction capability is quite nice. Thanks to the canyon sipe technology, they grip the road, especially in emergency braking situations.

Canyon sipe technology is fancy for zig-zag shaped siping that opens under force, grabbing the road to help maintain control.

Wet weather is lacking as it only has two wide circumferential grooves, which are meant to allow water evacuation. Still, when taking a closer look, one of the grooves has a rubber wall around it, preventing water evacuation.

No wonder I have received so many complaints from consumers about the wet weather traction.

I will say this tire will perform great for those in snowy areas. Falken uses exclusive dynamic range technology, which prevents the rubber compound from stiffening up in colder weather.

Thanks to the sculptured groove walls, the ability to pack snow in the tread makes a difference in light snow.

It is not a winter tire, nor does it have a three-peak snowflake rating, so if you are planning to drive on these in anything more than light snow, don’t be surprised if they don’t hold up and you find the vehicle sliding around like a hockey puck on ice.

Being a combination of having good snow and dry traction makes this a problematic tire to recommend. There will undoubtedly be rain where there’s snow, and wet weather traction is not this tire’s strong suit.

For safer all-around traction, I recommend the Hankook Ventus V2 Concept2.

Traction Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Ride Comfort - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

It seems that Falken tried to emphasize all-season traction so much that it forgot traction is not the only important aspect of a tire.

The Falken Ziex ZE950 all-season tire has an underwhelming ride comfort for a high-performance tire. The vibrations this tire produces will be noticeable on the low-profile tire sizes, especially if you install them on a vehicle with sensitive suspension like a BMW 3-series coupe.

The vibrations generated from this tire’s construction quality were always seen during installation. When I would install this tire and road force balance it, the runout would always be on the higher side. Road force balancing is a way of simulating the tire on the road. The computer looks for high points in the tire.

The high point in the tire is where the most amount of weight is centered on the tire. When a tire has a high runout, it means there’s more weight in one point than the standard amount. It will cause vibrations while driving.

The road force runout was never as bad on the higher profile sizes, so I gave it a slightly above-average ride comfort rating.

If you’re looking for a tire on a sports car, I would recommend the General G-Max justice as it provides a much smoother ride.

Ride Comfort Rating: 3.0/5

★★★★★ 3.0/5

Ride Handling - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

We get to look at what I believe to be a redeeming quality of this tire, the ride handling.

I can give this tire two different opinions because it comes in three variations under the same tire model, the H and V speed rating, and then there‘s the W speed rating. While the tread design is the same on all three options, the rubber compound differs.

Speed rating will determine not only the maximum speed a tire can travel before potentially defecting, but it will also help with how the tire handles using a different rubber compound.

The H and V speed-rated tires handle very similarly. Steering response, cornering, and maneuvering will feel like something is lacking, but overall, it is suitable for the vehicles they would go on.

I would contribute this to the sidewall construction that the H and V tires offer, as the W speed rating is designated for the lower profile sizes, which would go on higher-performance vehicles.

The W speed-rated tires can take corners like a champ. This tire outperforms its lower speed rating siblings, the majority thanks to their broader shoulder tread blocks on low profile sizing.

I recommend the W-rated option for a safer ride handling experience.

Ride Handling Rating: 3.5/5

★★★★★ 3.5/5

Ride Noise - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

The downside to this tire using an aggressive tread pattern is that it is more prone to irregular wear, and if I had a nickel for every time I saw this tire come in worn unevenly. I would have quite a few nickels.

When first installed, all is good, as is with most tires, but once you get a few thousand miles on them, you will more than likely hear a whirring in your car while driving down the road. I could almost compare it to an all-terrain tire.

The wide angled tread slots provide extra grip in the snow, which generates more road noise and makes it more prone to irregular wear. Larger tread voids invite road noise because more significant tread gaps equal less tread to absorb the road’s vibrations.

Falken did address this with the replacement tire of ZE950, the Falken Ziex ZE960 AS, which has a much quieter ride. Getting rid of the wide-angle tread slots and going to much thinner tread slots in the tread made this a much better tire.

I recommend going with the replacement of the ZE950 for a much quieter ride at the same price range.

Ride Noise Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Hydroplaning - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

It can be a terrifying ride for anyone who has ever been in a car that has hydroplaned. The scariest part of hydroplaning is that it could happen at any time while it’s heavily raining, you could be driving straight down the highway, and suddenly your vehicle starts to go sideways.

This Falken tire will cause hydroplaning on severely wet roads as the silica tread compound does not flex enough to open the siping up and suck the water off the road. It has a very stiff silica compound in the tire.

I had a customer come in who wanted to see if she needed new tires because she was sliding all over the road. I went out and looked at her tires. They still had over fifty percent tread life left, and I bet you could guess what tires she was sliding all over with. Yep, the Falken Ziex ZE950s.

While this tire may keep you from hydroplaning when new, I wouldn’t trust it to keep you safe as you continue to drive on it.

I recommend a much safer high-performance tire in the wet weather, the BF-Goodrich G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus.

Hydroplaning Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Tread Life - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

Falken’s performance tires were known around the shop for never receiving their total mileage. Almost any time a customer came in to replace them, you could bet money they didn’t get the mileage warranty.

This tire is rated for up to sixty-five thousand miles in the H and V speed rated options and forty-five thousand miles on the W speed rating.

On average, you will receive about thirty to forty-five thousand miles on the H and V-rated tires while getting twenty to thirty thousand miles on the W-rated tires.

As you can see, this is much shorter than expected.

When it comes to how well the rubber compound holds up, Falken tire does a great job of ensuring that it holds up and is not prone to premature dry rot.

While it is recommended to replace your tires every six years to avoid dried-out rubber compounds that can lead to tire failure, it won’t matter for the Ziex ZE950 because you will be lucky if you can get three years’ worth of miles on it.

If you were looking for a good value, high-performance all-season, I recommend the Sumitomo HTR A/S P03 as they come much closer to their mileage expectancy.

Tread Life Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Value For Money - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

Now it’s time we go over the part that matters to most of you. Is this tire a good value for the money?

The answer is no, and I compared this tire in price to the BF-Goodrich G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus, Falken Ziex ZE960 AS, and the Sumitomo HTR A/S P03. I shopped for prices on Amazon, TireRack, SimpleTire, and various other tire retailers.

The ZE950 has the lowest price partly because it is being phased out for its replacement, the ZE960.

This ZE950 was the least expensive, but it doesn’t make it a good bang for the buck. As we saw in tread life, this tire can wear out twice as fast as expected. Essentially you would buy two sets of the Falkens to get sixty-five or forty-five thousand miles depending on the speed rating.

You can pay a little more for one set of the other tire options and get the same mileage as two sets of the ZE950. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem like an excellent value to me.

I recommend any of the tires I compared it to for a better value on money spent vs. what you receive.

Value For Money Rating: 2.5/5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

Final Verdict - Falken Ziex ZE950 A/S Tire

Falken manufactures some very high quality products like the Falken WildPeak AT3W or the Falken Azenis RT615K Plus. With the quality of the product, I have seen it as a surprise that the Falken ZE950 did so poorly.

The Falken Ziex ZE950 had an above-average rating in ride handling, comfort, and dry and snow traction. You saw how low I rated the value, based on the fact you might not get even two years out of the tire, depending on your driving habits.

I compared this tire to the BF-Goodrich G-Force Comp-2 A/S Plus, Falken Ziex ZE960 AS, Sumitomo HTR A/S P03, and the Hankook Ventus V2 Concept2. The Falken Ziex ZE960 had the best overall price, value, and comfortable ride.

I recommend not buying the ZE950 tire, but if you have your heart set on the price, I recommend going with the Falken Ziex ZE960 A/S. The ZE960 is the replacement for the soon-to-be discontinued ZE950. They both use an asymmetric tread design, but Falken took everything the ZE950 lacked and improved it.

Meet Your Tire Expert

Joe Steffen

Joseph Steffen is a trusted expert in the tire industry, with nine-plus years of experience. He has worked as a tire installer, tire salesman, and more recently a writer for various companies, providing honest feedback and advice to those who need it.

Tire Recall Information

While I found no current recalls on the Falken Ziex ZE950 AS, I discovered that a different tire line had a recall. The Falken Ziex CT50 A/S, in size 255/50R20, is a tire that came as original equipment on certain vehicles.

It is a recall that has been closed since all affected tires have been remedied.

Falken tires do not frequently have recalls, as with most manufacturers, but I want to research them, so you have the most transparent understanding of what you are buying.

Warranty & Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Warranty Details

Tire Sizes

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are Falken tires made by?

Falken tires is their own tire manufacturing company, however they are owned by Sumitomo Rubber Industries(RSI), which is operated out of Japan.

Where are Falken tires made?

Falken tires are made worldwide, having manufacturing plants in multiple countries, including the United States.

Who makes the Ohtsu FP7000?

The Ohtsu FP7000 is manufactured by Ohtsu Tire. Ohtsu is a tire brand owned by Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI). SRI is the same company that owns the brand of Dunlop and Falken as well.