Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S vs Falken Azenis FK460 A/S tires

In the world of all-season tires, Bridgestone and South Korea’s Falken are both very well-respected brands. Both manufacturers have had a presence for decades and have been the first to introduce several tire innovations. Both also have a lengthy track record in the motorsports world that carries over into their automotive tire designs. Both have several tires that are selected as OEMs from the factory on many high-end vehicles.

All-season tires account for a full 84% of tire sales in the United States. They’re the biggest-selling category since they make such a good, versatile solution for most drivers. Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S and the Falken FK460 A/S are good object lessons of what a modern performance-oriented all-season tire design is all about, them being Ultra-high performance (UHP) all-season tires.

While these UHP all-season tires do share some common ground in terms of design and performance, they also have some material differences. In the course of this head-to-head comparison, you’ll see us make frequent reference to the SimpleScore numbers of these two tires. SimpleScore is the proprietary ranking system the SimpleTire team has developed to give you a quick overview of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We look at specs, reviews, and other data points and distill that into numerical scores for traction, handling, longevity, and an average SimpleScore. For the Bridgestone and the Yokohama, the SimpleScore ratings are as follows:

Bridgestone Potenza A/S Sport:

• Traction: 9.3
• Handling: 9.3
• Longevity: 8.9
• Overall average SimpleScore: 9.1

Falken Azenis FK460 A/S

• Traction: 8.6
• Handling: 8.7
• Longevity: 9.0
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.7

Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S tires

The Bridgestone Potenza family of tires has been around for some time now, and the Potenza Sport A/S is one of the newer additions to that lineup. This performance-oriented tire is designed to give you the kind of steering response, cornering ability, and braking you’d expect from a UHP tire, delivering pulse-pounding excitement on demand, along with dependable year-round traction and versatility for quotidian daily-driver duties.

The Potenza Sport A/S starts from the ground up with Bridgestone’s PeakLife polymer-blend tread formulation, engineered for long, even wear properties and excellent traction on wet or dry pavement. Handling and cornering are admirable, with the Bridgestone’s large shoulder blocks that are reinforced to resist tread squirm and deformation during hard cornering or quick maneuvers. Straight-line stability is solid and steering response is light and quick, thanks to the Potenza Sport A/S’s solid center rib. The Potenza Sport A/S is covered by Bridgestone’s 50,000 mile manufacturer’s tread life warranty.

Circumferential and lateral grooves work as a system to resist hydroplaning by efficiently routing water out of the tire’s contact patch for better wet-weather grip. A strategically designed pattern of full-depth 3D sipes multiplies the tire’s surface area and traction by adding hundreds of extra biting edges that slash through snow, slush, and standing water. The Potenza Sport A/S's internal design features a polyester carcass with a high-turnup sidewall, two steel belts, and a spiral-wound nylon cap layer for rock-solid stability on the highway. Its tread pitch and shoulder slots are randomized and computer-tuned to help suppress road noise for a quiet ride. SimpleTire’s list price on the Potenza Sport A/S starts at $179.99/tire.

Falken Azenis FK460 A/S tires

Here at SimpleTire, just about everything from the Falken tire lineup has made a pretty good impression on you, and the Azenis FK460 A/S is no exception. The Falken Azenis FK460 A/S is a tire that gives you confident performance year-round, with a consistent level of grip in all kinds of weather thanks to its next-generation 4D nano tread compound. While the performance and traction of most tires will start to drop off as tread depth wears down, the innovative Emerging Grooves system of the Azenis FK460 A/S is designed for the grooves to open up and expand for extended performance even as tread depth gets thinner. The Canyon Groove design and circumferential grooves with chamfered edges are designed for consistent, reliable grip in wet or wintry conditions, working as a system to deliver the traction you count on. Falken covers the Azenis FK460 A/S with a 50,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty, thanks in part to the superb wear properties of that 4D Nano tread compound. Steering response, cornering, road manners, and braking performance are all quick and precise with this tire.

We should also mention that the Azenis FK460 A/S has a quiet, accommodating design on the highway, with acoustically tuned grooves to keep road noise to a minimum as they negate certain frequencies and cut wind noise. SimpleTire’s price on the Falken Azenis FK460 A/S starts at $140 per tire.

Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S vs Falken Azenis FK460 A/S tires on traction

With a traction SimpleScore of 9.3 for the Bridgestone and 8.6 for the Falken, this one’s not all that close. We should note here that while both are all-season tread designs, neither tire has the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake rating for severe winter service or the M+S certification for mud/snow traction. Both tires do a good job of resisting hydroplaning in wet weather, but the PeakLife tread compound of the Potenza Sport A/S gives it a definite edge on wet pavement. That plays out in the form of shorter braking distances and improved grip on dry pavement as well, and the sipe network of the Bridgestone also gives it an advantage in light snow (although it’s not designed as an all-weather or winter tire). Our call:

ADVANTAGE: Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S

Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S vs Falken Azenis FK460 A/S tires on handling

How do the Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S and Falken Azenis FK460 A/S stack up against each other when it comes to handling? The Bridgestone registers a SimpleScore of 9.3 in comparison to 8.7 for the Falken. Although both tires are capable and precise in their handling, cornering, and steering response, Bridgestone’s decades in the motorsports world influence this tire’s design. As any vehicle rounds a corner, the momentum and weight try to keep it going in the same direction, and a tire that’s not designed with enough rigidity will distort and experience “tread squirm,” with the inboard side of the tread even leaving the pavement completely sometimes. The large, reinforced shoulder blocks and high-turnup sidewall of the Potenza Sport A/S ensure that it’s rigid enough to resist that deformation and deliver handling that’s predictable and quick, and the solid center rib gives the Bridgestone steering response that’s light and immediate without being overly sensitive and jumpy. Our decision:

ADVANTAGE: Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S

Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S vs Falken Azenis FK460 A/S tires on longevity

When it comes to longevity, it’s usually the limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage that tells the whole story, and in this case, both the Bridgestone and the Falken have identical 50,000 mile warranty coverage behind them. They’re almost identical when it comes to SimpleScores in the longevity category too, with 8.9 for the Bridgestone and 9.0 for the Falken. It’s nearly a tossup, but our decision has to go to:

ADVANTAGE: Falken Azenis FK460 A/S

When to use each

As we said right from the start, all-season tires make the most sense as a Jack-of-all-trades, one-stop-shopping solution for most drivers. That means handling that’s solid and manageable, composed road manners, a quiet and comfortable ride, long wear, and sedate stability on the highway. The only area where these tires somewhat fall apart on the job is in deeper snow, like the heavy snow that piles up for several inches and stays around on the roads for days on end. If that sounds like it would check most of the boxes for your situation and your expectations for a tire, then you really can’t go wrong with either the Bridgestone or the Falken. If, on the other hand, you have to contend with tough winter driving or you like to push your vehicle’s performance envelope to the absolute limit, maybe winter tires would be a better choice.

Which one should you choose?

Now, as always, we come to the moment of truth. These are two tires that, despite how they look from the disparity in SimpleScores, are both competent premium UHP all-season tires. Both tires are dependable and deliver confident handling and traction, although the Bridgestone does demonstrate a bit of an advantage in those two aspects. Both have identical 50,000 mile limited manufacturer’s tread life warranties, making them good values in the long run. However, you’ll find several more Bridgestone service centers around, in comparison to those for Falken. Think of Bridgestone as an old warhorse and Falken as a relatively new entrant, which again tilts the balance in the former’s favor.

With the above in mind, let’s look at the price points: $178.99 per tire for the Bridgestone Potenza Sport A/S vs $140 per tire for the Falken Azenis FK460 A/S. It’s our opinion that the Bridgestone’s quality and performance are good enough to justify the extra money, but you would likely not be disappointed with the Falken either. Let’s just put it this way: if you can afford the Bridgestone, then go with that tire. If you’re on a bit of a budget and balk at the extra $40 per tire, go with the Falken.