The Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Run Flat draws its strongest owner criticism for a harsh ride, mentioned in well over half of reviews. Dry grip is the clearest positive, although it is not universally praised. Around a quarter of reviews criticises wet grip, and similar proportions mention noise or tramlining, with some describing the tire skipping over rough corners. Tread life is mixed, with more complaints than praise, while mid-life and end-of-life reports range from rapid wear to long service. Steering kickback and limited feedback are further recurring concerns, making comfort and confidence on uneven roads the main weaknesses.
What owners mention most counted across 136 reviews
Tap one to read only the reviews that mention it.
Owner ratings averaged from 147 ratings
Owner score49%
Dry Grip71%
Wear55%
Road Feedback55%
Wet Grip54%
Handling48%
Comfort32%
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Run Flat Reviews - Page 10
Bought the car in October and the dealer kindly replaced all tryes with Bridgestone Potenza's which I thought was kind of them. Just been in for an MOT and the front tryes have been worn away to nothing on the inside edge. 6+ mm across the rest of the tire. Have a on board tire pressure monitor which has not indicated any loss in pressure. BMW's excuse is they have been run on motorways under pressure. Remember to check your pressures regularly and then buy pirelli or goodyear or something else. Backs down to 3mm across the whole tire.
Shocking...bought my 325 tourer just over a year ago...rather sceptical about the run flats but the previous owner had thought sod it and put two standards tires on the front..sort of caught in the middle if I developed a flat but have managed just over 7000 in the yaer...the bridgestones are on the rear and have all the road holding of a pig in swill dip..
Okay dry weather and what you would expect anyway is not bad but rain holding is average and snow..forget it !
Done some homework today and I'm opting for 4 standard brand new Good Years all round with an extra investment of £60 for a 'skinny' replacement spare wheel that will take up next to nothing in space in the boot.
Run flats and Bridgestones especially...you can keep em !
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
I am very disappointed with these tires, but they came with my brand new BMW. Not quite sure why BMW doesn't offer better tires on an expensive top quality car. After 8000 miles the tread was down to approx. 40% on the rears. Tires drive nicely on a dry summer day with a good response on even roads. HOWEVER in wet weather they offer poor grip and even worse when the temperature drops down to zero and there is a bit of snow, then CAUTION as there is very little control, you are just sliding around. The tires are hard as a rock and quite noisy on the motorway. On uneven roads they are rather bouncy with the traction control light coming on frequently, which can be very irritating. When these tires need replacing I'll certainly shop for something more sensible.
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Bad, bad.
These tires do not last. Less than 20k miles is a joke. I could have accepted that if these tires were really excellent in other areas such as grip or noise - but they are not. In fact they are pretty bad in those areas too.
Get a grip BMW, and sort this mess out. I have had about 6 BMWs, and I am not thinking about another make simply because of this RFT mess.
Front tires are 225/40 R18W. I'd heard about run flats being hard. I hadn't quite expected them to tram line so badly (lorry grooves on motorways, uneven country roads, esp when wet, off camber straight roads). At times the wheel gets pulled from your grip nearly - as someone else noted. Tracking and wheel alignment were all fine in case you wonder, but when I changed the tires (after a decent 29000 miles), the shoulders were really badly warn (down to 2mm or less) but the center had maybe 5mm left. Some of this could be underinflation (but I check fairly often). Others have pointed out the hard sidewalls cause high shoulder wear, which I can believe. I've changed tires for Conti SC3 all round (not RF) and it's like having a different car. Much smoother and tramlining is mostly gone. I've sacrificed the run flat safety/convenience, but I don't think the technology works well enough yet. Bridgestone have announced the 3rd gen of run flats with less rigid sidewalls, so that might be worth a go in the future, but I don't like this generation one bit.
DROVE NEW CAR FROM SHOWROOM AND STEERING WAS IMMEDIATELY AWFUL. THOUGHT CAR WAS FAULTY BUT TOLD BY BMW THAT IT WAS NORMAL! THIS DID NOT BODE WELL. HARSH RIDE AND TRAMLINING OVER THE MOST MINOR ROAD IMPERFECTIONS. STEERING ALWAYS FEELS VERY NERVOUS AND TIRING TO DRIVE ON ALL BUT THE SMOOTHEST SURFACES.HAVE DRIVEN MANY CARS OVER 40 YEARS BUT THESE ARE THE WORST TYRES EVER. WHY DO BMW PERSIST IN FITTING THEM ?
Purchased Z4 summer 09 as long distance Touring car. Ride supposedly softened, relative to old model. Road noise is apparent, still feels harsh and tramlines over 'cats eyes', suspect Run-flats.
Last winter, under severe snow/ice conditions, while stationary on M20 back end broke away on camber and car slid onto center reservation. Pushed back onto carriageway by van drivers and moved to next junction where Police towed car up exit ramp and to hotel where it was parked up.
Have received promo from BMW advising that the winter spec tires should now be fitted as the Potenza's are not recommended in temperatures below +7 deg.C.
Am looking for alternative or different car.
I have to new Z4 335 Sdrive (59 plate). Car came with these tires. I dont realy have any thing to compare the tires against so will just say how i felt about the tires. Tires felt very hard (but that could be becase these are Run Flats). They do give a good feed back but am disapointed as to the lack of grip. In dry conditions they are good, but even then, everytime i tried to throw the car into a bend (or a roundabout), the car was almost out of control. On the motorway, they are noisy but do give good grip ... up to certain speeds. On a track when pushed to higher speeds, back of the car was all over the place (and thats not a good thing at 140mph+)
Good points for me were they lasted me 22000 miles (although the are finished now). Cant realy think of any other good points ....
I am getting Goodyear F1 Asymmetric's put in next weekend so will probably have a better idea. Will post how the tires compare ...
Had these tires fitted on a lease car for past 3 years. Good dry grip, not so good in wet if pushed. Tires noisy, and car jumps about with traction control coming on on bumpy dry roads. Wear well and precise cornering. However be warned, these have NO grip in ice or snow. A little bit of snow on cold road and car started drifting left and right. You will be stranded if you need to go slowly up a hill! Tire traction so poor in winter I contacted Bridgestone who verbally admitted tires have no traction on snow or ice, but would not confirm in writing. My opinion, you can buy better tires for the money - Fit standard michelins, pirelli etc and use Ultraseal so you don't get a flat. IF RWD car fit winter tires in winter
horribly hard and loud on the road , they have pretty good dry grip but wet grip is very very poor for a tire of this class and price i will never buy again they are terrible
There seems to be some hugely divergent views on this tire. They were fitted by BMW to my 645 when new and I've found them to be very good. The rears needed replacing after a pretty respectable 18,000 miles but the fronts lasted for an extraordinarily good 28,800 miles and probably could have been good for a bit more but for a bulge that mysteriously appeared in one of them. Comfort excellent; road noise negligable and this despite the car being a rag-top; and grip perfectly fit for purpose as I never feel that I'm about to loose control - but then I don't drive like a maniac, merely very briskly! Gets 9/10 from me - would have been 10/10 but for price. Despite this I'd buy again - and have already done so. Incidentally, for a goood price on any tire and free fitting at home or work I'd highly recommend www.event-tires.co.uk. They offer a BRILLIANT service.
