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 3
dear oh fecking dear ...these are truly the worst tire I have ever came across in nearly 30 years driving ....harsh , smashes over small bumps and uneven surfaces , I'm waiting for the windscreen to crack , grip in the dry is only just there , in the wet there is nothing ... just vagueness and nothing .... no grip , no feedback , nothing , It feels like the tires are made of hard plastic like you get on a kids toy .dangerous too , over bumps and potholes makes the whole car skip sideways , or worse on a big roundabout with expansion gaps .. the car skids a foot sideways everytime you drive over a gap .... never , ever , ever ever , never , ever again ............never
Member
BMW
255/35 R19 V
A Combination of Roads
Average
These came with my bmw 335i convertible m sport purchased a month ago. Initially seemed OK on test drive but when able to try them at speed seemed to skip on slightly less than perfect motorway surfaces.felt like they had 80psi of cement in them
On wet roundabouts it's the first car I've ever drifted inadvertently. Anyway one punctured yesterday on a country road while overtaking crossing a line of studs and after limping at 20 mph for 5 miles I had no choice but to get a tow truck to get me home safe. The inner wall completely shredded.
Replaced today with anything but Bridgestone. Never again.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
Bought them this summer and was really surprised by the performance, even more when i was looking at the test result's.
In my oppinion it's a better tire than the test's show.
Did have the old RE050A and was pleased with them also.
With the RFT a can corner harder, the car isn't so soft, it corners great and the road feedback is good.
They are little more harder and noisy but hey, that's the price for paying if you want your car to go as on railroads ;)
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Never again!!! Worst tire I have ever tried. These are the BMW OEM choice on the BMW Z4 E89 and are useless on a car with any sort of sporty characteristics. Dry grip is only average but the biggest problem is in the wet. If you are brave enough to go out in the wet you in your Z4 you better have your car insurance and your private medical insurance up to date as it is very likely you will need to use them. Also the lack of steering feel and grip in the wet is absolutely frightening and these tires should be illegal.
I will also mention the wear which was terrible too and I've only managed 15,000 miles out of brand new set which the dealer fitted before I bought the car.
But the biggest problem with these especially for E89 owners on 19 inch alloy wheels (style 296 and 326) are the very stiff side walls which have caused many rear alloys to crack (including one of mine) and BMW in UK are not accepting the responsibility unlike BMW in USA who have issued a recall.
BMW fitted them when I bought my pre-owned 2012 320d coupe in January 2016. I tried to specify none runflats but they insisted that these are standard fitment, they had to go on or I wouldn't get any new tires.
As many other people have mentioned the ride quality is just woeful. I have the 19" sport plus wheels and cringe whenever I drive over a pothole, grid, manhole cover, broken tarmac etc. It feels like an alloy is going to crack or dent but I have been lucky so far. Parts of the interior trim rattle or creak as there is no forgiveness in the tire whatsoever.
In terms of grip levels and handling, the tires are OK. Wet performance is quite bad, dry is quite good. They do not inspire me with confidence in any condition however. I am a highly trained driver due to my career and feel the Hyundai's, Peugeot's, Focus's and even vans on mid-range tires have much better feel and predictability.
After around 12000 miles the rears are nearing the wear indicators. I intend to replace all 4 this week and have been researching Goodyear Eagle F1 assymetric 3 and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. As for the Bridgestones they have about 6mm of tread on the front and 2.5mm on the rear. If this review hasn't put you off enough then they'll be on EBay very soon.
These tires came factory fitted to my new BMW m135i. I've struggled with them for two and a half years, and am so sorry that I didn't bin them at least two years ago. They were my first experience with runflats, so I assumed that the awful hard 'stone wheels' effect of the car, and the even more awful handling and grip was a combination of runflats, and the car's hard suspension. It got to the stage where I almost got rid of the car and went back to a golf Gti. How wrong I was. I've just changed to Michelin PS3 runflats and the car feels fantastic, like a completely new vehicle. Now I'm having my honeymoon again with the m135i and it feels and handles like I expected it to when I first bought it. It doesn't feel so hard over the tiniest road bumps, it grips like stink in the dry or wet, and I get great feedback. I can't understand in hindsight how BMW ever fitted these awful things to such a wonderful, and well designed driver's car. This should be a scandal on the scale of VW's emission fiddling. Who knows there may be some dirt there?
So I have had my 335i M Sport with 19" alloys running on the run flats for the past 4 years and have cracked the alloys on all 4 corners. Welded some and cracked them again. I have had to buy a full set of used wheels as replacements. I put the harshness of the ride due to the RFTs but never changed to regular tires in this time as I heard you needed all 4 doing and they wore in pairs and was also concerned about possible insurance issues. So anyway I needed all four tires doing together and looked into the RFT issue properly and contacted my existing insurer Tesco and the one that I am changing to Axa and asked them about RFTs. They both said the same thing - it does not count as a modification if you use the same tire size so that killed that myth.
I changed all 4 for the mid range Falkens and all I can say is wow what a difference! It is so much better in every aspect, most importantly the ride. The handling is also better - it turns in better and traction control less likely to kick in as it doesnt "bounce" off imperfections in the road like it used to. Time will tell will if it will stop the cracking of the wheels but it certainly feels like it should help. My advise to anyone else in the same boat is just ditch them asap. Got a set of 4 Falkens for not much more that the 2 Bridgestone RFT rears and they are so much better. Just wish I'd done it sooner as really the RFTs spoiled my enjoyment of what is otherwise a cracking car. I cant believe BMW still fit RFTs to their cars. Disgraceful.
When buying from previous owner 3 of 4 tires needed changing due to the sidewalls collapsing and bulging. I put this down to potholes and spirited driving from the previous owner. I wrongly assumed that BMW supply cars with these tires because they're good quality and work well on the car!
In my experience ( a few very long motorway journeys and many short ones on country roads) they wear well, but are prone to damage. 1 x Side wall rupture and 2 x side walls bulging on tires with at least a year's life left in them. So an expensive tire becomes even more expensive. I've had no punctures though.
The driving experience is abysmal. Driving on new tires is scary. Once bedded in, the tires are noisy, harsh, crashy, and tramline in the dry. In the wet there is very little grip. Feedback is poor, going from grip to slide and grip again in an instant. In a big heavy car, this seriously sucks away your confidence when turning into a corner, especially in the wet.
With my latest two tire replacement, I'm switching to Continental SSRs. Roughly the same price. Hopefully better performance.
These were on the car when I bought it and though they weren't brand new they were 'almost new'.
Set on the rear lasted around 25k miles and the front lasted ~40k (down to the legal limit). They're a fairly firm tire, you will feel all the bumps in the road (though i believe this is a problem with all run flats) and they don't give a huge amount of confidence if driving quickly e.g. country lanes, roundabouts etc. However, no problems with them 'cruising' long distances on the motorway.
95% of my driving is motorway and if you're in a similar position i'd definitely recommend these for their longevity; i wouldn't recommend them for someone who likes to push their car (then again; i wouldn't recommend run flats altogether if that's your driving style).
