Dry grip is the most consistent positive for the Bridgestone Potenza RE050, with 19 favorable mentions against five criticisms. Tread life is equally split between 12 positive and 12 negative comments, with established-use accounts ranging from long service to disappointing replacement mileage. Wet grip is also closely divided, while steering feel, noise and comfort attract more criticism than praise. Noise concerns appear in six accounts, roughly one in seven, and uneven wear in five, around one in nine. Most reviews do not specify a life stage, and the one owner's later post concerns a different car, so it does not establish an ageing trend for one set. Across 46 reviews, the average score is 70.2%, with 24 positive and two below 40%.
What owners mention most counted across 43 reviews
The car was supplied with the RE050's, and they seemed to provide decent grip and weren't too noisy.
However, the wear on the front set wasn't great. 12.5K miles of mixed (sometimes spirited) driving and the fronts were on the wear marker and needed changing. (I replaced them with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, which have lasted ~14K miles but will need changing soon).
The rear tires have lasted to 27K miles, but have become quite noisy due to uneven wear (not necessarily the fault of the tire), so will be replaced soon as well.
I had these tires all round on my 350z and the wear on the rear tires was horrific, only covering 3000 miles before they needed replacing (other tires have lasted me 8000-14000 miles).
The grip in the dry was excellent, but in the wet could prove to be a bit dodgy sometimes with a tendency to aquaplane. The feedback from the tires was very good but they were not very progressive, providing a lot of grip in the dry but suddenly letting go when you reach the limit.
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I've covered about 35,000 miles using Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tires in this car and have covered around 14,000 miles on the current set and there is still a few thousand miles left yet. They seem fairly durable.
I'm not is a position to be able to compare them with other tires but I can say that on the Impreza they offer good grip in wet or dry conditions. As for comfort, it's hard to say as the roads I tend to drive on do not generally have good surfaces. Progressiveness - at legal speeds it's hard to get the Impreza sliding on the road but it never slides unexpectedly. I will most probably replace them with another set when the time comes as they haven't let me down yet, but I'm tempted by the Goodyear Eagle F1's for the wet weather performance. No complaints about the Bridgestones though.
WISHY WASHY DRY GRIP, POOR STEERING FEEDBACK, SLOGGISH RESPONSE. TENDANCY TO UNDERSTEER AND DRIFT IN CORNERS, NEVER REALLY DUG IN. WAY TOO HARD COMPOUND FOR SERIOUS SPORTS CAR GRIP. WET WEATHER PERFORMANCE 'SQUIRRELY' OVER WHITE LINES, TAR LINES, NO FEELING OF THE ROAD AT ALL IN HEAVY RAIN, UNDERSTEER BADLY IN THE WET.
PERVIOUS TYRES YOKOHAMA PARADA SPEC 2 - THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISON, THE YOKOS EXCEED THESE IN EVERY RESPECT.
Grip in dry good when new but faded badly after they were only about half-worn. Not nearly as long lasting as the P-Zero Asims that I replaced with them, only got 12k off them on fronts with pretty much all this being motorway driving. Road noise was very noticeable after not much wear. Would not be keen to buy again purely based on the wear rate.
This is my first Scooby and first 4 wheel drive so not sure what to expect for wear. Delighted to get 30K miles from the RE050 on an even mix of A road, B road and motorway driving.
I've no opinion on wear and wet grip yet but I can rate these in the dry, and how they feel compared to the RE040.
The sidewalls seem a fair bit softer than the RE040 which means you lose a slight amount of feel, this is still a very good tire for feedback though. They seem very bit as grippy and progressive as the 040 with the added bonus they don't take as long to warm up!
