Bridgestone Potenza S001 Reviews - Page 5

CONS: Not great at dry braking (pretty similar to wet). Pretty uncomfortable on rough roads. Not good at dry maximum acceleration. ESP goes wild in almost any occasion: - 1st, 2nd gear accelerations uphill are very hard with and without ESP... Tires keep losing grip constantly. - Cornering uphill at 15% in 3rd gear doesn't put 100% of the power by keeping loosing grip on the outer wheel. Wet acceleration under any condition creates wheelspin, on 4th gear also, if the asphalt is irregular (chassi and suspension are alright, but the tires feel like plastic). Hard braking on 100+MPH speeds is very unstable. Overly dangerous feel on hydroplaning. PROS: Very good at dry and wet cornering. Going around roundabouts is pretty exciting (tires loose grip but point the car really good) Superior braking than acceleration capabilities provide a very satisfying and playful experience on mountain roads. Almost non existing noise/squeal while cornering at high speeds. Overall look: Very rough and uncomfortable with a bit harsh noise, but they sure make the car fun to drive. Wouldn't get them again for daily use, but if i ever consider having different wheel sets (17 inches for daily and long trips), these would probably be my choice for slick feeling tires. OBS: These are the factory tires, so I can't actually make a proper comparison or evaluation, but have driven similar cars with many different tires as a reference.

I have also got a pair of 225/40/18’s on the front. These tires get a lot of stick. They are runflats and with any run flat they are going to be a tad noisy. These tires have been on the car since new and covered 32k miles with 2-2-3mm of tread left (lot of motorway miles). Dry grip fantastic on a decent surface. If you go over bumps and the likes especially at speed you will have your back tested. Pot holes will give you a scare too. They are runflats though and all runflats I have owned over the years have the same comfort level. (I haven’t tried the driveguard ones yet as they only have specific sizes). In the right conditions though they are fantastic if your messing with 200bhp plus. On a dry day I wouldn’t hesitate to launch the car around a tight bend at speed as these things stick to the road well. These tires are 3 years old too and no puncture issues or damage. I have a new set going on the car next week.

These tires were already on my MK7 Golf GTI which has around 320bhp thanks to a few upgrades, but these tires are not capable of handling the increased power. Straight-line acceleration in any gear up to 3rd and sometimes even 4th causes the traction control light to come on and taking dry corners I would usually do at 60mph in my much slower Scirocco causes a lot of squeal on these tires at a tame 50mph in the Golf. These tires are also incredibly loud. Considering my Scirocco before (workhorse) had a mix of budget tires on it including some Avons which cracked within 12 months of having them and I thought they were noisy, I was looking forward to a quieter, more luxurious drive on these premium tires in the Golf, but unfortunately I've been quite disappointed. The tires are just too hard for fast road use, and are not a good solution for putting the power down on a mapped GTI, though I'm sure as a result the mileage would be great. Unfortunately I'm not getting on with them so will be changing to something grippier when I change wheels in the next few weeks.

These are oem tires fitted to a 2019 Mazda mx5. The car has 5000km's done, and mostly driven on city roads with the odd dual carriageway blast here and there.
My initial thoughts were that they felt like a hard compound tire. The rear wheels have lost traction when conditions were damp under mild acceleration numerous times. Traction control has kicked in a lot during wet weather. Car has skidded out sideways (a little) on many occasions, but not enough to cause serious concern, however its enough to warrant removal of tires.
On occasions where I've had to accelerate hard from a standstill these tires spun in wet and damp conditions,
But they managed to grip ok while dry.

Under normal weather conditions they perform adequately but still aren't a match for the calibre of the car they are fitted to.
Ive noticed poor road feedback at speed, high noise, and theyre not very accurate in terms of road position. The response is very slow and not confidence inspiring.
At times ive felt like my car is not a sports car. I've had landsail tires on a Hyundai coupe that performed better than these potenzas.

While road conditions are poor in my country, there's no excuse to be fitting these tires as oem equipment. Combining these tires to the Irish climate, Irish roads, and finally to a tail happy rear wheel drive car is asking for trouble.

I do not recommend these tires unless you live in a warm/moderate climate and only do motorway trips.
They are not suitable for my car or it's driving environment.
I will be changing these tires asap.