Questions and Answers for the Bridgestone B250

2017-01-03 - Why are these listed under "all season" when they are most definitely not proper all season tires? (IE no M+S rating)

I have a set of these coming to the very end of their life on my Micra, and having been looking for replacements and checking what's on the sidewall etc, there's no actual winter accreditation on there, which is needed to class as all-season. As in a tire that isn't hopeless in warm, dry conditions, but is still legal to remain on the car through winter in countries that demand you fit winter tires in the colder months. Bizarrely, the pin-in-the-dictionary branded Chinese budget jobs on the rear DO have the M+S logo proudly stamped on them, but I trust that about as far as I can throw it whilst still attached to the car...
(I'm also skeptical about at least half of the other tires that came up on the "All Season" list for my size (175/60 R15) and it doesn't even seem entirely certain whether all of the results DO actually come in that fitment...)

FWIW, the rating stamp aside, they HAVE proven quite good in wintery conditions, or at least as much as we've had since I owned the car (about 18 months). Haven't ever much been short of grip, even on the frosty and sometimes icy (even if not snowy) roads we've had over the past few weeks, and I don't exactly drive like a grandmother... they've been punished, to the point that the shoulders have been rubbed bald with no chance of getting through another MOT, and the tread is probably down to 1.5mm by now, so I do intend to replace them within a week or two (it would have been earlier but what was initially going to be a quiet winter became very chaotic for a number of external reasons). Despite that, their straight line takeoff grip is about as good as can be expected for a narrow fitting on a FWD car with a lightweight engine, the available brake force is very good in all conditions (I'm pretty certain they've so far saved me from a couple of collisions of the type that did for my old Clio, i.e. someone pulling a sudden stop in front of you on an unexpectedly greasy road...), and the car corners far better than any Micra should be allowed to (I've driven a couple others before and they were like breezeblocks with pramwheels in comparison), almost as well as the Clio did on rather wider tires and with Renault's supernaturally grippy (though bone shattering) suspension setup. Seriously, I actually went for a play on the iciest day of the holidays to challenge the car's traction control and ABS on some nearby steep hills, and ended up being somewhat disappointed at how normal it all felt, even though walking around was a bit risky and you could still prompt it into a slide (and the ESP system into going absolutely bananas) with sufficiently violent control inputs. Even when I turned all the driver aids off and buried the throttle, there was some wheelspin, but the exit speed at the top of a particular climb was hardly any different overall. Other than that, the trac can only really be triggered with full throttle and harsh dumping of the clutch, usually when making a 90 degree turn out of a known-greasy junction, the ABS never cuts in unless you have to make an emergency stab at the pedal for some reason, and the ESP may as well not exist - in fact I didn't think the car had it until I badly misjudged a frosty corner about this time last year and suddenly found the car cornering more like a tank as the brakes automatically activated on just one side to slew it back into line. Basically in the dry they're indefatigable, reasonably good in the wet, and remarkable in winter for what are technically summer tires, and are reasonably quiet and soft-riding (can't really comment on their economy, as it's a crazily frugal car for a 1200cc petrol model thanks to its trick engine that uses VVT more for efficiency than power; however the MPG *has* nosedived of late when I've forgotten about the slow puncture one of them has picked up, so the tires do contribute *something* to that).

They even did fairly well at Download this year when the car park started to get boggy (literally had to borrow a fabric washer to get the interior clean again, and spent about a tenner at the jetwash to get all the mud off the exterior) and some poorly driven softroaders got stuck right at the main gate, backing everything up... we were instead able, 3-up and with shedloads of cargo, to bump, rumble and squelch our way to the back gate and onwards to freedom... basically the only thing I haven't tried them with is snow, and that's pretty much the only reason I'm not doing a like for like swap, because having been stranded in sudden snow before thanks to lack of grip, I want the assurance of something that has the three-peak stamp on it.

Which, despite all the above, they don't have, and therefore aren't legal where winters are mandatory.

Thank you for your input, we have recategorised the B250 as a summer tire

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