Bridgestone Potenza S001 RFT Reviews - Page 3

SEAT (225/45 R18 T) on for 20 spirited miles
My Seat Leon St Fr came from the dealer with this tires. I drive cars for the last 20 years on multiple cars and tires. This model of Bridgestone is THE WORST TYRE i had ever.
It is a scary tire. You have no confidence in it. On mountain curvy roads you have to be carefull to not lose grip and end in the other lane. It does not feel that is sticking to the road. A strange feeling that you lose grip everytime. Feels like PLASTIC.
On wet you go slow and carefull. Period. No trust on it.
Really noisy. In the cabin of Seat i hear much more tire noise with Bridgestone than in my wife’s car Opel Corsa with Continental. And Corsa is not sound insulated at all.
I have them for six months, i can not tell about the wear.
Finally: noisy,no grip in wet, scary on dry, makes you drive very vigilent every time.
Helpful 39 - tire reviewed on October 12, 2019
Given 50% while driving a BMW 120i M Sport (225/40 R18 W) on a combination of roads for 14,000 average miles
Dry: Good tire in dry conditions and normal driving, but they very loud and the ride is very harsh when the asphalt is not perfect.
Wet: Spirited driving in wet conditions is not really possible, the tires lose grip easily even under moderate acceleration in corners and have a hard time getting traction when accelerating.
Wear: The wear seems good, 7mm tread left all around after roughly 11.000 miles (18.000 km).

Tires were replaced after 11k miles by non-RFT tires due to the harshness / wet traction / high noise issues.
Helpful 27 - tire reviewed on September 23, 2019
Given 63% while driving a BMW 230i (225/40 R18 W) on mostly motorways for 30,000 spirited miles
These came as standard fit on my 230i, 225/40/18/88Y fronts and 245/35/18/88Y rears. First time I have experienced Bridgestone run flats. Dry grip was very good, wet grip nothing more than average. However the first thing I noticed was the noise - very loud. Had Michelin PS2 ZP on my E92 325i and that tire was so much quieter and offered far better wet grip. Back to the Bridgestones and wear is very good, got over 30K from rears and still a few mm of tread left on the fronts. Most of my mileage is motorways but does include quite a few spirited B road blasts. Wouldn't buy again, and will look for something a little softer with better wet weather grip and hopefully a bit quieter.
Helpful 26 - tire reviewed on August 30, 2019
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BMW X2 sDrive 20i M Sport X (225/45 R17 W) on mostly motorways for 1,000 spirited miles
Compare to Continental Contact 3 & 5 RFT I drove on 328i earlier, this one is certainly better than them, but not as good as Goodyear Efficient Grip RFT in terms of comfort and wet grip. Dry grip on S001is way better, similar to those non-run flat. Harshness on bump is unbearable, rolling noise is tremendously high. It came with the car, is a waste to dump it but I certainly will replace it after 10,000 km. The only thing good about this tire is dry grip, nothing else!
Helpful 22 - tire reviewed on May 11, 2019
BMW (255/35 R19 W) on a combination of roads for 25,000 average miles
I have found the Bridgestone Potenza runflat's on my BMW 425d to be noisy and this has got worse as they have worn. The ride is very firm and you feel every blemish in the road. The grip is very average in the dry and not good at all good in the wet. Wear rate has been good, 25k miles so far and still some life, but will change soon to a different brand.
Helpful 23 - tire reviewed on March 15, 2019
Given 51% while driving a BMW 218d Active Tourer (225/40 R19 W) on mostly town for 11,000 spirited miles
Came as standard on my BMW 440i. My main gripe is wet grip. For example, even with modest throttle, these tires spin on anything but bone-dry tarmac so I have absolutely no confidence accelerating from junctions in damp or wet conditions. Similarly, I have found them squirmy and easily slippable under braking in the wet. They seem fine in the dry with reasonable straight line grip and progressive grip under cornering but for UK conditions, I couldn’t recommend them.
Helpful 21 - tire reviewed on February 25, 2019
Given 49% while driving a BMW 330 (225/45 R17) on a combination of roads for 25,000 spirited miles
Got 18000 miles from the rear, 25000miles from fronts in 330E BMW.
My main complaint is that over roundabouts the fronts would squeal horribly at relatively low speeds and understeer a lot.

I preferred the tires when the outer edges of the fronts had worn away. They no longer squealed and gripped better. -I think this is more to do with the BMW suspension setup though (M sport suspension, 17" tires
Helpful 26 - tire reviewed on October 31, 2018
Given 94% while driving a BMW 218d Active Tourer (225/40 R19 W) on mostly motorways for 10,000 average miles
These tires came with the car when purchased and the car had covered 23,000 miles and had approx. 6mm on the fronts 225/40/19 and 6mm on the rears 255/35/19 Run flats.

Being used Audi's with the S Line suspension I had no issues with run flats as they are both quite stiff and you can feel the road when you hit a pot hole and in general driving, so the Audi S line set up is similar to BMW run flats.

I do approx. 90% motorway driving and have had no issues with the tires, they are smooth on flat new surfaces, they grip well in the dry and are very progressive. On rough surfaces yes, you can feel that they are run flats but again this was the same on my previous Audis. In the wet they handle very well however the car is X Drive so the handling should be good in all conditions.

What has really impressed me is the wear rate I have now hit 33,000 miles so 10,000 since owning the car and driving on these tires and they are on 4mm at the front and 5/6 mm on the rears so excellent wear rate so far.

Overall nice tires, good grip wet or dry and excellent wear rate so I can’t complain.
Helpful 21 - tire reviewed on October 16, 2018
Given 50% while driving a BMW M240i (225/45 R17) on a combination of roads for 10,000 spirited miles
Really struggled with these tires, which came as standard on the car, a 2017 BMW M240i.
Did several track days, and experimented with wildly varying pressures to try and find some kind of decent compromise between extreme outside wear and grip. Low pressures gave the best track times (~2.2bar) but they wore very quickly, all the way over the edge of the tire, scraping off the Bridgestone marking. Totally inadequate grip for the power of the car, but good for practicing throttle control with DSC off.
They tramline horribly, to address this I ended up running at 3bar, which gave the most comfortable feel for normal daily driving.
Very good wet traction though, and completely adequate for road use, but not a good tracking option
Helpful 24 - tire reviewed on August 25, 2018
Given 70% while driving a (225/45 R17) on a combination of roads for 2,000 spirited miles
Got this tires cheap from a friend upgrading his BMW 1-series tires.
I really like the steering feels and feedback from this tire, really spot-on and direct compared to my previous Continental CSC3 SSR (yeah i use runflats). Perhaps this is due to its stiff sidewall which the CSC3 was lacking.
Dry grip is fine but not great, wet is a bit scary, especially after the thread has worn out to maybe 50%.

In summary:
Likes: Steering feedback and feels, dry grip, progressive feedback on traction
Dislikes: wet grip,noise
Helpful 19 - tire reviewed on April 2, 2018
Given 66% while driving a BMW 320D MSport Tourer XDrive (225/45 R18 W) on mostly country roads for 8,000 average miles
After 12 years of RFT experience on an e90 BMW now have S001s on an F31 320d Msport xdrive. They are the most comfortable RFT tire to date but that may be due to BMW rather than the tire. Over 12m use I have found a real variance in the ride quality dependent on temperature, in UK winter they are back to traditional hard RFT ride, but in Summer much better. The main reason I would not buy them again is due to the tramlining and general wandering on heavily used UK roads, on freshly surfaced roads the car tracks dead straight so I know it’s not the car at fault. I last experienced this with Bridgestone RE050 RFTs, cured on my E90 by switching to Conti sport contact in 3 and then 5 guise, so it’s a Bridgestone problem.
Helpful 24 - tire reviewed on January 28, 2018
Given 46% while driving a BMW X1 X Drive (225/45 R19) on mostly motorways for 8,000 spirited miles
Low profile 22545 r19 run flats; rough ride, slightest road imperfection rattles the entire X1. They do corner well, hope they wear fast like other reviews, can't wait to replace with a more comfortable (non-runflat) all season tire. Summer tires won't work at all even in light snow.
Helpful 18 - tire reviewed on December 28, 2017