BMW E91 320d Sport Plus Touring Tires

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Tire Reviewed Dry Grip Wet Grip Feedback Handling Wear Comfort
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Run Flat (143) 72% 54% 55% 48% 55% 32%

BMW E91 320d Sport Plus Touring Tire Review Highlights

Writing about the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Run Flat given 27% (255-35-18-W)
Driving on a combination of roads for 3500 spirited miles
These tires are awful!

I bought the car 7 weeks ago, and have covered 3.5k bone shaking miles in it, before making the expensive decision (only because the rears are virtually brand new) to remove them and go to non-runflats.

Don't get me wrong, if you're driving on a freshly laid, billiard-table surface like road, then the RE050A RFT actually provides brilliant levels of grip wet or dry, however that's where it ends...

On any normal UK road (read 3rd world), they tramline, steer themselves and crash into pot holes and bumps with such ferocity that I thought I'd cracked a wheel or broken my suspension every time it happened. You have to constantly correct the steering on uneven road surfaces, which becomes somewhat tiring after a while. Hit a bump, pothole or manhole cover on a bend and you'll soon get used to seeing the traction control light and recovering from the back end skipping out...

Rather than paying attention to my surroundings, I felt that I was having to constantly check the road surface right in front of the car to avoid any hazard, which doesn't inspire confidence, and doesn't feel at all safe.

I'll class feedback and progressiveness together, as apart from the nasty feedback outlined above, there seems to be none to let you know when the tires are going to let go. I never felt that I knew what the limit of the tire was, as in ideal conditions they seemed to just grip and grip, to a point where I didn't realise my speed through twisty stuff and backed off because of the worry of crashing!

They were damn noisy, so much so that I had put the car in to have a front wheel bearing checked, which the dealer put down to uneven wear on the tire. I guess that 34k with the fronts showing 4mm at the centre would be great, if the outside edge hadn't worn right down because of the stiff sidewall.

If I could give them 0/10 for comfort I would - my back hurts now.

These are my first, and last experience with Bridgestones, and the RE050A RFT has put me off ever buying a Bridgestone tire again.

As mentioned at the beginning of my review, I took the decision to go for non-runflats after extensive research. Even though BMW officially say that the cars are tuned for run flats, my initial feelings are that the tires and suspension are working in harmony now, with the car feeling more settled on all surfaces.

I'll give a proper review of the new tires, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 after I've put a few thousand miles on them, as it wouldn't be fair to do that now.

To summarise, the RE050A is an appalling tire. I feel that because of the way you have to adapt your driving style to compensate for their ultra-stiff sidewalls far outweighs the safety benefits BMW harp on about.

The last puncture I had was about 15 years ago, and I cover 25-30k per year, so I'll make do with a ContiComfort Kit and dirty hands, or in the worst case wait for the AA to come and get me in the event of a blowout.

Thanks for reading.
tire reviewed on 2013-03-25 03:40:31
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