Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Sizes & review

If you lose traction with these tires on your car it is because of driver error or you are driving outright dangerously. These tires have never lost grip in any of my hooligan driving. When wet driving conservatively will still give you the traction you need. Then again you should not be driving dangerously in wet and snow anyway. My only complaint is the inability to use these tires during winter, but that was my mistake purchasing a front wheel drive car in a place where it snows every winter.10/10 will purchase again.

I daily drive this car on highway and on local roads in Maryland, with lots of spirited driving mixed in. Very impressive traction and handling in the first 15-20,000 miles. After that, the tires were due for replacing. By around 24,000 miles, I was past the wear bars, which is plenty enough life for me out of a max performance summer tire. I’m at 27,005 miles now and have purchased new tires to be installed in a couple days. Wet performance was also pretty good not as impressive as dry traction perhaps compared to other tires. Unfortunately, it’s also a very expensive tire which is why I won’t be getting this tire again.

Good tire for dry roads once you get a few miles on them, but maybe not as good as comparable Michelin – perhaps because harder rubber compound but not exactly sure. Not great steering on wet roads with the light front end on a rear drive heavy rear end 911. Rear tires worn out on inner edges because of the way the 911 sits with heavy rear end but lasted to 11,000 miles with some “spirited” driving which is pretty good. Front tires still good at 11,000 miles.

These came stock on the chevy ss.They are right for this car. Very predictable dry and wet. Road abnormalities will cause them to pull a bit but I think thats more to do with the size of the tire and charicteristics of the car. Wear is no problem. I occasionally spin the rear. I don’t drage race and don’t abuse the car. I drive it in it’s compfort zone which, since it has a corvett engine, is broad. Although there are tires with better grip, I like the feel of a little give when I work the courners.Also these tires have good road transmission so I can feel whats going on.The biggest negative for me is the price (OEM) . That is the major turn off and will probably mean the similar tire but not OEM, or an all season since I drive through cold weather occasionally.

Just switched off a set of RE050A after 30,000 miles on a Fiesta ST. Decent tread wear, still had a bit left at 30K. Very grippy in the dry and wet. I ran them through a couple of New Jersey winters as well and the performed half decent in slush and snow which was a surprise. Two complaints. Steering stability was awful. Lots of tram lining and the car was very darty and unstable in any type of bumpy corner. Ride quality is awful. Like riding on four bricks. Just mounted a set of BFG All Season comp TA, 205/45/17 on the stock rims and wet/dry traction appears similar but the stability and ride are greatly improved. Ultimate dry traction may give up some with the All Seasons but this is a street car, not used on track.

These tires in the dry are incredible. I literally can not get them to break traction, no matter what I do. A handbrake turn won’t even get them to squeal. However, as soon as the rain starts or the leaves begin to fall, watch out. Traction in the wet is limited to put it nicely, and when you add in leaves on the ground and smatterings of muddy puddles, you can pretty much forget about driving quickly. We had our first snow unexpectedly early, and I did not have any winter tires, so I drove on these. I got stuck in my own driveway. In less than an inch of snow. Going uphill in my neighborhood I got passed by a prius as I began to slide backwards. I’m not faulting the tire for its poor performance in the snow- it was not designed to be used in the snow and this is explicitly stated in its description- I am merely offering my experience as a word of warning to any other drivers who think they might be able to skate by using a summer tire in late fall through early spring. Late April to early November, this tire is the best tire I’ve ever used, and I highly recommend it as long as you’re willing to switch to winter/snow tires for the winter.

Great good weather tire. Definitely bad in the snow