Owners most consistently praise the Bridgestone Blizzak LM005 for strong wet-road performance, with around half highlighting secure wet grip and only a handful disagreeing. Dry grip is also commonly rated better than expected for a winter tyre, while opinion on snow traction is far more mixed, splitting owners almost evenly depending on conditions and expectations. The biggest drawback is durability: around two in five owners report fast wear (often with performance dropping as the tyre ages), and roughly three in ten mention noticeable road noise, with a smaller group also finding it weak on ice.
What owners mention most counted across 103 reviews
Fitted to a 2l and 3l Q5 for UK routine drives and ski season trips to the Alps.
Outstanding on a larger SUV, outstanding. Infinitely better than the Conti TS870. It seems far more capable of controlling the bulk of an SUV, felt extremely safe for fast, spirited driving in any condition.
UK roads are wet, greasy, slippery and the ambient temperature is cold during the winter months. The UK road surfaces have far less grip than roads on the continent. I feel this is why the Bridgestone rubber compound thrives over the Continental compound and I hope Johnathan can reflect this in his reviews in the future. On a French autoroute or smooth German A roads, the TS870 will make an SUV feel like a saloon whereas the Blizzak will always feel like a dedicated winter tyre, but for UK roads (and in the snow in the Alps) then the Blizzak is outstanding for SUVs.
Excellent tires. Super comfortable. Very direct. Pleasure to drive. Excellent grip. Wouldn't mind driving on them in England for the whole year. Wonderful in wet. Precise in dry. Had Grabber GT Plus before, compering to them, Bridgstone were a few times better, maybe not in wear, but in the rest, for sure.
Morning ice on English road, no problem.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tyres perform against premium summer and winter tyres!
I had very little snow and ice conditions here in Zagreb/Croatia and that was the reason why I bought Bridgestone lm005 and except of tyre wear everything else was just as you reviewed it couple od years ago.
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I absolutely loved it for the first two seasons! Superb braking and sharp handling in the wet is clearly what this tyre is designed to do. They made the car feel very playful in the city and both confident & quiet when it hit the road. No real problems on snowy uphills and driving through heavy slush during this time. In dry weather the tyres were pretty okay - nothing spectacular but the handling and braking does get worse as it gets warmer (above 10 Celsius).
My biggest problem with these tyres is their excessive treadwear over time which quickly degrades the properties of an otherwise brilliant tyre. When I put them on for the third (and final) season we finally got some heavy snow and ice on the roads and I could feel that they started to struggle with moving and braking, especially on compacted snow/ice. Once the thread was about 4.5mm the tyres became noticeably louder and there was a sharp decrease in wet performance. After 3 seasons, at the 4mm mark the tyres no longer inspire any confidence and simply need to be replaced.
I'd say the LM005 are a good option, although quite an expensive one in the long run. Great tyre for Central European winters in a daily car i.e. where wet performance in the cold is the single most important criteria, but snow/ice capabilities simply cannot be ignored like in the case of milder climates. One can clearly see that Bridgestone pushed for the EU label (A in wet braking) but compromised heavily on treadwear and the total-life concept other brands are known for. Bridgestone seems to have paid the price for this in recent tests where it was devaluated for excessive wear - question is whether consumers are willing to pay the higher price too ;)
The worst tire I have ever owned. On snow and ice, it is entirely useless. I cannot even start to drive on a few degree inclines. Braking is atrocious. Decent in wet though.
Good for the first 2 seasons ~ 15 000 miles.
Don't really feel good when the temperatures get over 15C⁰ and the chunks start tear especially on the highway.
Brilliant Winter tire for mild climate (German winter), mindblowing performance in the wet. Aquaplaning only occurs far beyond legal speeds and confidence levels are huge. No experience in the snow so far. Dry grip and handling are also very pleasant for a winter tire. They do have a lot of initial lateral flex, which needs some getting used to compared to UUHP summer tires. Effectively this means there is a little bit of nonlinear feel around the straight line. But it’s easy to get used to and even on fast driven Autobahn (tested up to 240kmh in fast corners) it doesn’t demand significantly more attention than a summer tire. Genuinely love it, on top it is also 30% less expensive than a Michelin.
Member
Dacia
225/45 R17
6,000 miles
Mostly Country Roads
Spirited
Looking forward to driving on these but found them generally pretty average across the board. Then at the end of the first season and around 7k found 2 of them right up to the wear markers, not even sure they'll make another season! Absolutely stunned at how poorly a so called premium tyre could wear, my last set did 5 seasons with ease. So... won't be buying these guys again.
Just bought LM005 since I need a winter tyre with good performance in the wet. Mileage not important.
Reading through some negative reviews here I would like to point out that there are TWO different tyres sold as LM005.
One has got A score in wet and C for rolling resistance,
the other one B in wet and A for rolling resistance pleasing the car manufacturers hunting for another gram of CO2 to save.
Should you wish to buy an LM005 for performance reasons make sure your tyre dealer orders the right version.
I got the Blizzak LM005 in October 2019 and comparing to the set I had on the car delivered, Hankook Ventus Prime 3 K125 same size, I was in love with the Bridgestiones. They felt so much more refined and responsive! But having all the emotions calmed down after almost 3 years, all I can say is the Blizzak LM005 is a good tire for warm-ish winter climate, where the majority of time you'll have more wet days with some wet snow, than deeper snow. Snow, especially if it has any depth, can be tricky for the Blizzaks - on a motorway I felt rather fine going straight to overtake, but turns didn't really feel stable. So is the snow traction and breaking at low, city speeds - maybe it's just me having an auto transmission - but I drove a slightly bigger car (2015 Mokka) on winter Seperits - the diffrence was just unbelievable - favorable for Semperits... What makes my Citroen even move on a few inches of snow is traction control, solely - without ASR its just spinning in place... So can be snow breaking. I have never expirienced so much ABS kicking in in any other car in winter before. Fortunatelly, winters in Poland are not that snowy anymore. If you care about noise levels - watch out - these are rather audible - esp. say 80kmh and more. Apart from snow - it's a good tire that's gonna make you feel safe on the road. You can definately feel when it's being at its limit and it will not surprise you then - but avoid snow and ice on them.
I'm not sure if I were to buy them again - they were a novelty in 2019/20 winter season and the price within the size was rather attractive compared to other manufacturers - and Bridgestone is a well-known brand, so I chose them. Before I'd usually go with Michelins.
Buying that tyre was a huge mistake. It replaced Dunlop Winter Sport 5, which after 2 seasons were moved to another RAV4 and behaved better than Bridgestone after a month. These tyres are as bad as skidding at 40km/h when cornering on nearly any type of road surface. Dry breaking is a nightmare, no signs of class A wet breaking, wear is very evident after less than 5000 km (city driving) on the ODO and on the second year the rubber itself is as stiff as plastic. I had similar experience in the past with LM-80 and am now convinced I shall not go for Bridgestone again.
