Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS

This tire is priced right and is a top contender in the premium class of high performance tires. Great on mileage , tire really grips well when warm . I rotate every 3,000 to ensure same tread depths and longevity of the life of the tire. Only small discomfort was the ride quality, which had to do with the plus of the sidewall which Michelin will hold the title in all the tire categories due to the softness of their sidewalls , which in my personal piece of mind preference, I would sacrifice a little discomfort for piece of mind knowing that my side walls are thicker, stronger layers of plies and can with stand a pothole of two without damaging sidewall (non-repairable) condition . Overall best tire to get performance without sacrificing safety or day in and day out abuse of our local roads and highways throughput the state of California.

Well past the 50K warranty and still going but it's about time to replace. They are 90% highway at a very easy going speed to get great MPG's. With consistent rotation/balance as well as alignments these tires have been great. Much better than the stock conti's. Much more quieter on the highway in the beginning. Around 20% tread they have become more noisy.

The OE Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires wore out after a short 22k miles. I was not very impressed with those as far as handling. I replaced them with the Bridgestone Potenza RE980+ A/S. I can tell immediately these will be better in the dry and wet. They are slightly louder than the Michelins, but the comfort is comparable and the road feedback is much better. I would most likely purchase these again for my 2021 Lexus ES 350.

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I don't think this is the best UHP tire, but if your spirited driving consists of driving at 8/10ths and you can get it at a discount from Costco, I would recommend it.
These tires replaced a set of Bridgestone Turanzas that came with my car, and I replaced these tires with Continental DWS 06s. I chose to switch to DWS 06+ because it was heavily discounted on Tire Rack during Black Friday and about 35% cheaper than the Potenzas.

Pros:
For most daily driving scenarios, these tires give excellent feedback and feel planted in corners in the dry. These tires inspire confidence and deliver great performance for most backroad use. The tires are well-suited for warm, dry conditions. Even in light-to-moderate rain, these tires provide decent grip and retain most of the sporty feel.

Cons:
However, I would not recommend these tires if decent snow performance, comfort, and hydroplaning resistance are essential to you. If you push this car past 8/10s, the tires lose grip and performance. At the limit, the tires don't maintain that feedback and lose some of their grip. The tires by the end of their lifespan were ridiculously loud, and every pothole was felt in the cabin. The tire performance worsened in all conditions, and hydroplaning resistance dropped by the time I replaced them at 4/32. If you also live in a city and parallel park every day like me, when I replaced these tires with the DWS 06s, I noticed the new tires felt noticeably lighter. I was so shocked by the change that I embarrassingly checked if I had an issue with my power steering. As for wear, I am unable to compare it to other tires, as I did the bushing replacement fix for the increased tire wear on the Lexus 3IS about 14k miles into the lifespan of the tires.

I mainly replaced these tires because I had moved to a climate with consistent rain and light snow. With my aging Bridgestone Potenzas, I did not trust that these tires would be enough for the new conditions I was in. The Continental DWS 06+ is not significantly better than the Potenzas in snow, but the difference was enough that I felt the need to change tires for my ten-minute commute. Compared to the Potenzas, I prefer the tradeoff for wet grip and some improvement in snow grip in the Continentals. Ultimately, I think your buying decision for the Bridgestone Potenza should be influenced by the climate you live in and the trade-offs you are willing to make for an all-season UHP.

I would NOT recommend these tires, and will not be purchasing them again. Long story short, 3 of my stock OEM tires on my sport hatch blew out at once while hitting the mother of all potholes. They were replaced with some RE980A/S. The good : the tires grip well in the dry and roll well over pristine pavement. On dry corners, they grip laterally without feeling like there is a limit. Turn in might be a little light for my taste, but that could be my car. Early on, they actually did really well on wet cornering and decent with standing water on highways. The bad #1 : the ride quality on these things is atrocious for "all season" tires. I understand they are low profile tires, but there is zero compliance to speak of. Small choppy bumps unsettles the suspension and the car seems to want to bounce around and shake. Large potholes are absolutely terrifying to hit as it sounds like the rim is hitting the pavement followed by the suspension slamming into the strut tower. The bad #2 - Forget using these as an "all season" tire, as you should consider these summer tires. Driving in anything other than a light power is downright scary. Acceleration is very slow as they struggle for grip and spin up even while short shifting. Sliding as you come to a stop is common. I got stuck in the middle of a plowed intersection last year and had to be pushed out. Plus as they have aged, the hydroplaning has gotten slightly worse on the highway. The bad #3 : I'm not even at 30,000 miles on them and they already need replaced. The tread is already worn down even with the wear bars and the shoulders are pretty shagged. The lone OEM tire that was left has 54,000 miles on it and is only marginally worse off than the 3 RE980AS, and it is 24,000 miles older. In the end, very disappointed in these.

I had the Bridgestones for about 20k miles before they were worn to the way to the legal limit. The initial turn-in was great on dry surfaces for the life of the tire. Felt really planted. As far as the wet, it started great but by about 30% life they got really sketchy. And as far as snow and ice, I would suggest not even trying it. These are as bad as full summer tires in the snow, from my experience. Not that it means much for cornering and braking, but I have quattro AWD and a lot of snow driving experience. So I didn't have issues getting stuck, but if I didn't have that technology it definitely would have. As far as comfort, they are awfully uncomfortable. They feel like squares before they're warm so the car shakes like you're out of alignment for about the first 3mi/5km on days that are not already quite warm. You feel everything on the road even when they're warm. So good for track driving, but not good for a daily driver if though they're labeled as all seasons. At the time of writing this I've recently installed on Michelin A/S 4, and the difference in comfort is quite large. The Michelin is much more comfortable and feels like you're actually driving on rubber, the Bridgestones feel like driving on bricks. Which means the Bridgestones also have much more feedback to what's happening on the road. As far as the noise, they are quite loud. Only got worse over time. Overall, I would not recommend these tires, personally. From my experience they were not suitable for daily driving, and wouldn't be as good as a dedicated summer tire even in the areas the Bridgestones excelled in.

The RE 988 is a really great tire, matches the BMW perfectly and feels nice and sporty for an all season tire :)