The Bridgestones are actually not too bad, they need temperature. As for someone saying it's summer temperatures - most of Europe has warmer springs than the UK summers.
Once the Potenzas are up to temp (almost hot to touch) they grip incredibly well, though they are still quite noisy. You are unlikely to get them hot enough though on short trips on this rainy little rock in the Atlantic. Takes me a few miles and that's only if the thermometer shows over 25.
For tyres, I had a few different ones on my mk7s so far.
Bridgestone Potenza - poor grip cold, not the very best wet grip (wheel spin) but reasonably good around corners even in the wet, seems quite hard wearing, only beaten by the P7 below for wear. Incredible grip once up to temperature.
Pirelli P7 - hard as feck, long lasting but little grip, worst wet grip (even worse than the Potenzas) at least in 225 45 17 (they are more suited to my partner's mk6 1.6 TDI in 205 55 16).
Dunlop Sportmaxx RT - well, they are soft and sticky at even quite cold temperatures, almost my preferred tyre, performance dropped towards last third of its life. More so than other tyres; on a road trip with very long distance driving on hot tarmac you start to feel it's loosing out on grip (gets too soft).
Conti Sport Contact 5, good all rounder, a very German tyre that way if you like. Decent grip even at moderate temperatures but I found it to get a bit noisy towards the end.
Avon IceTouring ST (winter tyres): After reading reviews I was positively surprised, though I would not buy again. Very bad for wear, but decent traction on snow (used for winter holidays on the good old continent).
Michelin Alpin A4 (winter tyres, i.e. the old model, A5 is current): Good grip and hell they are good for wear, got more mileage out of them than on hard summer tyres, despite driving them in the dry (read: rainy UK). Work well in snow too. Almost got some of these again, but wanted non-directional ones.... which led me to buy the Nokians. Well and they were on H speed rating (130mph)
Nokian WR A4 (winter tyres): Great grip (tested briefly on front), good for wear so far (only drove 10k miles with them on the back). Got them as they are non directional ones, and have a higher speed rating (think V = 149mph).
Will get the Michelins replaced by another pair of those after this winter, already wanted some last year but then got 10k miles with only 1mm wear on the Michelins (on the front!), which leaves them still over 4mm - legal min tread for winter tyres where I go. Not worth chucking out yet only so I can do the cars top speed....
