Bridgestones, whats the problem?

[monkeyhanger]

I've no complaints about the shocks and brakes - the R and PP share a slightly better brake set-up than the standard GTI and GTD, and i've found the brakes more than adequate in both the GTD and the R, both offer very good stopping power. The suspension/shock set-up is also similarly good on a car of this price. My R is on 19s without DCC and still behaves competently and comfortably in all conditions except the very roughest of road types - pot-hole riddled side streets.

Enhancements to either the shocks or brakes would require noticeable additional outlay for VW to supply, but the Bridgestones aren't any cheaper than the competition that does the same job so much better, which is why it is so annoying.

If Asda value beef mince with extra gristle and 25% fat was the same price as Aberdeen Angus steak mince, which would you buy for making a Spag Bol?

[Mk7-GTD]

I have not got a GTD yet but I assume they come with Bridgestones, and I see lots of people commenting on the Bridgestones, can anyone tell me what the issue is?

4 posts of opinion later...

surely then they are not fit for purpose as VW should be held accountable and provide tyres that are suitable to the cars performance, has anyone challenged VW about this?

Wow that escalated quickly!  Going from a general question, to not fit for purpose and wanting to challenge one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world? The tyre is fitted to Porsche and the Ferrari 458 and probably a host of other cars as standard.  VW will politely tell you to "jog on" unless they had a bad month for sales at the dealer.

So the tyre?
Are Bridgestone the best tyres you can fit to your car? No
Are they the noisiest tyres at 73db or 72db if its the Mercedes approved ones? No (most "premium" brands are between 70db and 72db on average so 1db is neither here nor there and its very dependent on the surface)
Are you going to crash into a ditch with them? Not unless you are complete idiot.
Are they fit for use? Yes you have a medium size hatchback diesel, or R or GTi, not a McLaren P1 needing Trofeo R's


If you don't work within the grip limits/circle of the tyre you will lose traction, like with all tyres.  There are plenty worse Landsail Xiangwong province tyres on the market besides the leading 4-5 brands Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, Pirelli, Goodyear etc.  In Germany they fit another brand (can't remember now), but they also have de-restricted Autobahns where as our speed limit is 70mph among other differences with the roads between the UK and Germany.

Your car will be fine, enjoy your new purchase and when the tyres wear out look to another brand to have a sligthly better tyre.  OEM+ is what most enthusiast do, same with the shocks, when they wear out look to Bilstein or Ohlins, but I wouldn't worry too much about the tyres on a VW hatchback of any type as long as they are a premium brand.

I'm going out on a limb here but do you A) Work for VW or B) Not not drive quickly a car with any decent amount of power?

For what it is worth I'm guessing the former.

Not sure I fully understand the comment/question and its relevance, but happy to answer either way. No I don't work for VW, I'm a car enthusiast not a big VW enthusiast, I accept the car has its short comings compared to others when I buy it, everything is made at a price point. We want all the gadgets with non of the cost efficiency, we want a big discount and we want directional Xenons and active cruise, better build quality than Renault, Ford and Seat, more tech to play with and also want to have better tactile material, better tyres, wipers, the list goes on. Sometimes something has to give, should it be tyres? Possibly not, but its not something that requires us to all go and get our fire torches is it? 

Monkeyhanger makes valid points, and I agree with many of them, however the opening line "but the car could perform so much better with any other premium brand of tyre" you could replace the word "tyre" for Shocks or Brakes.  The shocks (possibly Sachs) are ok at best, the brakes are possibly lacking on the R with single piston efforts, as it has to stop the quicker and heavier car with also managing the XDS+.  I appreciate the thread origin was tyres not shocks or brakes though.   

These topics are always interesting, but the way the thread turned within a a few posts I felt needed some balance at least.  But to assume after a couple of pages that anyone who doesn't agree, either works for VW or doesn't drive quick enough is missing my point perhaps. 

I have had waaay too many cars, nothing really special but a couple of mine are in my car gallery link below.  Including my Griege GTi PP (Monkeyhanger LSG).

Funny you say that tyre could be replaced with shocks or brakes. Do you realise that one of the best ways of improving brakes is to have a good tyre.

I never understood why people don't think that tyres are one of the most important things you can have on a car. Yes compromises sometimes have to be made but they should never be made in regards to safety.

VW sell the GTD/GTI as performance cars and therefore should only use tyres that are in the top 20% of the best tyres in the particular size. When they were having their press drives of the cars I bet you they didn't have crap tyres on.

I'm not so sure you get just how important tyres are!

[kalimon]

Spot on!
If Bridgstones where £25 a tyre cheaper than the competition, you could almost understand VW fitting them, but not if they cost roughly the same. It makes no sense.
They must be getting huge discounts from Bridgestone is the only answer.

[Booth11]

Funny you say that tyre could be replaced with shocks or brakes. Do you realise that one of the best ways of improving brakes is to have a good tyre.

I never understood why people don't think that tyres are one of the most important things you can have on a car. Yes compromises sometimes have to be made but they should never be made in regards to safety.

VW sell the GTD/GTI as performance cars and therefore should only use tyres that are in the top 20% of the best tyres in the particular size. When they were having their press drives of the cars I bet you they didn't have crap tyres on.

I'm not so sure you get just how important tyres are!

This ^^

Spot on!
If Bridgstones where £25 a tyre cheaper than the competition, you could almost understand VW fitting them, but not if they cost roughly the same. It makes no sense.
They must be getting huge discounts from Bridgestone is the only answer.

And this ^^

The importance of those few inches of rubber between you and the road should not be underestimated.

[p3asa]

Spot on!
If Bridgstones where £25 a tyre cheaper than the competition, you could almost understand VW fitting them, but not if they cost roughly the same. It makes no sense.
They must be getting huge discounts from Bridgestone is the only answer.

Exactly. They might be in the same price bracket as other premium tyres for us mere mortals but they might get offered to VW with huge price reductions.
But you then have the argument you could add the price of other quality tyres onto the car.
One of the car manufacturers give you options on their sports model of what type of tyre you want so it can be done.

[chazzypuk]

My front Bridgestones are getting low now. What do people recommend to replace with?

[p3asa]

My front Bridgestones are getting low now. What do people recommend to replace with?

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=271504.0  37 pages of suggestions 

[Jackie Treehorn]

fk me its like talking to a brick wall,

I have not got a GTD yet but I assume they come with Bridgestones, and I see lots of people commenting on the Bridgestones, can anyone tell me what the issue is?

4 posts of opinion later...

surely then they are not fit for purpose as VW should be held accountable and provide tyres that are suitable to the cars performance, has anyone challenged VW about this?

Wow that escalated quickly!  Going from a general question, to not fit for purpose and wanting to challenge one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world? The tyre is fitted to Porsche and the Ferrari 458 and probably a host of other cars as standard.  VW will politely tell you to "jog on" unless they had a bad month for sales at the dealer.

So the tyre?
Are Bridgestone the best tyres you can fit to your car? No
Are they the noisiest tyres at 73db or 72db if its the Mercedes approved ones? No (most "premium" brands are between 70db and 72db on average so 1db is neither here nor there and its very dependent on the surface)
Are you going to crash into a ditch with them? Not unless you are complete idiot.
Are they fit for use? Yes you have a medium size hatchback diesel, or R or GTi, not a McLaren P1 needing Trofeo R's


If you don't work within the grip limits/circle of the tyre you will lose traction, like with all tyres.  There are plenty worse Landsail Xiangwong province tyres on the market besides the leading 4-5 brands Michelin, Continental, Bridgestone, Pirelli, Goodyear etc.  In Germany they fit another brand (can't remember now), but they also have de-restricted Autobahns where as our speed limit is 70mph among other differences with the roads between the UK and Germany.

Your car will be fine, enjoy your new purchase and when the tyres wear out look to another brand to have a sligthly better tyre.  OEM+ is what most enthusiast do, same with the shocks, when they wear out look to Bilstein or Ohlins, but I wouldn't worry too much about the tyres on a VW hatchback of any type as long as they are a premium brand.

I'm going out on a limb here but do you A) Work for VW or B) Not not drive quickly a car with any decent amount of power?

For what it is worth I'm guessing the former.

Not sure I fully understand the comment/question and its relevance, but happy to answer either way. No I don't work for VW, I'm a car enthusiast not a big VW enthusiast, I accept the car has its short comings compared to others when I buy it, everything is made at a price point. We want all the gadgets with non of the cost efficiency, we want a big discount and we want directional Xenons and active cruise, better build quality than Renault, Ford and Seat, more tech to play with and also want to have better tactile material, better tyres, wipers, the list goes on. Sometimes something has to give, should it be tyres? Possibly not, but its not something that requires us to all go and get our fire torches is it? 

Monkeyhanger makes valid points, and I agree with many of them, however the opening line "but the car could perform so much better with any other premium brand of tyre" you could replace the word "tyre" for Shocks or Brakes.  The shocks (possibly Sachs) are ok at best, the brakes are possibly lacking on the R with single piston efforts, as it has to stop the quicker and heavier car with also managing the XDS+.  I appreciate the thread origin was tyres not shocks or brakes though.   

These topics are always interesting, but the way the thread turned within a a few posts I felt needed some balance at least.  But to assume after a couple of pages that anyone who doesn't agree, either works for VW or doesn't drive quick enough is missing my point perhaps. 

I have had waaay too many cars, nothing really special but a couple of mine are in my car gallery link below.  Including my Griege GTi PP (Monkeyhanger LSG).

Funny you say that tyre could be replaced with shocks or brakes. Do you realise that one of the best ways of improving brakes is to have a good tyre.

I never understood why people don't think that tyres are one of the most important things you can have on a car. Yes compromises sometimes have to be made but they should never be made in regards to safety.

VW sell the GTD/GTI as performance cars and therefore should only use tyres that are in the top 20% of the best tyres in the particular size. When they were having their press drives of the cars I bet you they didn't have crap tyres on.

I'm not so sure you get just how important tyres are!

Do you realise that one of the best ways of improving brakes is to have a good tyre
Yes I do understand that, what from my posts make you assume I don't?

I'm not so sure you get just how important tyres are!
Errr I think I do, my cars have all had Michelin tyres fitted when they needed replacing,  I always fit the best available and at the time that was the PS2, now it will be PSS. Every car I have owned had tyres that weren't the best on the market and I have changed them when they wore out. I just don't foam at the mouth about the Bridgestone tyres, some are better some are worse...



 

[Booth11]

One of the car manufacturers give you options on their sports model of what type of tyre you want so it can be done.

That could be a good option.  But I wonder how much over the odds VW might charge for a better tyre, knowing how overpriced some of the other optional extras are?  Might be better to take the poorer tyre, buy replacements at a reasonable price yourself, and sell the crap tyre as nearly new on eBay. A bit of hassle but probably cheaper that way?

[monkeyhanger]

Spot on!
If Bridgstones where £25 a tyre cheaper than the competition, you could almost understand VW fitting them, but not if they cost roughly the same. It makes no sense.
They must be getting huge discounts from Bridgestone is the only answer.

Exactly. They might be in the same price bracket as other premium tyres for us mere mortals but they might get offered to VW with huge price reductions.
But you then have the argument you could add the price of other quality tyres onto the car.
One of the car manufacturers give you options on their sports model of what type of tyre you want so it can be done.

Ford even do it for the lowly Transit van - some tyre choices can be made at a small premium. If VW said up front "you can have Bridgestones, or for an extra £100 we can make sure you get Michelin PSS, I would be more than happy to tick that box.