Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS, a new UHP all-season

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Here is Tire Rack's page on it.

The RE980AS has a lot of squiggly siping for a UHP all-season! It's in the center of the tread and diagonal.

Not too many sizes listed for now, because it's new, but more should become available. The RE980AS is so new it's not even in Bridgestone's website yet!

UTQG 500-AA-A
50k warranty
Made in Mexico

bs_potenza_re980as_pdpfullexpand.jpg
 
Quote:
The RE980AS has a lot of squiggly siping for a UHP all-season! It's in the center of the tread and diagonal.
hopefully this will help with snow traction. RE960 and 970 were rather bad in this area.
 
Had me until Mexico. I was a fan of my 950AS, the last ones they made here.

Can get pilot AS 3+ for less money and manufactured here.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Had me until Mexico. I was a fan of my 950AS, the last ones they made here.

Can get pilot AS 3+ for less money and manufactured here.


I would prefer they were made in the USA but Mexico is not a deal breaker for me (China would be a deal breaker).
I had the 960s and they handled great but I agree that their snow performance wasn't the best.
 
Looks more like a touring tire than high performance to me, but I guess thats the snow traction coming into play.
 
Looks like a solid performer in Tire Rack's testing: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=230

Its competitors in that test are all top-flight tires. No small feat to hang with that crowd.

Kind of sucks that it's not made here, but that wouldn't be make-or-break for me. Bridgestone knows how to make a tire.

The main thing I don't like about it is weight. Looks like it's a few pounds heavier than the Michelin and/or Conti, depending on size. As usual for Bridgestone, unfortunately.

As for snow:
1. Everyone should have a separate set of wheels with winter tires anyway.
2. If you can't (e.g. can't store them), there's still no reason to worry because if it's bad enough to overwhelm tires like this, you can probably just stay home.
3. If your location (e.g. up a hill) or your job (e.g. first responder) is completely unforgiving, AND you can't keep a separate set of winter wheels for whatever reason, then you shouldn't be looking at this type of tire anyway.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d


As for snow:
1. Everyone should have a separate set of wheels with winter tires anyway.
2. If you can't (e.g. can't store them), there's still no reason to worry because if it's bad enough to overwhelm tires like this, you can probably just stay home.
3. If your location (e.g. up a hill) or your job (e.g. first responder) is completely unforgiving, AND you can't keep a separate set of winter wheels for whatever reason, then you shouldn't be looking at this type of tire anyway.

If the above is true, then you might as well just get a summer tire.

IME, the re960 and 970 were useless in winter. The only reason I bought them was because I thought they'd last longer than a max performance summer tire, but that turned out to be not true either.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: d00df00d


As for snow:
1. Everyone should have a separate set of wheels with winter tires anyway.
2. If you can't (e.g. can't store them), there's still no reason to worry because if it's bad enough to overwhelm tires like this, you can probably just stay home.
3. If your location (e.g. up a hill) or your job (e.g. first responder) is completely unforgiving, AND you can't keep a separate set of winter wheels for whatever reason, then you shouldn't be looking at this type of tire anyway.

If the above is true, then you might as well just get a summer tire.

I mean. That's what I did, so... :]

On a more serious note, I was fine on the old RE960AS Pole Position with my first car. Ditto someone in my extended family. Both 3000 lb FWD cars with open diffs.
21.gif
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
On a more serious note, I was fine on the old RE960AS Pole Position with my first car. Ditto someone in my extended family. Both 3000 lb FWD cars with open diffs.
21.gif


Come to think of it, the RE960AS did kind of OK in mild winter conditions on my wife's Jetta in size 195/65/15. Mine were 235/45/17 on the 530i and behaved much worse.
 
One more thing I forgot to mention: finally the RE980AS isn't directional, so you can actually rotate them. I believe the old 960 and 970 were both directional, so a big improvement with the new 980.

No UHP all-season is going to be THAT great in snow. For example, Conti's DWS06 is good in snow.. for the category. But I do think the RE980 will be much better in snow than the old tires due to the sipes.



Originally Posted By: d00df00d

As for snow:
1. Everyone should have a separate set of wheels with winter tires anyway.
2. If you can't (e.g. can't store them), there's still no reason to worry because if it's bad enough to overwhelm tires like this, you can probably just stay home.
3. If your location (e.g. up a hill) or your job (e.g. first responder) is completely unforgiving, AND you can't keep a separate set of winter wheels for whatever reason, then you shouldn't be looking at this type of tire anyway.


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If snow is an important factor, and you can only use one set of tires year-round, get the Vredestein Quatrac 5, Nokian WRG3, Toyo Celsius, or Goodyear WeatherReady. Even the CS5 Ultra and RT43 are better than any UHP tire in the snow.
 
Not only made in Mexico but profits flow to Japan parent company.

The quality won’t suffer from being hecho en Mexico, all modern tires are completely computer made.
 
Think the new Toyota Corolla plant in Mexico will be the supplier for North America …
 
Changed to the Taco pickup by a Tweet?
Wait ~ maybe we better call them Tacoma now before someone gets offended …
 
Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
One more thing I forgot to mention: finally the RE980AS isn't directional, so you can actually rotate them. I believe the old 960 and 970 were both directional, so a big improvement with the new 980.



You can still rotate directional tires, only front to rear and vice versa.
 
If something was to happen to the RS-As on my parent's car, these are a contender. I liked my RE960s I had a while ago, they're short-lived and porky compared to the Michelin equivalent but they felt sporty.
 
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