tonygaitatzis

[tonygaitatzis]

Comparison of Michelin and Bridgestone tires

The ride program began with a comparison of the Michelin X-lce 3 and Blizzak Bridgestone VRX tires on a Nissan Teana. Acceleration and braking, both on ice and on snow, did not reveal the absolute leader. And stability during acceleration turned out to be close - cars on both tire models required significant taxiing. But the “rearrangement” with the stabilization system turned off has already tipped the scales in the direction of Bridgestone tires - Teana did not so deeply and not so long fall into drifts. On the “snake”, the adhesion limit was also slightly higher - the car responded better to steering turns at higher speeds, however, with a subsequent sharper breakdown in skidding. So I’m not sure that the Bridgestone tires showed themselves “safer”.

The next exercise is driving on rolled snow on Volkswagen Touareg SUVs “shod” in Bridgestone Spike 01 and Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 SUV tires. On Finnish tires, rolling is accompanied by a high-frequency hum, and Japanese tires either “were silent” or emitted a low-frequency hum. Again, which is better? I have no definite answer. But in terms of smoothness, Bridgestone is clearly inferior to Finnish tires: on the winter "comb" Touareg on the Nokian tires is softer. But the representatives of Bridgestone have a strong trump card in this regard: "Yes, the frame is tough, but this minimizes the likelihood of damage on a bad road." I won’t argue here: the results of our crash tests, to which we subjected both studded and non-studded tires, showed that Bridgestone tires are indeed the most durable.

As usual, we will at the first opportunity compare the new Bridgestone tires with our competitors - unlike the representative of the Bridgestone company, I still do not have full confidence that the best tires were shown to me at the training ground. But one advantage is obvious to me - a wide range of dimensions: non-studded Blizzak Bridgestone VRX tires are available in 57 sizes (from the Zhiguli 175/70 R13 to the impressive 245/45 R19), and the Bridgestone Bfizzak Spike 01 studded tires are even wider - in 60 sizes, from 175/70 R13 to 265/60 R18. It is important that both will be produced in Japan. And it is very important that prices for Japanese winter tires remain one of the most attractive on the market.