The Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus is your reliable run-flat tire, designed to keep you going for up to 50 miles even after a puncture. Its suitable for sedans, wagons, and coupes, and it assures dependable performance across varying weather conditions. Let’s see if this tire is for you or not.
Table of Contents
Tire Sizes
The Bridgestone DriveGuard comes in 16 to 19 inches wheels. And those have following specs.
- Speed ratings: H, V and W.
- Load ratings: SL and XL.
- Tread depth: 9/32″ on all.
- Weight range: 23 to 44 lbs.
- Treadwear warranty: 65k for all.
- UTQG rating: 640 A A.
External Construction
The Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus comes with a asymmetric 5 rib design.
Observing the image, it’s evident that the 3 central ribs of the tire create 4 (pretty wide, relatively speaking), circumferential grooves, optimizing water evacuation.
The central (most) rib is distinct, featuring prominent lateral grooves, in-groove notches (oriented to the right in the image), and a pattern of wave-like siping, which enhances grip and stability.
Adjacent to it, the rib to the right has a more you can say open structure, with lugs integrated with linear siping only.
Conversely, the rib to its left is continuous running, and shares several features with the central-most rib, ensuring uniformity in performance.
Moving towards outer ribs, the shoulders are slightly different from each other.
Here one side displays rectilinear siping, while the opposite side (left in the image) presents an interlocking wave-like siping structure. This diversifies the tire’s wet performance in various conditions.
Find all the All Season tires compared to Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus.
Ride Quality
When it comes to run flat tires, like the DriveGuard, the comfort of the ride is always a big question mark, where two things are judged, one, how well the road noise is minimized, and two, what’s the impact comfort like.
Let’s start with later.
Ride Comfort
Now let me start off by saying that the Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus provides a ride quality that closely matches average traditional tires, where it absorbs minor impacts and road inconsistencies just as effectively.
However, its run-flat design becomes apparent when dealing with larger bumps, where the tire seems to max out its flexibility a bit earlier than the other tires, causing a slightly more pronounced jittering (in the car).
But why run flat tires face that?
Well, this is mainly because of the reduced air chamber (they have), so with that, when inflated compared to traditional tires, you get a firmer ride.
Moreover, the tire’s relatively greater weight is also affecting the unsprung mass of the vehicle, negatively influencing ride quality.
Road Noise
Regarding noise, the Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus tends to be a bit noisier compared to its counterparts in the same category.
So what’s causing noise here?
The tire’s tread design is a significant contributor. As air particles enter the tread, they collide with the surrounding walls, creating sound waves.
These waves reverberate between the tread walls due to their echo-prone nature, resulting in a faint high-pitched tone accompanied by a soft hum.
Though this noise is rather subdued, it becomes more noticeable when directly comparing with other tires.
Additionally, the stiffer sidewalls of the DriveGuard Plus can amplify road noise inside the vehicle’s cabin.
Highway Performance
The core essence of any all-season tire is a remarkable dry performance, where things like responsive steering, adept cornering and braking are observed.
Let’s check them all out, starting from grip.
Dry Grip
So this type of grip is directional, meaning it measures the tire’s friction with the road when traveling a straight line, like on highways.
And since its directional its gets measured with tire’s stopping efficacy (for the most part) and depends on the tire’s central area (since it sustains the majority of the vehicle’s weight during linear travel).
In this regard, the Bridgestone DriveGuard emerges as a frontrunner, thanks to its compact central ribs consisting of longitudinally arranged lugs, facilitating unhindered straight-line rolling.
Moreover, these lugs also feature numerous in groove notches which bite down to offer above average directional grip, as seen by the tire’s commendable stopping power.
Dry Handling
In a nutshell, the tire’s handling doesn’t quite stand out, especially when pitted against its main rival, the Goodyear Assurance (ComfortDrive).
In comparison, the DriveGuard Plus provides about 0.5 G less lateral traction, resulting in lap times that were, on average, 1.4 seconds slower.
So what’s causing this?
The tire’s steering felt somewhat muted at the center. In other words, it usually needs more input to achieve the desired outcome. And once it responds, its susceptible to oversteer.
So the whole thing becomes a challenge to deal with unless one applies very controlled throttle input.
Wet Performance
Exploring the wet performance leads us to gauge a tire’s proficiency in wet conditions, notably its hydroplaning resistance and wet surface grip. Let’s scrutinize these elements in more detail.
Wet Grip
Attaining optimal wet grip necessitates two crucial components, abundant siping and considerable tread flexibility.
But why are these two so important here?
Well, this is because sipes operate at a microscopic level, where they clear water off at a smaller scale. They contract/expand to create a negative pressure, which absorbs water particles.
In other words, they won’t effectively soak up water particles if they are not given with the needed flexibility.
That’s why the Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus is lacking here.
I mean, although the tire features intricate sipes, having full depth to them, which are also placed at varied angles across the tread, its overall wet grip still doesn’t stand out.
This is primarily because the sipes lack the suppleness needed to effectively absorb water particles, so both the wet braking and handling suffers here.
Hydroplaning Resistance
Hydroplaning is when a tire “floats” on water. And this happens when a layer of water comes in between the tread and the road. That’s why its mitigated through specially designed grooves that facilitate water expulsion.
Now the Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus features four symmetrically positioned channels which are proficient at displacing a significant volume of water from the tread.
But since the tire only does it longitudinally, and there aren’t any proper lateral pathways, you only get great float speeds in straight aqua testing.
And the tire lacks in curved aqua evaluations.
Winter Performance
The Bridgestone DriveGuard’s performance in winter conditions exhibits noticeable shortcomings, which becomes clear given its absence of the 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certification.
Now the tire although has sufficient biting edges, with stiffer rubber compound, they don’t work on their full potential.
In other words, the relatively hard rubber composition fails to adapt thermally, becoming rigid in freezing temperatures, which diminishes the effectiveness of the few existing biters.
Note: If you’re curious about the significance of biters in tire design, it’s essential to realize that these biters latch onto snow particles, creating a snow-to-snow contact. Since snow adheres better to itself than to rubber, this mechanism enhances traction. However, if the tire lacks flexibility, it doesn’t pick up sufficient snow, resulting in diminished traction, especially on purely icy surfaces.
Fuel Consumption
Delving into fuel consumption, it’s clear that rolling resistance is a crucial determinant.
And this resistance is heavily influenced by the tire’s weight and its propensity to cling to the road.
This resistance is significantly influenced by the tire’s weight and its adherence to the road.
In this context, the Bridgestone DriveGuard delivers an impressive performance. While it’s marginally heavier due to its run-flat nature compared to some other tires, the difference isn’t dramatic.
Its advantage lies in its shallower tread depth of 9/32″, compared to the more common 10/32″ seen in many tires.
Let me explain why.
So basically the weight exerts pressure on the lugs, and deeper treads make the lugs susceptible to flexing, which consumes energy (in to the molding of the tread).
Now the DriveGuard is only slightly heavier relatively speaking, and its harder compound and shallower tread depth isn’t susceptible to a lot of lug bending, allowing it to become a good enough fuel efficient choice.
Durability and Tread Life
The Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus, with its unique run-flat feature, reinforced construction, and advanced design elements, is poised to offer drivers a long-lasting, durable tire option.
That’s why the tire comes with a confidence inspiring 65k miles warranty, and a UTQG rating of 640, which is above average.
Examining durability, the tire embraces a typical dual-ply polyester internal structure (found in most all-season tires).
They further have twin steel belts on top as well, followed by a nylon cap ply, and of course, its sidewalls also feature added reinforcement, where they are thicker and stronger compared to regular tires, (due to their run-flat nature).
Regarding tread lifespan, even though its initial depth of 9/32″ may seem to wear down to the 2/32″ replacement benchmark swiftly, the tire benefits from a firmer compound that resists rapid wear.
In essence, while the shallower tread might reduce wear duration (tread wear time), the tire’s durable rubber compound offsets the rate of wear (tread wear rate), ensuring it still maintains respectable longevity.
Take Home Points
So is the tire worth it?
Well the Bridgestone DriveGuard Plus is a comprehensive offering that exhibits a range of performance characteristics suitable for various road conditions.
In terms of dry grip, it shines with its superior straight-line rolling and stopping power, making it a top choice for highway use. However, when it comes to handling, it doesn’t quite measure up to its competitors.
And this becomes even more obvious when it comes to wet conditions. Though it demonstrates competent hydroplaning resistance, at least in straight-line scenarios.
Moreover, winter conditions reveal a more pronounced weakness in the tire, largely due to its rubber compound’s lack of adaptability in colder temperatures.
But the tire makes up for it, in the fuel efficiency and tread longevity departments.
Last but not least, ride quality offers a mixed bag, where minor road inconsistencies are handled well, but in terms of noise, the DriveGuard Plus tends to be on the noisier side due to its stiffer sidewalls.
