Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra is a touring all-season tire that is specially designed for SUVs, crossovers, and light trucks looking for a cozy riding experience. Since Alenza AS Ultra holds the shining features of Bridgestone’s hero products, it promises great white hope for those who want an all-in-one package. Let’s dig into it!
| Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra | |
|---|---|
| Best for | Crossover/SUV owners who are looking for cozy 4 season traction expect ice, longevity |
| Test Report | vs CrossContact LX25 & Crossclimate2 (September 7, 2021) |
| Category | Crossover/SUV Touring All-Season |
| Vehicle | SUVs, crossovers passenger-oriented light-trucks |
| Weight | 25 – 41 lbs |
| Made In | USA |
| Warranty | 80,000 Miles |
| Available Sizes (Rim) | 16”, 17”, 18”, 19”, 20”, 21” |
| Labels | M+S |
As a former Bridgestone engineer, from my standpoint, Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra is an expert on dry and wet traction. Moreover, Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra offers huge light snow traction and enough severe winter traction that can get you out of unexpected winter conditions. Though, what makes it special is its huge wear life. It also offers 80,000 miles wear life warranty. However, it provides a bit stiff and slightly noisy ride.
All-Season Tires Cheat Sheet
My team & I have analyzed 100 different tires and generated this ‘Quick Answer Sheet‘ for those who don’t wanna spend too much time during tire selection.
Before we start, here are the incredibly helpful articles I highly recommend to take a look at;
- How to keep tire noise down:
https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/why-do-tire-tread-patterns-make-noise - Fuel-Efficiency:
https://www.tirerack.com/landing/fuel_efficiency - Traction/Stability control for AWD/4WD (All-Season tires specific)
https://www.tirerack.com/upgrade-garage/traction-stability-4ws-awd
Depending on your needs, the below article might help;
- https://tireterrain.com/best-all-weather-tires-for-snow/
- https://tireterrain.com/bridgestone-vs-michelin/
- https://tireterrain.com/best-michelin-tires-for-suv/
I highly recommend checking the below pages out before making any purchase:
- TireRack Deals:
https://www.tirerack.com/specialoffers - SimpleTire Deals:
https://simpletire.com/tire-deals - Amazon Deals
- https://www.amazon.com/Tires-Discounts-Automotive-Wheels
Table of Contents
Dry Performance
The dry performance of all-season tires can be evaluated under two different categories. While one of them is dry traction and it’s kinda easy to provide, on the other hand, the other feature handling sometimes causes some issues due to expended void area and notched rubber.
Let’s see what Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra promises regarding traction and handling.
Dry Traction
Alenza AS Ultra has a new high-silica compound which means a huge grip improvement in wet and snowy conditions. Since dry traction needs way much less biting edges than snow and wet performance, all-season touring tires generally don’t have any traction issues on dry ground.
However, regarding Alenza AS Ultra, the over traction. Alenza AS Ultra is a heavy-weight tire. Hence, its rolling resistance is high. So, you may feel a slight delay while starting.
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra provides unique dry traction and braking. However, its starting capability is average.
Handling
Handling can be evaluated under two different dimensions. Steering response and cornering stability.
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra is molded to a symetric pattern. It has a 2-ply polyester casing under this pattern and this is a huge advantage for better cornering stability. Well, this tire is also designed for a light-trucks. Therefore, it needs tough sidewalls. As a consequence of strong sidewalls, it has decent cornering stability.
Regarding steering response, I can’t say it’ll be the same as your summer touring tires, though, it has a highly appreciated steering response for a heavyweight and over-siped tire.
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra offers above-average handling features. Yet, It has a minor tramline issue. I’ll talk about it in the ride comfort section.
Wet Performance
Wet performance is where this tire is shown up. Its compound, tread design, all fits unique wet performance.
Since this tire can be used on different kinds of vehicles, I’m going to evaluate wet performance under two different layers.
Wet Traction
Due to its high-silica compound and over-siped rubber, Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra offers alpha-plus wet traction.
However, this doesn’t mean it provides decent handling at high speed. Due to safe handling at high velocity, the tire needs hydroplaning resistance.
Hydroplaning Resistance
Hydroplaning resistance is the water evacuation capability of the tire. If the tire holds water inside of the tread, at high speed, you may lose contact with the surface and that might cause vital accidents. So, this part is highly important, especially for aggressive drivers.
Due to its wide vertical grooves and full-depth small horizontal grooves, Alenza AS Ultra offers highly stable hydroplaning resistance. I strongly recommend it if you’re living in a rainy region.
Winter Performance
The winter performance of all-season tires is misunderstood. All-season tires are built to perform under 7 Celcius degrees. So, their winter performance is highly limited compared to winter or all-weather tires.
So, winter performance can be divided into three. Light snow, deep snow, and ice. Normally, all-season touring tires only can handle light snow, yet, Alenza AS Ultra has a bit more.
Note: Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra doesn’t have 3PMSF marking.
Light-Snow Traction
Light snow traction is similar to wet traction. It’s related to notches and compound selection mostly.
Due to high silica compound and over-siped tread, Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra can handle the light snow with ease. In that case, its rugged tread grooves helps it clean itself. Hence, this tire has an amazing light-snow performance.
Deep-Snow Traction
Deep-snow traction is where this tire stays slightly behind. Even though its extended void area and high angled inner rib sipes work well for deep snow, its tread depth is shallow for deep snow traction.
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra has average deep snow traction. I don’t recommend using it on deep snow after half of its tread life(5/32”).
Ice-Traction
So, it’s not possible to reach decent ice traction with this kind of huge void area. However, Alenza AS Plus has highly angled inner rib sipes and relatively narrower shoulder grooves. So, its ice performance is superior compared to its competitors.
Since I don’t recommend using an all-season tire on ice, it can take you out of unexpected situations, though, please don’t try to use it as a winter tire.
Riding Comfort
As a former Bridgestone engineer, I can confidently say that stiff ride is the general problem of Bridgestone tires. The durable internal structure of Bridgestone tires causes this issue. Yet, I take this trade the whole day long.
Well, Alenza AS Ultra has a twin steel belt that provides stability and the nylon-reinforced ply that improves the stability at high-speed. So, it’s a sturdy tire.
Its huge durability causes a bit of a lack of flexibility and flex ride. However, the real issue is different.
Due to its shallow tread depth and kinda fluffy shoulder compound, Alenza AS Ultra tends to tramline.
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra has a bit stiff ride.
Road Noise
Alenza AS Ultra uses the same technology that Bridgestone QuietTrack uses. This technology is similar to Pirelli’s noise reduction technology. The tire contains a thin foam layer and this layer decrease the noise frequency. Well, this is an advantage. However, I think this tire needs a bit more improvement.
Due to the wide void area ratio and high rolling resistance, the tire is a bit noisy. Yet, noise reduction tech pays its dues. Bridgestone Alenza Ultra isn’t quiet as a church mouse, yet, it totally worth sacrificing minor noise for huge winter traction.
A side note here: I highly recommend using Tire Rack’s Tire Decision Guide Tool before making any purchase. It shortened my decision process significantly and ensures you pick the right tire for your needs.
Tread Life
Just like Bridgestone’s President, Eric Seidel says customers want better wear life. So, it looks like wear life is what Bridgestone mainly focuses on for this tire.
Due to its relatively stiff and high-silica compound, symmetrical pattern, and high internal structure durability, Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra offers one of the best wear life in the market. I strongly recommend it!
Note: The cut&chipping resistance of Alenza AS Ultra is highly acceptable. Though worth reminding, this isn’t an off-road tire. If you’ll use it off the road, your tread life might decrease.
Getting maximum wear life from a tire is related to you as well as your tire,
If you’d like to learn how to get maximum tread life:
Warranty
Bridgestone offers various warranties for this product.
Treadwear: 80,000 miles and 5 years
Uniformity: It’s valid for the first 2/32” of wear
Manufacturer Special Warranty: 90 days buy&try guarantee
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra Warranty Document: https://www.tirerack.com/images/pdf/warranty/BS0121.pdf
Fuel Efficiency
Bridgestone Alenza AS Ultra is a high-weight and high-rolling resistance tire. Therefore, it might improve fuel consumption.
Since I’m at the beginning of tread life, I didn’t observe any increase, yet, I think I’ll experience it soon.