We like
Good wet-road feel and response, quieter and less resistant to roll than previous Turanza tyre, incorporates trick EV-tyre tech, paired pleasantly with the dynamics of tested Toyota models

Room for improvement
Slightly more expensive than some rivals when we searched, wear characteristics as yet untested in Australia

Overview

 

AUSTRALIANS might not swap tyres for summer and winter as our Northern Hemisphere cousins typically do, but the launch of a new summer touring tyre like the Bridgestone Turanza 6 (T6) is a big deal for any of the ‘big four’ rubber manufacturers.

 

It’s been a heady 30-month bash for the T6, which rolled into European outlets in early 2023 but has only recently bounced into the Australian and New Zealand markets, initially as a replacement tyre option, with the local media drive in Sydney taking place on sodden roads.

 

While umbrellas were deployed, local Bridgestone executives were delighted by their good fortune because, even more so than key rivals like the Michelin Primacy 4 and Continental PremiumContact 7, the T6 was designed to major on wet grip and wet braking attributes.

 

With heavy battery electric vehicles (BEVs) an increasingly large slice of the late-model fleet on Australian roads, the T6 was developed to be powertrain-agnostic and benefitted from lower rolling-resistance and sound-deadening tech previously restricted to EV-specific tyres.

 

Target customers surveyed by Bridgestone drove a mix of combustion (ICE), hybrid and BEV vehicles and no matter what powered their vehicle, grip was the most important feature. Second most important was price (for ICE drivers) and wet braking (BEVs)…

 

Within Bridgestone’s line-up, the Turanza series sits above the efficiency-minded Ecopia line and below the sportier Potenza on outright performance metrics.

 

The T6 has a very wide brief and is available in 15- to 22-inch sizes, covering 57 per cent of the passenger car and SUV fleet in Australia, Bridgestone says. 

 

Wet and dry grip levels, relatively efficient pricing, quietness and comfort were all headline indicators in the T6’s development, which included absorbing the brand’s Enliten hardware stack from its EV tyre development arm.

 

While considerable time was poured into perfecting the T6’s new tread pattern, which features interlocking micro water drainage channels and a new contact shape, much of the development was virtual—mainly in the name of driving down kilometres driven and CO2 emitted.

 

Bridgestone bosses report that fleet buyers, who play a central role in buying premium replacement tyres for (among other things) workplace health and safety reasons, are increasingly conscious of the CO2 profile of various tyre options available to them.

 

The T6 is claimed to deliver a 21 per cent saving on this metric, through virtual development but also the use of the Bridgestone Commonality Modularity Architecture and manufacturing at the partially solar-powered Nongkhae, Thailand plant.

 

Bridgestone retains a large share of the Australian replacement tyre market, leveraging a broad portfolio that spans premium passenger, SUV and 4WD products as well as commercial applications.

 

The Japanese manufacturer’s position is underpinned by an extensive retail network, both internally via (mainly franchised) Bridgestone Select branded fitters, but also by way of partnerships with Bob Jane, Jax Tyre, Costco, and fleet managers SG Fleet, Custom Fleet, and Orix.

 

Bridgestone also owns the Lube Mobile brand and the goal, according to Australia and New Zealand managing director Heath Barclay, is for Aussies to be able to buy Bridgestone/Firestone brand tyres “anywhere”.

 

However, replacing tyres slightly less frequently is also a goal. While Bridgestone Australia is waiting to monitor wear indicators for the T6 locally, European data suggests a leap over the previous Turanza T005 series, while rolling resistance is down about four per cent.

 

Driving impressions

 

Reviewing tyres outside of very strictly controlled environments with a well-maintained control car is, frankly, not one of the easier types of road testing, and our remarks on the T6’s performance were as such, limited.

 

For the local launch of the T6, Bridgestone fitted a number of 2025-model Toyota Camry and RAV4 variants with the new tyre. Having run a current-shape RAV4 on its factory-fitted Bridgestone Alenza crossover tyre for six months, some differences could be distilled on the road.

 

With rain teeming onto Sydney’s arterial highway network, it appeared that the T6’s novel tread pattern, which incorporates three main circumferential ribs, S-shaped stripes, and differing block lengths to avoid simultaneous block contact, has contributed to quieter operation.

 

Driving smoothly, none of the Toyotas (which are known for their benign but not sporty handling) exhibited any grip or traction concerns under throttle or brakes in wet weather. It required deliberate, ham-fisted cornering to get either car’s front end to wash wide.

 

An on-road drive route that included fuss-free motorway transit and a brief dynamic loop through the Ku-ring-gai National Park ended at the Sydney Dragway.

 

This location played host to more revealing dry and wet motorkhana circuits, the latter of which involved a tyre comparison between the Turanza 6 and the much cheaper Dayton DT30, both in 235/45 R18 size on ostensibly identical 2025 Toyota Camry SLs.

 

The cost difference is enormous: a set of T6s for that Camry costs $1396 via Bridgestone’s online website (the web store now accounts for 10 per cent of sales) while four DT30s would cost $740.

 

While the DT30 wasn’t completely horrible, the T6’s limits driven hard around the cones on the wet concrete felt about 30 per cent higher, with the car understeering less and demanding fewer activations of its electronic stability control system.

 

While $349 per tyre (for the Camry) isn’t cheap, we’d certainly spend up on it based on the back-to-back drive. Bridgestone claims braking from 70-0km/h in the wet is 2.5 metres shorter for the T6 compared to the budget tyre and three metres shorter in the dry.

 

Bridgestone concedes that a big part of the battle is around convincing customers to replace factory tyres with good-quality items.

 

For drivers who appreciate the benefits of premium tyres, the battle then turns to fending off rivals that, at big retailers like Jax, sit right alongside the Bridgestones on the shelf…

 

The presence of competing options from Continental, Hankook, Goodyear and others at similar—or slightly lower—price points when we searched mean incentives persist to shop around.