Review: Bridgestone Ecopia EP150 tyres on my Volkswagen Polo GT

It has varying degrees of road noise coming on basis the kind of tarmac it is being driven on. And this difference is more than it was on the MRF.

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In January, I had sent my car – Polo GT for its annual service and among the few things that needed to be replaced, the service advisor had recommended me to change the tyres as well as very little life was left in them. The only tyres the service centre had to fit were the Apollo ALNAC. My Polo GT was stock fitted with the MRF ZVTV, 195/60/ R16.

At the time I decided to not fit new tyres as there was a life of about 5000 kms left in them. But as luck would have it, 2 weeks later, on the infamous Gurgaon roads (read potholes), the left front gave up. And gave up quite badly as there was a 2 inch laceration on the sidewall and it simply could not be repaired. Hence began my search for the next set of tyres. These tyres lasted just under 40000 kms.

I was pretty sure I did not want to fir the MRF again. So I went to a shop and started looking at the options. And I boiled down to 3:

• Apollo ALNAC @Rs. 6400 per tyre – primarily because of the price.
• Bridgestone Ecopia @Rs. 7500 per tyre – highly suggested by the shop owner.
• Michelin Primacy @Rs. 9000 per tyre – because Michelin.

The prices mentioned are for the 195/60 R16 profile.

The price made me decide against the Michelin. I had just lost my job and I didn’t want to make extra desirable expenses. Though if I had the provision, I would have picked the Michelin.

Between the other two choices, I had first picked the Apollo as it seemed like a safe option with respect to its price and that it is widely used on this car from factory. But keeping the two tyres side by side, even when they were the same size, the Ecopia just looked so much wider. I could simply feel more grip coming from those tyres and they were not even on the car.

It was at this time that I truly missed being able to test ride the two tyres to feel them. Since that was not an option, I put my hand to my heart and eventually chose the Ecopia. Even at a slightly higher price, I just felt it would be a better long term investment.

Just look at that tasty looking new rubber!

Now I did go through the T-BHP forum of the Ecopia and I know it doesn’t have a lot of positive things to say for the claims Bridgestone made around it. But I was willing to experiment and try it out on my own.

And soon after the first major test for the tyre came when the week after that, I was to go for a long journey which was going to take me from Delhi to Manali to Sissu to Jibhi to Narkhanda and back to Delhi. I had a ~1500 km test of this tyre through city roads, highways, expressways, mountain roads and even no roads at all. And here is my summary.

Ride quality – 6/10

Now simply because these were brand new tyres, I could feel major difference in the way the ride was. So I had to get used to it before I started making proper observations. Over a period of time, I realised its not too bad, but not that great either. In my mind, the expectation was higher. Probably because of its price. At almost Rs. 1800 lesser I could have fitted the same MRF I got as stock and the difference between the two wasn’t huge enough to justify the price. The comfort factor felt similar though the overall steering feel was a little better. The ecopia advertising claims to have better braking capability with this tyre. IMHO, maybe. But the difference didn’t feel enough to have its mention here.

Grip – 7/10

Here the price difference started making some more sense to me. A mixture of the compound, tread design and the contact patch design helped me notice the difference in grip. Especially on corners. Most notably on the mountain roads. The car felt more precise, more in control and subsequently gave me more confidence to carry more speed. Having said that, since I have experienced this, the Michelin Primacy does offer even more grip and confidence.

Road noise – 6/10

This is where this tyre is a mixed bag. It has varying degrees of road noise coming on basis the kind of tarmac it is being driven on. And this difference is more than it was on the MRF. I felt on city roads it is a loud tyre. Anything about 60 kmph and you could notice the sound enough that I needed to turn up the volume of the car. And infact with this impression, I was expecting a hard time listening to podcasts on the highway at higher speeds. But on the highway tarmac, the tyre seemed to quiet down a lot more. There were some patches of highway tarmac that it became really loud, but on a whole it was very much within my acceptable range. But since the cars are largely driven in city, I will now have to deal with the road noise, which will keep irking me in times to come.

Fuel efficiency – 9/10

Now this is where this tyre shines. It is advertised to give 7-10% more mileage than regular tyres. This is due to its low rolling resistance nature. I can safely say, compared to my last trip to Himachal, the car returned 9% more mileage this time.

Not just that, this is the first time that any tyre change in my life actively made me change my driving style on the highways. I could feel the car go on longer once you leave the accelerator, albeit slightly, yet enough to make me change my style. Initially I had to brake more as with my current habit, I was expecting the car slow down in a certain distance. Instead it slowed down much slower and I had to increase my use of brakes. To adjust that I now kept lifting from the throttle much earlier than before. I feel that is what saved more fuel.

Overall – 7/10

If you are an enthusiastic driver, I think there are better tyres on sale – Yokohoma, Michelin and similar.

If you do not want to spend Rs.30,000 on a set of 4 tyres, there are cheaper options available too – Ceat, MRF, Kenda and so on.

I think these tyres lie somewhere on the cusp of where average ends and premium begins. If I could have, I still would have chosen to buy Michelins.

But I think for the most common usage these tyres are buyable, if you are willing to spend on its initial investment. If the mileage continues to be 8-9% higher than what it used to be, then the difference of price would pay out on its own before its lifetime.

Coming away from the tyres, I wanted to conclude with a line on this car. It has once again taken everything thrown at it. Affirming my belief even further that one does not need a 4x4 until you are going for extreme terrains. Leaving you all with a few pictures from the journey:

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