Bridgestone Answers Rav4 Run-Flat Questions

Many tyre retailers will have heard grumblings within in the trade about Bridgestone’s decision to refer owners of the new Toyota Rav4 to Toyota dealership for replacement of its BSR tyres. Tyres & Accessories asked Bridgestone if the company could allay fears that this move signalled a shift towards favouring car dealerships as a distribution channel.

The BSR is a run-flat system for standard profile tyres, which has been selected as an original equipment fitment on the new top-of-the-range Toyota RAV4 T180 diesel model.

In development since 2002, the BSR features a lightweight metal ring that fixes the bead on the rim of the tyre and supports the vehicle in case of a loss of pressure, enabling drivers to maintain control of their cars and avoid potentially fatal situations. As with Bridgestone’s self-supporting RFT tyre, the BSR can be driven on at a specified speed for a specified distance after suffering a loss of pressure, thus eliminating the risks encountered when changing a tyre at the side of a busy road.

“However, as this is still a new technology there are associated technical factors relating to the fitting of replacement BSR tyres, which have made it necessary for Bridgestone UK to adopt an alternate system of supply during the early stages of introducing the product to the UK market,” Bridgestone’s statement read, adding:

“These factors are: Specialised equipment is required to reset the TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System); Specialised fitting equipment is required to strip and re-build the tyre and wheel assembly; Both equipment and training are required to ensure safe and reliable changeover of tyres; the safety of vehicle and driver are Bridgestone’s primary concern.”

As such – the Toyota dealer network will handle replacement of these tyres in the short term until the equipment and training reaches the wider retail network. Toyota dealers have been supplied with one wheel/tyre assembly so they can perform immediate replacements on this model of vehicle.

In the event of a replacement tyre being required, Bridgestone UK is requesting that all consumers are referred back to Toyota main dealerships.

For more on this subject look out for an interview with Bridgestone marketing analyst Andy Dingley in the next issue of T&A.