Just got a set of Michellin Pilot Sport A/S tires (stock size) installed on my '06LS Ultimate to replace the virtually new factory Michellin Pilot MX MXM4 tires. I decided to replace the MXM4s because I was not particularly impressed with their performance on my '02. And since I will be driving on winter tires during winter, I did not want to use a compromised all-season tire for summer. Granted the Pilot Sport A/S are also called "all-season" but really they should considered to be 3-season tires. Unlike summer tires, they are good in cold weather but are inferior to typical all-season tires on snow and ice (based on reviews). Where I live we get a grey-area between summer and winter (commonly referred to as autumn) where we get a wildly varying combination of hot, cold, wet, dry, ice, frost, snow, dry, warm, wet, cold, etc... I did not feel confident in asking "summer" performance tires to try to maintain traction in these conditions, and I didn't want to have to mount the winter tires early and burn through them on pavement that is warm and dry 90% of the time. The Pilot Sport A/S, I decided, would be the best compromise. They are AA traction rated (vs. A for the MXM4) and 400 treadwear (vs 300). They are well-known to be an excellent tire in wet conditions.
My driving experience so far:
In terms of wet performance, the PS A/S are far superior to the MXM4. No contest. You certainly can trigger the traction control off the line on a wet road, but you probably never will when driving normally. I used to set off the TC much of the time on the MXM4s. The difference is... remarkable, to say the least.
Handling is great. I cannot comment on whether their cornering performance is better than the MXM4 because I did not push the MXM4 to their limits on the '06. My '06 is still new (around 1000 mi) and I haven't pushed it very hard yet. For the same reason, I cannot comment on dry pavement acceleration, but I would expect them to be superior based on the ratings and design. I unnexpectedly had the opportunity to test the dry-pavement braking distance (50 mph to 0) of my '02 on MXM4s recently, and was not impressed. That played a big part in my decision to buy performance tires.
Comfort is (at least) as good as the MXM4, which is somewhat surprising, considering that the MXM4 is a "grand touring" tire specifically designed for comfort on luxury cars. The road noise on the PS A/S is actually less than the MXM4 on rough pavement! On good smooth pavement, both are equally silent. There may be very slightly more 'drumming' noise when driving over cracks and tar lines.
I will likely have the opportunity to test these out on both ice and snow sometime before I mount the winter tires, so I will report back here at that time.
Overall, I would recommend these tires as an upgrade to anyone wanting performance tires while maintaining wet- and cold-weather practicallity.
My driving experience so far:
In terms of wet performance, the PS A/S are far superior to the MXM4. No contest. You certainly can trigger the traction control off the line on a wet road, but you probably never will when driving normally. I used to set off the TC much of the time on the MXM4s. The difference is... remarkable, to say the least.
Handling is great. I cannot comment on whether their cornering performance is better than the MXM4 because I did not push the MXM4 to their limits on the '06. My '06 is still new (around 1000 mi) and I haven't pushed it very hard yet. For the same reason, I cannot comment on dry pavement acceleration, but I would expect them to be superior based on the ratings and design. I unnexpectedly had the opportunity to test the dry-pavement braking distance (50 mph to 0) of my '02 on MXM4s recently, and was not impressed. That played a big part in my decision to buy performance tires.
Comfort is (at least) as good as the MXM4, which is somewhat surprising, considering that the MXM4 is a "grand touring" tire specifically designed for comfort on luxury cars. The road noise on the PS A/S is actually less than the MXM4 on rough pavement! On good smooth pavement, both are equally silent. There may be very slightly more 'drumming' noise when driving over cracks and tar lines.
I will likely have the opportunity to test these out on both ice and snow sometime before I mount the winter tires, so I will report back here at that time.
Overall, I would recommend these tires as an upgrade to anyone wanting performance tires while maintaining wet- and cold-weather practicallity.