Across 56 owner ratings the Michelin Pilot Exalto averages 81%. Owners rate Dry Grip highest at 8.6 out of 10 and Road Feedback lowest at 7.6. 31 of those reviews come from owners past 10,000 miles. 88% of owners score it 70% or better.
I have a modified Opel Corsa 2006. Suspension : Bilstein B8 Sprint , HR springs and antiroll bars. As for the exalto 2 (195-50-15) I have to say that overall it is an excellent tire. Dry traction is very good and it has very good cornering stability too. Wet traction is very good also. (after all it is considered to be a rain tire) There is a problem unfortunately. Its responsiveness. Michelin tried to make a comfortable sports tire and the side walls are very very very soft. To us that have modified suspensions soft sidewalls ruin the cars responsiveness. In bends taken without pressing the car , the tire has an uncertainty which is annoying but as soon as you press more the exterior tread patch of the tire comes in contact with the road (1.6 degrees wheel camber) and the tire transforms offering grip and excellent stability. Now I moved to Yokohama Parada Spec-2 and the previous problem is fixed… stiff sidewalls at last. Not comfortable of course but who cares.
I've been using these tyres for around 3 years now and have been very impressed by them. They provide very good dry grip and have been able to keep the heavy nose of my car well in check when pushed, however the tyres really come into their own on wet roads. Performance hardly falls away at all in the wet and you can still push then hard. I didn't have to back off at all during a track day on these tyres that started dry and became wet later on. Very impressive! Wear rates are also impressive, lasting 17k miles on the front even with spirited drive and the rears aren't even half worn after nearly 30k miles. Been worth every penny of the (admittedly high) costs so far!
Not hugely impressed. Supplied as oem on my 08 Octavia vRS TDi. Reasonable dry grip. Seems a bit paradoxical but I found them very solid and reassuring through standing water at motorway speeds, but pants low speed damp country roads. Work that one out! I'm replacing them with Pilot Sport 3s at ?146 a corner, looks like a cracking tyre and cheaper than the Exaltos. No brainer!
The Michelin's were on the car when purchased in July 2006. March 2010 I have now done almost 50,000 klms - so obviously I am very pleased with these tyres. I now need to replace all 4 tyres & am thinking about reduced road noise. I have phoned around & done review searches on the internet & I am fast coming to the conclusion that I should stay with these Michelin's because I can not fault them at all & an MX5 tends to have that road noise anyway. The only time I need to be careful in the wet is at high speed in heavy storms hitting sheets of water flowing across the road - even in this situation the tyres & handling have never come close to losing control.
These are excellent tyres. They perform and last well, and I'm sure they improve fuel consumption by 1 or 2 mpg. On the few occasions I've needed them to really grip, they've done just that. I had a scare on some diesel on the road, but the ESP kicked and all as well a second or two later.
The downside is they are really expensive. The fronts do around 25K miles, the rears about twice that. I'm coming up to 75K miles and the fronts are nearing the limit. I'm not convinced by lesser tyres just to save money, and I suspect only Bridgestones are as good, so I'll be surfing the 'net for more discounted Exaltos.
Excellent grip in the wet, transformed the handling and confidence i got when changing from cheaper Marshal tyres, in the dry its very good, but wet weather is now very impressive whereas beofre with Marshal's it was scary!
Apart from the crazy price of ?90 compared to maybe Toyos at ?45 i'm considering buying them again as they were just so good and safe. I've suffered a bulging sidewall thanks to hitting a pothole so have to replace just the one. Even tho it will cost the same as buying 2 Toyos i will most probably bite the bullet and get the Michelin as it is a brilliant tire!
Very Very good tyre i had SO3's before and did not think i could find better but i was wrong. As soon as i drove away i could feel the differance it was like a differant car the drive was so smooth.
I bought the car as a daily driver (I have a performance car as well) So when it comes to tyres I was unsurprised by the Michelin OEM fitted tyres.
I do drive a car fairly hard and seeing the mileage I have got from them. Good all round grip, but think it is fair to say that with ESP/Quattro/Power Steering there is always going to be a degree of separation from the feedback/progressiveness.
During the snow earlier this year when they were 1/3rd worn they made light work of many snow covered roads and other surfaces. In fact the only challenge at the time was a hill which had iced over the snow - But the grip only failed because I stopped halfway up. Let's not forget they partnered the Quattro system.
Friends have suggested to try Falken 452's / Hankook V12 EVO's instead but I am swaying to replacing like for like as I can predict the mileage, handling etc.
