Michelin Pilot Sport 4 Reviews - Page 22

I bought these PS4's because they have won several recent car magazine group tests and I wanted a set of up-to-date tyres that were capable in wet conditions.

My previous tyres were OEM Pirelli P-Zeros, it's not easy to tell what version they were because they don't have an obvious version number moulded into them like the PS4's.

The car rides better over surface imperfections, softening them out and giving an impressively comfortable ride compared to the P-Zeros.

Previously the car tramlined on roads where grooves had been worn into the road by traffic, it was enough to be slightly wearing on longer trips. The PS4's have reduced tramlining significantly, the car is very stable with barely any steering input necessary to keep the car where you want it to be. I can now sweep satisfyingly through corners with a single predictable steering input.

There is more grip, the front tyres do not scrub and understeer until much higher forces have built up. They feel as if they have a softer compound although I wouldn't bet on that actually being the case though as Michelin claim to have used some interesting technology in these tyres to balance grip with long life.

The fuel economy has dipped by about 2-4 mpg on motorway journeys, where I spend most of my time. I was getting 46-49 mpg on my commute but now I'm getting 44-45 mpg. I can't be sure about why that might be.

In terms of noise I'd say they are no quieter than the P-Zeros, however when riding over surface imperfections such as potholes and speed bumps these tyres have a soft, rubbery sound, whereas the P-Zeros sounded harsh, giving off a sharp thump. The softer sound compliments the improved ride quality.

I have driven the car in torrential rain on the motorway with a lot of standing water and these tyres are immense. The car stays true to its line, it resists aquaplaning far beyond expectations, braking is good and handling is extremely stable and predictable. Despite this tyre's other impressive qualities its capabilities in the wet are its best feature.

Been driving on these for about 20000+ miles on these on kinda messed up Croatian roads and so far they've been handling well. A bit noisy,but nothing unbearable. The only thing that concearns me is the overall tire life-got about 5+ inch grooves but considering my driving style (got the engine modded to about 180 bhp) and the overall road quality,they might wear out quite quickly.
Wet handling is quite good for a semi-performance tire and has plenty of grip. And aquaplaning capabilities are amazingly good. The only thing that is a concearn is extended breaking even at lower speed.
Dry handling is above expectations. These tires allow moderate to aggressive cornering although I personally don't support noor recommend aggressive driving. Also,the breaking path lenght is somewhat reduced even at higher speed.
Definetly recommend these tires and will buy them once these wear out completely.

I have PS4 on my Audi S1 and in all honesty I push them quite hard, I am getting the new RS3 when it becomes available too so I'll most likely be opting for the 19" to get the PS4S. I have used other tyres in the past and I have to say these have impressed me the most. I initially had PS3 on an Audi A1 1.4 from factory (before Audi started putting hankook on 'A' cars) and was super, super impressed so when my S1 came I switched out the factory tyres to the PS4 literally a few weeks later.

The PS4 tyres make the S1 much better to drive, much faster off the line and far better handling.

When it's dry, they grip very well and when things get wet I really don't notice any increased braking distances or loss of traction even when pushed very hard on a slippery country lane with hard acceleration on corner exit. I doubt you would get away with such early on power with some of the other tyres i've tried in the past.

Honestly with other tyres it's not hard to get the tyres chirping or slipping in the wet, with these you just simply don't get that unless you're launching hard or driving over the limit of physics. I often find myself pressing on when other drivers are squeamish in the wet, and don't get me wrong I'm not driving irresponsibly (I've done advanced driving and track driving so quite aware of safety) but these tyres do give me the confidence to travel progressively even in poorer conditions. I certainly wouldn't feel as comfortable as I do with some of the other tyres I've had in the past - including the ones that come from factory on the S1. If Audi fitted these to the S1 as standard it would really up the game in my opinion as they really complement the quattro 'grip' marketing. The two combined literally feels like nothing can unstick the tyres.

Especially those of you that have RWD cars like C63 AMG which are particularly hard to control in the wet, then a good set of PS4S should fix that for you :-)

Wear so far is very good, even with spirited driving and despite the tread being down to 3mm now they still feel like they did when they had 6-7mm. I'm nearly at 35k on these tyres too, so they have lasted very well in my opinion. If you drive more on the sane side, and have a sane car - then I would expect you to get very, very good life from the tyres.

Noise, yeah, a little noisy - but do I care? Not really, it's not intrusive.

Road Feedback? well, you don't get any with Audi's anyway do you? In fairness, I know when there is and isn't grip and thats more than enough. I didn't buy the S1 for road feedback or driving thrill per se, it's a damn good point A to point B car and the tyres give the extra assurance I want when combined with Quattro. At the end of the day, my thrills in a RWD are for the track so I'm more than happy with what these tyres offer for the road. It'll be interesting to see how the PS4S compare.

So overall, I am very happy and can't wait to try out the PS4S on the RS3 when I take delivery. I think this proves, a tyre can make all the difference.

Ok, so I purchased these to replace the winter tyres I had fitted on my a6 c6 3.0 tdi quattro. In terms of grip, I must admit these ps4's are supreme, manouvering between cars on the motorway feels incredibly safe and secure. The feedback and road handling is beyond words...you simply wont be able to loose traction with these tyres, whatever you do - they are literally glued on and give you that feeling of driving as on the rails both in wet and dry. They're soft tyres in terms of compound and ungortunately aren't as quiet as I would wish them to be, although in this size any tyre would struggle with noise... fuel consumption hasn't improved over my winter set which I hoped for. Can't really tell much about wear because its only been about a thousznd miles since I've got them however looking at the thread shows minimal - they do in fact look more like a race tyre in terms of thread and behaves as such. I had a chance to compare these in the workshop to other tyres like dunlop sport maxx rt2 which I also aimed for. Dunlop however had very thin walls in comparison to these, I mean so thing that when I dug my finger in it I was shocked, almost paperlike. These michelins have thicker walls although fairly flexible. The rubber on dunlops felt cheaper too. I also compared them to pirelli p zero which was my main target, however it's ratings put me off a bit - I was told and noticed in the workshop however that pirelli tyre in terms of build is supreme to other brands - they have the thickest sidewalls and never suffer from damage to their constructio, although they are superior in terms of build quality... that also impacts their noise and road feedback being the tougher compound and more complex thread. So there it is guys...hope this helped some of you and I'll post an update about the wear of this ps4 in few months however my audi has aquattro which eats through any tyres like mad so... good luck