Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus?
 

Hi, anyone running these tires? My dad has them on his '06 TL... but I don't "drive" his TL.

I was thinking of getting a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus; Costco is going to have that $70 off Michelin coupon thing starting Jan 2.

I had Potenza SO-3's on my Prelude before... good God those were excellent tires for Hawaii! Anyone know if the Michelin's are just as good or better?

I figured I'd ask the Hawaii guys for advice because most of you understand my spirited driving spots best (Pali, 13turns). :D

Honestly, I don't think the A/S + are all that good for aggressive driving. They are quiet, they have a 45k warranty, they are all season tires and they are definitely good for what they are but they aren't made for super aggressive driving. Our cars have the capability that can push past that of the A/S +. If you can swing the money, Super sports of course. Or Re-11's by bridgestone. BTW I work at the Costco in Kapolei installing tires :hello:

Damn you Chris!!!

I put the A/S+'s on my ISF, and it was better than the potenzas it came with stock

But Chris knows his shít, good guy

My money is still on the A/S+'s because I like that warranty, you beat on them, they (somehow) prematurely wear, and yay, your new set of tires is a lot cheaper! Lol

like you said...you wanted the warranty! lol. Premature wear with aggressive driving is normal for those. They are made for grandmas super car not son's GTR to put it into perspective :tup:

Super sports would be nice... but @ $450ea (costco's website)... I'm going to have to go with an alternative.

I do like the sound of that warranty...but what constitutes as super agressive driving? I'm wondering if it's enough tire for me; I don't think I drive too aggressive.... like.. the "fastest" I go, is prob around 35-40'ish(max)mph around a corner at 13turns (empty side)...in the dry.

How is the grip on the tires?

So, on the warranty, it will be halved because (I assume) you don't do tire rotations...
So 22.5k miles, (for the rear ONLY, the front carries the same warranty, THANK CHRIS for my knowledge on that). Now abnormal camber wear... AKA, ANY camber wear will void the warranty for the most part.

Also, the thing to do (for the most part) when your tires wear is to make sure they use your mileage in the warranty or pro rating for the next set of tires.
Usually they try to go by tread depth
(Sorry for the long anecdote)
Last car: Bought tires rated at 60k, drove like a maniac, did tire rotations every 2-3k miles (because I knew I was beating the tires)
Came back 6 months after original install at 14,500 miles, every tire was at 2/32nds (legally bald)

Original tire job was $400, if they went by tread depth they would pay 20% of what I paid towards new tires (tires start with 10/32nds, I left 2, meaning 20% left), so $80 off a new set

I told them to go by mileage which I had only achieved 25% of the stated "lifetime" of the tires... Meaning I'd get 75% off a new set
When they put it through the system it came up as free and all I had to do was pay $60 for all 4 wheels to be mounted and balanced.

So I paid $60 paid to drive 15k miles... With their new system, I believe they'd pay for the install but I'd actually have to pay for the tires, so even then the tires were $340, so I'd pay 25% of that for my usage $85.


All told, the real advantage is that I get to drive as hard as I want


Just upgraded the tires on that car to Michelins for like $100-150 as well


Oh, and NO WHERE (besides Costco and Sam's Club) does their tire warranties the same, the big tire chains use that ONLY in the evenent you get a nail or the tire has its own failure




As for grip, since the only car I know that had potenzas was my ISF, I personally think the Pilot A/S+'s were more quiet, offered a better ride (Marginally on both because the ISF is noisy and back breaking ride for my year), and the grip was MUCCCCHHHHH better than with the Potenzas


Side note, until I came to this car forum I didn't know people cared, but the tread on the A/S+'s is so deep, or aggressive or whatever that it wraps a decent amount onto the sidewall. It even took me a bit of getting used to, but a lot of people think it looks aggressive

It's an all season tire, it's not going to grip that well

So. I just mounted a pair of PSS a/s plus today and drove through a lot of crappy weather and snow around my 9000 foot elevation home in Colorado.

The tires grip well enough to limp around in the white stuff, (but the car is still a REAL handful in the snow covered ice). On the dry, the car is way quieter than stock (09 potenzas) and grips well, but there IS some sidewall roll. All in all, I think if I were to do it all again I'd mount true snow tires (Blizzaks??) for limping around in the snow and mount some PSS or other summer tire in the spring.

In short. pretty good tires for 1300 bucks but not superb snow or dry grip. Better to mount dedicated snow tires in winter and just suck up the crappy dry performance the give for the 3 months you cant use real street tires.

(I have a FJ cruiser to drive around when it gets heavy which factored in to my a/s tire choice. IMHO, if you DD your Z in snowy climates you should DEFINATELY get some real snow tires!)