Michelin Pilot Sport 4S vs Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin X-Ice Snow

In this video we test the differences between a summer road tire, the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S, an ultra high performance all season tire, the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 and an extreme / nordic winter tire, the Michelin X-Ice Snow, on snow to find the real performance differences between the three categories of tires.

THE WINTER TIRE LAPTIME IS MEANT TO BE 1.23.91. The differences are correct.

Is a UHP all season tire really much better than a summer tire on snow? Can the winter / snow tire dominate the test? Watch the video to find out!

All three tires are leaders in their respective categories, with all the tires having won independant group tests in the past few years.

Each tire is tested in traction (acceleration), braking and a timed snow handling lap.

The tires were tested on snow at the Keweenaw Research Center in North Michigan, USA.

All tires tested are the popular 245/40 R18.

Any questions please ask below.

[KyleBrightman]

The only thing that would make this comparison more perfect would be including the CrossClimate2.

[JoeAchilles]

Absolutely loved this one again mate, really impressed with the all season, what a tyre! Keep up the mega work!

[mountainbiker]

7:52: "You join walking not sure why, but that killed me 😆😆 Thanks, once again Jon and Tyre Reviews for another incredibly informative video, keep up the great work.

[richwvu]

The first year I had my E60 M5 I got caught out in some sleet/freezing rain on the Pilot Super Sports that were on the car when I bought it. Even though nothing was sticking to the road, just a freezing, wet road made it almost impossible to get the car up the slightest incline out of the parking lot I was in at the time. That one instance made it clear to me the importance of tire designs and compounds, and I can assure that I will never make the same mistake again.

Great comparison / review as always!

[Rosskoflex]

People don't give you enough credit for being an excellent driver. At 6:40 I was like dayum. Very impressed

[matthewbrown]

Considering how well those AS4's perform in the summer, that's outstanding winter performance. I used to swap between a set of 235 width 19" Pilot Super Sports and a set of 225 width 18" Alpin PA4's on a Focus RS... In the summer it was compromised in anything but warm, dry weather (the balance with the PSS's in the rain was *not* good, grip at both ends was just binary), and in the winter it felt compromised until there was *actually* snow or cold rain on the ground. Now I run 235 width 18" AS4's year round and it feels better than either the PSS's or 99% of the time.

[alkalinetaupehat]

I would like to add that the All-Season tire is much less effective than the Winter tires in icy conditions, based on my experience in sub-zero temps in Alaska. Inclines and getting moving were very difficult if not impossible (ended up getting stuck several times) on the all-seasons. Winter tires negated this issue entirely.

Edit: Tires were Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4's and Continental VikingContact 7's.

[TranceFur]

Really an eye-opening test! I was surprised by how capable those all seasons are. Only 20% off the pace of winter tires in the snow, and probably less than 20% off the pace of summer tires on warm/dry pavement! That’s some seriously impressive engineering.

[idiosyncrisia]

Really making me want to switch off my dedicated winters (General Altimax Arctics) for these All Seasons. Instead of having 1 set UHP summers (Hankook RS4 for track and daily) and winters, I can do one daily All Season set year round and keep my fun time track tires off the car and for the track. Living in New Jersey, USA, our roads are plowed and cleared relatively quickly after a snow storm, but we all do our fair share of snow/wet road driving throughout the season.

Great video! Loved it, and I got caught out once in my WRX with the RS4s in a weird early november snowstorm. Looked really similar to you sliding about on the 4S, except I had 0 traction to get moving even with AWD. I literally could not get up/out of an on ramp (slip road?) and ended up getting hit by someone that slid a bit off the road. Friends don't let friends drive summer tires in the winter.

[jjmmjj]

video suggestion unless its already been done..
could we see equal tyres but worn?
so 1.0mm (illegal) vs 1.6mm (legal) vs 3mm vs new?
I think it'll be interesting to see in the dry how a "slick" tyre would do in the dry vs wet, and then equally with tread depth. Obvioulsy bald would be worse in wet, but by how much? Aquaplaning on the bald tyre is how much worse?

[chrisgerarddelossantos]

Phenomenal video and review! I have the Michelin AS4 in Seattle, WA and never felt unsafe in them. It rains almost all year round and it snows occasionally, so these tires are the epitome of an all in one. During the summer it handles great on my 04’ BMW 330i zhp. I will never look elsewhere for an ultra high performance season tire. Don’t forget it has 45, 000 miles tread warranty!

[mohammeddmalik]

WOW! As a long time PS4 user I am so impressed by that all season tyre! Can you test the all season vs. PS4 in the dry and wet to see how they compare? Awesome video!

[marcvalme]

The Tyre King!! I've reviewed every tire I or my family has owned on the website to show support. I've become my families Tire guru. The problem is I've become excited about tires but not many want to discuss 😆 it's better the politics!!!

[crazybuschris]

I put a set of the Pilot Sport All Season 4 on my Golf R this spring and was interested to see how it would handle a bit of snow. Well the snow came late and all at once. They weren't quite up to the extreme conditions but after the roads were cleared performed fine on hard-packed snow. I can corroborate that they perform better longitudinally than laterally, surprisingly so. In starting and braking the seat of the pants feel is that they work almost as well as dedicated winters. They fall off once you start sliding sideways though -- I'll put the Blizzaks back on for the rest of the season.

[karlrod]

Watching your videos is like watching a good series on netflix, the only difference is these once are super useful.

[wrxtr]

PS4S's on my 370z... stayed at a hotel at the Grand Canyon, walked out to the car at 5am, freak snow storm hit, 2-4" of snow... Ended up going 20-25mph for > 2 hours, white knuckle the entire way down to williams. Never again!! just the SLIGHTEST change in throttle input = car goes sideways, that's even just slightly taking foot off gas too. These were pretty well worn ps4s's as well... Just got new ones, however, I think next time, I'm going all seasons... Thanks for the great show!

[videomaniac]

What a fascinating comparison, Jon. This was very instructive, as I have the PS4S on my Z and was curious as to how it would handle under adverse conditions. As you mentioned, the PS4S performs surprisingly well for a maximum performance summer tire but it clearly was never designed to handle snow. I wouldn't even consider venturing onto roads with any kind of snow covering with these tires. The degradation of handling performance of the PS4S on snow is probably indicative of how most of these high performance summer tires would fare on snow. If I lived in a climate that saw snow in the winter I would have to keep a set of PS4S all season tires on hand to have mounted during the winter. This is one of the reasons that I like living in the San Diego and SF bay areas, as I can drive all year with summer high performance tires.

Keep up the good work.

BTW: I've put 20K miles on my set of PS4S tires and have barely worn off ½ of the tread. I can't rotate my tires but I have dialed in the correct inflation pressure for the tires and I am getting even wear across the tread.

[play]

This was so interesting to watch! I didn't expect the UHP all seasons to do that well haha - I just ordered the Crossclimate 2s so now Im going to feel even more confident about using them in the snow this winter ❄️

Now you need to try these in the summer 🔥!

[Billybobzzz]

Fantastic! I actually performed this exact test myself to show my friends what a modern high quality all season tire can do and what a summer tire cannot do (we al used to used summer tires but we all moved to a region that has light snow and even in the lightest of snow the summer tires were extremely dangerously slippery and we could not drive those cars until we switched to the high quality summer tires, after seeing you videos, of course, to select the best tires) Thank you! Well Done!

[lukaskremla]

These All Season look really good, I wonder how they gonna perform in summer. Definitely feels like more than decent choice.