JattMundazAcura

So I need to replace my tires. I wanted to buy the Michelin Primacy MXM4s for my base 2006 TL, but it seems as though they are out of stock everywhere and there is no indication of when they will be available again.

What are your takes on the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S Plus? As these are available. I am looking for a tire that provides comfort, good handling and reasonable tread life. So a jack of all trades rather then a master of one. It should capable of performing decent in the dry, rain and snow. If you could give me your opinions on this tire that would be great!

I have been reading a lot of worrying posts on the Michelin Pilot Sports A/S Plus as of late and just wanted to make sure if it is okay for me to go with this tire.



Thanks!

csmeance

I absolutely HATE the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires. I had them on my 760 and they are warrantied for around 40K. Since I have a staggered setup the tires were only warantied for around 20K. Well 8K miles in I end up fish tailing in the rain across 3 lanes of traffic because my rear tires were BALD.

Even worse than this, I bent one of my front wheels with the A/S Plus.

Michelin refused to give me a new set or even pro-rate them and only offered me 200 dollars towards PS2's which were 2K for the set!

I now am a Continental owner; the DW sit on my 760 and have for 3 sets now (22K out of the rear and almost 35 on the fronts) and the DWS sit on my TL (40K out of the set easily).

If you want a tire meant for Dry, Wet and Snow, the DWS is your answer. Master of all 3 actually! If you want a tire for Dry and Wet, then DW is your answer.

LaCostaRacer

^ I agree with csmeance's assessment too.

I was a former owner of the A/S Plus tires. The warranty is 45K and I wound up replacing them at 25k miles because of extreme wear on on inner/outer edges of tires- both rear and front.

I would not recommend those tires if you're interested in long tread life. Costco doesn't sell them for a good reason: people really complained about the tread life.

My Yokohama YK580 tires are actually better in some ways: noise, and improved MPG in particular. I do say the A/S Plus tires are pretty good in the rain when they are newer, but the YK's are pretty close in many ways too. I hear the DWS tires are very good so go either way or check out the Nitto Motivo's as well.

pohljm

I agree with the above. michelins are overrated and overpriced. Been running General UHP's or Hankook V12's since and like everything about them. running the Yoko YK580 and their newer replacement on the Odyssey and Lexus and they have been fine.

cabose369

wow. I thought I was the only one that had premature wear on my A/S Plus'. Exact same balding on the inside and outside edges of the tires. In my case though I only got one season out of them. With some help from Costco I got them warrantied. I bought Michelin Pilot Super Sports and love them.

I hate the MXM4's.

I personally hate Continental's. Only had bad experiences with them.

Therefore, I can only voice my opinion on the Super Sports:

Amazing grip, like you thought you knew what grip was... not after you have driven on these tires. Amazing in rain too.

The only downsides are it doesn't get great gas mileage, they are summers only (not a problem since I have winters) and they are not as quiet as all-seasons.

George M. Rankin

It took the guy at Sears almost a week to track down 4 - Primacy MXM4 for me. I think he eventually went straight to Michelin. I have only had them on a week so I can't speak to tread wear. We will see.

sockr1

iTrader: (5)

I did a lot of research for all season and came down to wanting the continental dws for the best performance and value. However when I was looking there was a backlog on the tires and after more research I went with the fairly new kumho ecsta 4x. I am selling my ecsta 4x with 80% tread wear left and can give you a great deal shipped on the black market forum (https://acurazine.com/forums/car-parts-sale-361/kumho-ecsta-4x-tires-245-45-17-a-873976/)

Even if you don't want my specific Kumhos check out this link below. Tirerack ranked the best all season performance tires. Conti DWS was 2nd kumho 3rd and pilot sports 6th (no mention of primacy but I heard bad things as well)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...jsp?type=UHPAS

Either way good luck!

Jackass

There are several of us with edge wear issues on the Pilot Sports A/S+ on here. Not sure why someone said Costco stopped selling them since my local store still sells them. I really liked my Pilots until the edge wear was noticed. They are fairly quiet, do great in the dry and rain, and were acceptable in the snow. Far from great in the snow, but I could get around the little bit I did drive in the snow with them.

The Pilot Sports A/S+ and the MXM4 are in completely different categories of tires so it will be difficult to truly directly compare them. The fact that you said comfort and tread life generally means you should shy away from UHP tires and lean more towards Grand Touring which is what the MXM4 is.

I am currently working through a warranty/goodwill attempt with Michelin now to get new MXM4 tires. If that falls through I will be going with either DWS or Serenity+ so my car is drivable this winter.

Bearcat94

I wrote off the wear issues on my first set to camber and abuse (I beat the crap out of them when new). Made it 30k miles. However, there seem to be quite a lot of people with the issues, so maybe there's more to it than what I originally thought.

2nd set seems to be doing OK, but only (I guess) 10 or 15 thousand miles so far.

I like the tire (PS A/S+); they seem to have good grip, response, etc. But I am concerned about premature wear.

Maybe BS Pole Position 960 or 970 AS? Or Pirelli PZero?

Blooze

This ...


I went with the Primacy MXM4's primarily because I wanted more of a comfortable ride. That and the OEM Pilot's were still wearing as true as could be at 50k miles, which is what sold me on staying with Michelin.

I have been very happy with them. Comfortable, as quiet as I could expect, very good cornering and great braking and wet performance. Haven't had them in any snow yet.

Also, the MXM4's were first in their class in Tire Rack's testing:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=138

tlman2006

Don't even think about Pilot Sports. Read the other threads here and elsewhere - the edges prematurely wear.

mb1976

I am planning on going with Primacy MXM4's cause right now I have the Bridgestone Serenity's and I hate them there noisy it's wearing slightly on the outer edge

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

I have the Primacy MXM4 and I absolutely love them. So far I have put 52K miles on them and I'm still at 4-5/32. I am not kidding. It's almost all highway driving though. I am going to get another set after the winter.

Ride comfort is good. Noise is better than most. Traction in dry and wet is very good. Snow traction is good. Even at 4-5/32 I had no problem in snow.

The Primacys are the 4th set of tires I have had on this car. I bought it with the Hankook Ventus V4 ES H105. Horrible tires. They were cupped but they were extremely loud and I did not like the wet traction.

I also had the DWS. I did not like them. I know a lot of people swear by them but I though they were loud and I could not keep them balanced. I believe they were probably a bad set or mounted poorly but it turned me off them.

After the DWS I had the General UHP for a week. I needed to try them for Conti to approve a refund.

Brian2006

Previously had a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus for my 2006 Acura TL and was happy and the handling and attractive tread pattern but they suffered the same edge wear/delamination issue like so many others have reported.

For that reason this time around I purchased a set of Michelin Primacy MXM4 W-rated. So far they seem to provide a great combination of handling and comfort.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

I ended up getting just shy of 60K out of my MXM4. I center weared my tires a bit more because I ran a cold 34-35 PSI. 2 of them were at the wear bar and 2 were at 3/32. I probably could have gotten another 2-3K miles out of them if I really pushed it.

I am on my second set of Primacy MXM4. Same as the last ones. Good balance, almost no road noise and good comfort and handling.

I HIGHLY recommend these.

jms515

I went with the A/S 3. About a year and a half later and only 20K I need to replace the front and back have little life left. Costco said they would give me 5 k of warranty on front which amounts to probably $20 - They said that on cars that have staggered tires such as mine the manufacturer cuts the price in half. Of course they want me to replace all 4 at once and then apply $70 coupon.

I was reading on other forums about heavy edge wear on these tires. Debating if the MXM4 would be any better as Costco carries them too. Though then again - hoping to sell my car within 6 months so tread life may not matter much.

t-rd

MXM is crap in the snow if you are in the snow belt.

jms515

I'm in Atlanta. So not a lot of snow but still they do not know how to pave down here like up north so roads can get icy in January/February. Guessing A/s 3 are not much better in snow.

t-rd

You can easily do a 180 turn if you just pull the e-brake with the MXM on, even worse when the tread wear down. You should get Continental DWS.

jms515

I know I am on an Acura forum but these tires are for an Infiniti G37s and I do not think Continental has tires in my size.

225/45ZR19/245/40ZR19

Jackass

Old thread....but...MXM4 is fine in the snow...not wonderful, but just fine. Not having any of the "odd" wear patterns on the MXM4 that I did on the Pilots Sports.

t-rd

Sorry, but MXM4 is below average in the snow in the Chicago area. I almost got into an accident twice because of it. I start sliding bad from sudden braking efforts in light to mid snow condition on the roads.

Jackass

Assuming Chicago gets quite a bit more snow than KC....so I would agree they are not acceptable for winter use in Chicago. KC only has a couple of snow events a year. In those few events, the MXM4 is fine to get around in.

I don't care what tires you have on your car, sudden braking efforts in the snow is going to cause you to slide. The only differences will be how long the slide is. Only having proper snow/ice tires will really help you that drastically in any "sudden" actions on snow.

t-rd

Nope, not with snow tires. Sudden braking effort on my Blizzack winter tires yield little to no sliding effect. Way better than those MXM. Also, the Michelin Primacy MXV4 are WAY BETTER than MXM, even in snow. I drove on both of those sets in all conditions for over 60k miles, I know what's good and bad. MXM also slides in the rain when the tread wears down, not MXV4. MXM also wears out faster, and very expensive because they are OEM on the Accord V6. I have not gone back to the MXM since I wore through the first OEM set.

You don't have to believe in my review and go ahead and get them if you insist on spending that money.

Jackass

Well duh.
Actually good to know. I never knew the differences in the MXM and MXV truthfully. The reviews are difficult to know if people are talking about the Pilot or Primacy versions and what their expectations are. I already have MXM4 on my car and have been happy so far. When their time comes...which will probably be next fall, I will be off looking around at my options again and I'm sure there will be many more tire threads on here discussing what everything thinks is the latest and greatest. Very few threads get very far for the non-performance oriented tires though. Having a great debate on the Grand Touring tires is what I am usually after since my "requirements" are very different from those that lean towards the UHP tires. I have no doubt that the people that like to flog their cars a bit will absolutely despise the MXM as well as the MXV tires.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

I laugh every time someone from Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Canada or other places in the snow belt complain about the performance or ANY All Season touring tire.

At the end of the day that is what the MXM4 is. I am on my 3rd set of them. I got 59K miles from the first set and replaced them with about 4/32 left. Got 57K out of the second set and replaced them with about the same. I've put about 6K on the current set. That's over 110K miles on MXM4's. They are NOT great in the snow. But they are adequate.

I have the option of a 4WD Pathfinder if I need to go out in heavy snow. I've been able to drive with less than 4 inches of snow with no issues. Then again....I'm 40 and have driven 20 years in the NE.

If you frequently have to drive through 4+ inches of snow and ice then you should have snow tires. A touring tire is not going to work for you.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

But there does not seem to be any MXV4 that fits the TL.

I also do not 100% agree with the MXM4 sliding in rain unless you are below 5/32 thread. I swapped my last set out in November and the previous set in January. Both sets saw rain and some snow below 5/32 and I will admit that if I was driving way too fast I will feel it slip.

t-rd

I stand with my review, laugh all you want. So you are saying you should test tires in perfect conditions? Sure, every tire is perfect if you drive in California, but that's not the point. That's why you go on tirerack.com and read the reviews from those with 1 or 2 ratings, those are the picky and meticulous enthusiast drivers that really pinpont a particular tire's problem. If you drive on any tire like a grandma, you aren't going to slide in the rain. I drive the way the car should handle, and I corner faster than what the posted sign says. MXM4 slides in the rain with moderate to hard cornering. It handles well in dry conditions, not on wet surfaces.

I should add that if you pump the MXM4 to a high PSI right between 40 and 44psi, the center belt will wear out faster than the outside edges. This is what happened to me when I ran it at 40psi to get better gas mileage. This same thing did not happen on the Yokohama Envigor.

Get what you want, it is your money. If you really have the money, then get 3 or 4 different sets of rims and tires for all conditions.

WheelMcCoy

Hang on... you drive hard and enthusiastically, but you pump up to 40-44 psi to get better fuel economy?

The Primacy MXM4 comes in "XL" (extra load) form which can accept higher pressures (and higher cargo weight), but most tires are "SL" (standard load). With high pressures, you get a firmer sidewall which helps in cornering, but you also reduce your contact patch so your grip in rain and snow will suffer. Also, high pressures make your tires into basketballs and work your suspension harder. Soft tire pressures have problems of their own, so it's important to find a good balance that matches your driving style.

The Primacy MXM4 are asymmetric, and that's supposed reduce road noise. Also, the big tread blocks on the shoulder help in light snow. I don't know how they handle in deep snow and ice, because I've swapped in Michelin XIce Xi3.

I have used the MXV4 many times on other vehicles, and like them a lot.,, and I like them more than the MXM4. I have heard, however, that both the Primacy MXM4 and MXV4 will be discontinued, replaced by the Michelin Premiere A/S.

t-rd

I can't pump to between 40 and 44 psi to get better fuel economy and corner fast? This discussion gets stranger and stranger. I run 40 psi regularly on the Yokohama Envirgor and corner very fast and still get between 30 to 34mpg on my Accord V6, and the contact patch isn't reduced. They don't balloon up toward the middle belt like the MXM4. I run lower psi only in the snow on snow tires.

I also have a set of Blizzak snow tires. But if people want to instinctively ignore and criticize my reviews because I've driven on both MXM and MXV for 60k miles, then go right on ahead. I don't have to give my opinions and I'll rate the MXM 5 stars just like people who have driven on them for only 500 miles and write a review on tirerack.com. This is how I got sold into those first generation of CRAPPY Goodyear Eagle F1 tires that start howling after 1000 miles.

Jackass

We can't win. You are right. The MXM and MXV are just garbage. What's your thoughts on brands of gas? I am sure I am doing that wrong as well.

RaviNJCLs

iTrader: (4)

JasonK

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t-rd

Consumer Survey Results By Category

WheelMcCoy

Here's another video -- driving a RWD FRS with winter tires FTW.