Well, as I said earlier, I swapped out the OEM tires for the Pilot Sport A/S. Still in the break in period so I am not driving hard yet,but I can say, the road noise has dropped a little - not a ton - these are still HP tires. It is a noticable difference though. I would reccomend them to anybody who wants out of the crap OEM tires.

 

I have Michelin Pilot Sport A/S aswell and have been pretty happy so far. The dry traction could be a little better, wet traction I would say is pretty good and snow I have yet to drive in (w/ these tires).

 

Does Michelin say they will last longer than 10 laps?
Sorry, couldn't resist, I'm just so angry at Michelin for the farce of a 'race' they caused in Indy yesterday. They just aren't real high on my list right now.

 

Wondering which OEM tire each of you switched from to the Pilot Sport A/S? I am not sure whether all RLs come with the same OEM tires although they may. My RL came with the Michelin Pilot MXM4 tires which are listed on the Michelin website as being for luxury touring cars (or something like that) and sports cars. The Sport A/S is listed for sports cars. For comparitive purposes of their own tires Michelin uses a 10 point rating system in a variety of categories. Between these two tires the MXM4 tires seem to be rated higher across the board by Michelin. I do take issue with the Michelin noise rating for the MXM4 as it is given a 10 for being quiet but that is not my experience at highway speeds. Pretty noticeable tire noise at speed imo.

If you both switched out of the MXM4 tires then it sounds like you are more pleased so far with the Sport A/S?

 

I believe they all come with the MXM4 tires.

By far the sport a/s is better.

 

Nationally Acura uses the same OEM tire for all RLs.

I switched out of the OEM tires for the 17" Sport A/S after my dissatisfaction with the level of noise.

The new Sport A/S tires are quieter on all surfaces. They are extremely quiet on concrete, which used to be the loudest surface.

If you want the reactions of owners of each of these tires, visit tirerack.com. The OEM tires are ranked last out of all the tires in the same catagory. Less than 1/3 of the owners would ever buy them again.

Acura will never attain the high-end reputation of Lexus if they continue to install such a poor quality tire and leave it up to the owners to spend $800+ to get a quality ride.

We'll have to wait a few months to see what they do with the '06 RL.

Dave

 

I agree with what Dave has to say about the high end reputation (well everything he said really - especially the quietness of the tires on concrete) but we should keep in mind lexus is using the EL42's that everybody complained about on the TL - for some of their cars. I believe the new GS has the EL42 tires.

 

"If you want the reactions of owners of each of these tires, visit tirerack.com."

I had looked at this too and saw the clear Tiretrack preference for the Sport A/S but thought that might be due to the fact that Tiretrack would have no incentive in getting favorable reviews for OEM tires but certainly would for high priced replacements. The first two reviews in this thread seemed positive about the Sport A/S but not overwhelming so. It is curious that Michelin would rate the MXM4 tires higher relative to the Sport A/S when it would seem they would likewise have more incentive to "advertise" replacement tires.

I only recall good things being said/written about the Sport A/S and it is available in the 17" size which I am leaning towards rather than having two sets of wheels/tires by going to the 18". Also, 18" is too wide for winter traction in occasional snow. I wonder if part of the benefit people are seeing in changing to the Sport A/S is that they have also gone to the 18" wheels. Anyone stay with 17" wheels and have the same positive response about the Sport A/S tires? Thanks.

 

I stayed with the 17". I drove straight from the dealer to Belle Tire (I think they are local to detroit area - maybe not) and they paid me $540 for the MXM4 tires. I ended up only having to pay about $340 for the upgrade to the sport a/s. Good deal if you ask me, I was happy I got out of them right away.

 

Who would have thought that my wife's 03 Volvo XC90 T6 AWD (18') has the same OEM Michelin MXM4 tires as my 05 RL (17")? Just noticed this. Those vehicles have pretty much zero in common but yet Volvo and Acura both decided to outfit these vehicles with the same tires. Not exactly a high performance tire for the new "super handling" marketing of the RL. The sh-awd does not make for great handling but why put these kind of tires on it when other tires surely will allow the car to better reach its potential? At least in the 17" size it looks like the Sport A/S is the only real option since the other well regarded tires don't seem to come in this size for the RL.

 

My wife's '02 Ford Tbird also has the HX MXM4s on it. Seems to be a popular tire with the manufacturers. They do seem to wear pretty well, but I'm looking forward to moving to Pilot Sport A/S. I also don't understand why the MXM4's are almost as expensive as the Pilots.

 

Just saw my typo in the above quote and apparently too late to edit. It should of course read "The sh-awd does make for great handling...". Sorry for the confusing text.

As others have noted the sh-awd allows the RL to corner at speed as if on a rail. I don't think the OEM tires detract from that aspect but as I mentioned I don't think they allow the RL to reach its potential either. The high performance summer tires in 18'' wheels should be wonderful but for simplicity sake I would like to try to reach a decent compromise with better performing A/S tires on 17" wheels. At the moment there doesn't seem to be any competition for the Pilot Sport A/S at that size.

 

Someone needs to try either:

Toyo's or Bridgestone S03's if you REALLY want a sport tire that grabs the concrete ! S03's were designed for racing "in the rain". I had two sets on my 2001 Acura CL Type S. Made a WORLD of difference !

 

"Someone needs to try either:Toyo's or Bridgestone S03's"

I haven't seen these available in the OEM wheel size. Also I may have read that the bolt pattern also limits the availability of alternative wheels. Alternatives are available but not too many. At any rate it gets pretty expensive to have to change wheels also just to get new tires (increased hassle factor too). The revised RL is less than a year old so the menu options should only increase with time. Interested to see whether the introduction of the 06 model will also include a wider selection of tire/wheel accessories.

 

Nu rubber with OEM rims......ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm......ok.....Here is the same snitz I got with the Acura CL "in the early run of a new production car".....

DO NOT CALL TireRack.com.....they will NOT sell you the tire that will fit just fine on the OEM rim.....
You have to find a competent LOCAL tire shop that will assist you ! Trust me, they will have a tire that will fit the OEM rim, but yes it will be limited and perhaps pricey, but hey ya drive a 50K car, quit being a cheap monkey !

Only concerns were IF I had 3 400 lb women in the car, hauling A$$ across the Arizona desert with tempuratures in the 100 plus and driving at 120+ mph I COULD ENCOUNTER A WRECK !

I told him I had a better chance of getting struck by lighting in Iraq !

Now don't call TireRack and ask them cause they will make note of your inquire and NOT sell you those tires.....that was the LAST time I did business with those folks !