Just installed new tires on our Phaeton. The old Michelins were actually dangerous. For reference, I'm not talking about driving through giant puddles at high speed; every time this happened we were on the freeway. So -- I researched everything out there and settled on the Michelin® Pilot Sport A/S (255/45R18). All I can say is... WOW!!! What a huge difference in performance; the car turns in much better and grips like crazy. These tires should be standard on this car! This tire seems to improve on the factory tire in every area of performance, and is supposed to be superb in the wet as well.
I have the Pirelli Nero M&S. A very good tire in all regards. Quiet, smooth, decent ride, wet and dry capabilities, and they last a long time compared to MXes or Azenis.
Luckily Bridgestone has a 30-day test drive program where if you're not happy with the tires for any reason, you can return them for a full refund. I walked into Curry's, told them I didn't like Potenzas and walked out with a set of Michelin MXV$ Plus tires.
I'll admit that the conjecture about the P Zero Neros had me a little bit worried, too. The only thing different is that I also had mine siped by the installer. We had our first real snow last week (4-6" of heavy, slushy stuff) and the Pirelli's were great! Lots of traction. Very controllable. I'm sure that dedicated snow tires would be better, but I'm very pleased so far.
Glad to hear it!!!! My wife forced me to stop being cheap. She insisted that I get the set of P Zero Nero M+S early last month as a precaution since the F1s are supposed to turn to stone in cold temperatures. I'm glad I listed to her. We recently had a bit of a cold snap that would have taxed the F1s. Now that I know you've had good performance in the snow, I'm even happier and I know now that I should be good for the winter (Maryland - Mid-Atlantic Winter that is).
I too was pleasantly surprised with their performance. We've received 3"-4" in the last couple day here in Utah, and I've gone out searching for bad roads and have no problems at all with anything that I've come up against. Whether the ESP is on or off you just point it and go. I find them completely acceptable for an all-season tire, and will gladly buy them again when I need new tires.
Finally I can provide some feedback for anyone wondering how these tires perform in the winter snow and ice. Honestly, after reading a number of posts where people were critical of tires of this type I expected handling just a bit better than an ice-skate... (IMHO) these tires did a whole lot better than I expected. I had a number of unplowed side streets with 4-6" of snow depth to navigate in the early morning as well as a combination of slush and iced over roads and I had no problems to speak of.
Don't know about the Toyos but the PS2'S are great. They handle excellent in the rain and in the dry. High Speed stability is excellent as well.
I run Michelin XLT 'all-seaon mud and snow' tires, which are great in rain and ok in light snow, but frankly in real winter-y conditions are not good enough.
averick I did run the XGT V4's which were from the factory.. again I still stand by my word that those tires were ASS.
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