| Pros | Cons |
| Record-breaking stopping distances on dry pavement | Expensive for most buyers |
| High wet traction allowing a stable and easy drive in the rain | The road noise can get a bit loud at higher speeds |
| Long-lasting tread life | Stiffer ride for the passenger as the steering is highly responsive for the driver |
| Excellent driving experience with excellent steering response | |
| Best-in-class wet braking | |
| Grippy cornering on dry tarmac |
The ultra-high-performance category of all-season tires is pretty crowded. More and more models come up but continue to get bashed by critics for their substandard traction and grip compared to summer tires. For a tire to stand out in the market, it has to bring something special to the table — like the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4. It’s one of the latest significant entries into a market segment that gets many new releases, but very few good ones.
The ideal ultra-performance all-season tires provide surefooted handling on dry and wet pavements with a certain level of usability on snowy roads. Luckily, the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 checks all of those boxes — at least according to the French tiremaker’s claims.
In this review, we’ll take a close look at the Pilot Sport All-Season 4 to see if it’s worth the price tag. Let’s get started!
Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Features
Michelin is marketing the Pilot Sport All-Season 4 as the ultimate dry grip, winter traction, and wet-road master — a true all-season champ.
The All-Season 4 is their latest addition to the Pilot Sport line, which has a separate fanbase within the ultra-performance tire niche.
The Pilot Sport All-Season 4’s tread compound features Michelin’s Helio Technology with sunflower oil. Michelin claims that it stays sufficiently flexible and pliable to help with stability and traction in winter conditions.
Moreover, the asymmetric tread pattern and large shoulder blocks help with overall grip, stability, and responsive steering. The extreme silica tread compound also helps maintain traction on wet roads.
Dry pavement performance
The Pilot Sport All-Season 4’s star feature on dry roads is the steering response. Any experienced driver could tell it’s a performance tire in the first two minutes of driving around with these.
There’s a ton of feedback from the road, making it an exhilarating driving experience. The car feels well balanced and stable even at higher speeds, with a confidence-inspiring sense of control all the way through.
Cornering is the best part. The sheer amount of grip on these tires is unbelievable, especially when you take it for a spin for the first time.
You can enter and exit sharp corners at considerably high speeds without ever feeling like you’ve lost control. In that respect, the Pilot Sport All-Season 4 performs no less than a top-tier summer tire.
Furthermore, the All-Season 4 also has remarkable braking performance, with some of the category’s shortest braking distances on dry pavement.
Thanks to the excellent longitudinal traction you get from these tires, there’s also no wheel spin with quick acceleration.
It’s easy to rank the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season among its class’s top 3 performance tires. With exceptional traction, best-in-class braking distances, and grippy cornering — there’s not much more a driving enthusiast can ask for!
Wet performance
With all of those compliments on exceptional dry tarmac performance, you’re probably already expecting the tire to flop in the rain. Well, that’s the general theme with most tires—however, this one’s different.
The Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 aces every aspect of its performance in wet conditions. The tire is genuinely impressive in the rain, offering fantastic handling, strong wet traction, grippy cornering, and record-breaking stopping distances.
Snow performance
Surely, the Pilot Sport All-Season 4 has to fall apart in one of these categories — right? There has to be a caveat to all of these positives — right? Not quite.
While the tire’s snow driving might not necessarily be as good as a winter tire, it’s still more than usable in light to medium snow.
The traction levels are good enough to allow acceleration, responsive braking and to keep you on the road. Realistically, you can’t expect much better snow mechanics from an ultra-performance all-season tire.
Ride Quality
Remember when we praised the highly responsive nature of these performance tires on the dry tarmac? Well, in terms of ride quality and comfort — the same advantages become disadvantages.
If you’re a driving enthusiast, you’ll enjoy feeling every steering input vibrate through your cabin — but your family won’t have as much of a good time. Even a speed breaker can feel like an earthquake — especially if you own a performance car with stiff suspension.
The tires communicate each blemish of the road’s pattern to the cabin for enhanced steering response — and frankly, that’s how a performance tire should behave. It’s natural for it to lag behind in the comfort department.
It’s not like all ultra-performance tires behave this way, though. Other competitors handle rough patches and broken roads more comfortably, but it’s definitely a weak zone for the Pilot Sport.
Luckily, the noise isn’t so bad, but still considerably louder than most of its premium alternatives. The high-pitched tread growl becomes more annoying at faster speeds, but it’s reasonably bearable driving around the city.
Conclusion
Michelin has gotten into a habit of setting industry-wide standards in almost every tire market segment it touches. With the Pilot Sport All-Season 4, the French tiremaker has certainly propelled the category to all-new highs on various performance metrics.
If you love driving, you’ll love this tire — it’s that simple. Regardless of whether you drive it on dry or wet tracks, it’ll urge you to push it to the limits.
Not only does it grip and corner like a top-tier summer tire, but it almost stops as quickly as one.
As a cherry on top, it also works just fine in winter conditions on slightly snowy surfaces.
If your budget doesn’t hold you back, and you thoroughly enjoy responsive driving sessions — we recommend buying the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 without a second thought.
