Excellent wear, holds the road well.

None identified.

I did a lot of research before purchasing these tires 2 years ago and boy, did it pay off! I do more driving than most people, so I wasn't looking to need new tires every 8-12 months. I am now approaching the wear bars on the rear tires and still have considerable wear left on the front tires after driving just over 50,000 miles in this time. Now, had the mechanic, who I will not return to, actually rotated my tires front to back as well as side to side, I would imagine these tires could have taken me to at least 65,000 miles- I am assuming with the amount of wear left on my front tires this was not the case. I will keep the front tires on just to see how many miles I can get out of them, but I will definately buy these tires again.

Michelin quality, a "serious" perf tire not for posers.

Typically fast wear of high perf tire, expensive too! Better values exist IF high-speed driving is NOT required.

Bought Pilot Sports for summer road rally use and they lasted 3yrs for about 15k miles. You'll know when they're gone...they get really noisy! 3yrs ago, Pilots were about the only W-speed rated tires in staggered 245/45-17 and 275/40-17 sizes but now other brands are available at less cost. Would I buy Pilots again? Hell yes!! I've probably put over 3hrs of 130-160mph driving time on the tires and they worked flawlessly. Fact: Number 1 cause of "off-road excursion" in open-road rallying is tire failure. This can be fatal...tire choice is critical. For racing, I want a tire I can trust....price, noise, looks, etc, are secondary.

Similar Products Used:

Pirelli, Goodyear

Great stick.

Wear fast...so what?

Well,if yer complaining about squeal it's cause there tellin' ya there gonna break.Quit complaining about da noize.I took 'em around a 20mph decreasing radius turn @ 60! They hold. Enuf said.

Similar Products Used:

Dunlop 9000 Series

High Speed Rating, Look cool, People will think you're cool for having an expensive tire, they were fairly good in the rain (I live in Seattle and this is my daily driver car, as you can see I'm still alive :).

Noisy (squeal to easily), don't last very long

I'm writing this review now that I have something to compare this tire too, these are the original tires that I bought when I got my 17x7 tires about a year ago, in that time I went through 1.5 sets of tires, because I drove them pretty hard for starters, and 2) because I lowered the car and didn't correct the camber for a while. Anyways, I recently just purchased some new Bridgestone Pontenza RE730 Gen.2's from tirerack.com for $140 a tire, and now I realize that the Michelin's weren't worth it at all. The Bridgestones are in a whole league above them. The Michelins don't have as good of a tread wear rating, and don't grip nearly as well. The Pilot Sports were also a very noisy tire; when going around corners they would squeal very easily. I was able to take these tires to their limits once I lowered my car with eibach pro-kit springs, koni adjustable shocks, and some other suspension mods. These tires just didn't want to go there, and now I can see that I have a whole new level of performance/handling that I can take my car to with the Bridgestones. The size tire I use is a 215/45/17.

Similar Products Used:

Bridgestone Pontenza RE730 Gen.2's

Nice V design Good price

Not good in wet conditions, Very noisy, It slips

I prefered this tire because I thought that it would have a good performance in wet conditions and a good handling character.I tested it in different conditions and I marked that it wasn''t the right tire for me.Especially in wet conditon this tire is not very good.The car is simple reaching its limits.

Similar Products Used:

GoodYear Eagle F1 GS-D2 Pirelli P6000

- Good looking
- Smooth ride

- Noise level on rough road
- You should assume there is no rim protector

The handling and ride comfort is quite good on a max performance tires. But the rim protector is useless, it didn't thick enough to make the lower sidewall thicker than my Momo rim.

Tread Pattern and sidewall aesthetics very pleasing.
Quietness and supple ride.
Very forgiving and predictable at the limit.

Tyre squeal on slow corners and slalom.
Requires more lock at turn in than S01 & S02s.
Tendancy to develop flat spots on my car (1550Kg) if it was left undriven for more than 2 weeks; I had the smae problem with the S01s though.

I was looking forward to replace the OE set of tyres for my 1996 M-B C36 AMG with a set of S02 Pole Position but the distributor in Australia decided not to bring them in. Instead of replacing them with another set of S01s, I decided to give the latest offerings from Michelin. I paid the eq. of US$270 each. The 225 front tyres were actually a few dollars more expensive than the 245 rears!

Comparing the two tyres side by side without the fitted wheel, the Michelins were about 10mm narrower on the front tyres ( 225/45R17 ) and 15mm narrower on the rear tyres ( 245/40R17 ) than the S01s. This was not surprising as Bridgestone performance tyres are usually slightly wider than the quoted width.

In terms of quietness, being new tyres with even tread they were a fair bit quieter than the S01. If they were compared to brand new S01s, I believe they would be quieter.

Traction in the wet is fine except when the tyre rolls over the whiteline at traffic lights. By the time the traction control intervens the tyres would have been spinning ferociously for a second or two; this only happens when I floor the throttle at the lights on a wet road, under normal drving conditions they would be fine.

The most annoying aspect of this set of tyres on my car is tyre squeal on slow, 90 degrees turn or in a slalom suitation once slip angles exceed around 7-8 degrees. When this occurs they still grip while understeering mildly but the noise really attract attention. My wheel alignment is within factory tolerance and tyre pressures are fine too. Has anyone out there experienced this with the Pilot Sports? Obviously wider rear tyres would exaggerate the problem, but with the S01s on the same car b4 I have never heard them squeal, the most I would get from those S01s are tread noise as they distort under duress. I have since increased my front tyre pressure to 35psi cold and the squeal now occurs at higher speed.

Having read many reviews of high performance cars such as the new BMW M3, M5 and Audu RS4 which have the Pilot Sport as OE tyres and none of them mentioned any negative comment with respect to these tyres. I have even checked to make sure they are of the general fitment tyres and not Porsche spec N0/N1/N2 type or the BMW designated type.

On high speed corners they are very competent, a recent trip to the countryside in the SW region of Western Australia I was able to cruise at 190Km/h (118 Mph) in drizzing rain on undulating 2-lane backroads with mild sweeping bends. In these conditions the built in prgogressive nature really inspires confidence.

So far I'm reasonably happy with them. But just like new friends, all new tyres feel fine; it's only when the rubber has gone harder with age and there is less tread squirm when half worn they let you down when you need them the most.
I have covered 45000Kms on the set of S01s, I expect this set of Pilots to last at least 60000Kms.

I will summit a running report at around 20000Kms or a year's time.

Similar Products Used:

S01 OE, more positive turn in and takes a set quicker than the Pilot Sport as lateral force builds. Not as quiet or as nice ride as the Pilots.
S02: I have this set of tyres on my BMW 323i so any comparision would not be fair.

tremendous dry and wet weather performance. managed to get it to squeal a little on a hard right corner at approx 90km/h. surprising quiet tire. very good ride and comfort. beautiful looking tread design. driving the pilot sports on a 1999 200bhp vw golf gti w/ oettinger ecu upgrade. i think the bit i like most about the pilot sports is its handling and responsiveness (biggest plus point -- probably equal to the so-2s which i think are equal here). its difficult to get these fellas to fail. you can, but its difficult.

bridgestone's potenza so-2 pole position probably betters its wet weather performance. price -- vey expensive tires.

its a buy. but its expensive. traction, steering response, dry performance wet handling. quiet. beautiful.

Similar Products Used:

i had continental contisports before. the contisports were probably the best dry weather tires i've ever driven, better than the so-2 pole positions, falken grb tune2s and the pilot sports, but they are unconditionally the worst wet weather tires ever. a tire which understeers and gives you absolutely no confidence at all. i drove these for 11,000km (still relatively new) and dumped them for the so-2s. i used to use the falken grb tune2s -- good excellent traction and response, but noisy as 2 cats in heat at night. i quite like the goodyear eagles which gave good wet and dry performance, but i think the so-2 are the best. had these for a while and traded these for the pilot sport.

Incredible grip. Super responsive. Hard to get the tires to squeal in a turn. Great torque transfer to the ground for the Active Torque Transfer System. Cool V-shaped tread. Ride not harsh at all. Increased road noise minimal. Running 215/40YR-17s on 17x7.5 SSR GT1 Performance Wheels

High Price. About the most expensive I've seen, but ya live only once right?

Got the tires and wheels from the Tire Rack. Tires $229 each. Total Package $2347

Similar Products Used:

205/50-16 Bridgestone Potenzas (OEM). No comparsion.