Performance tire with an identity crisis
Written: Jul 03 '05 (Updated Jul 04 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good handling on dry and wet pavement. Comfortable ride for a sport tire.
Cons: Very expensive.
The Bottom Line: These tires are neither true performance nor true touring tires, but something in-between. They are quite expensive and provide low bang for the buck. Handling and ride are decent, though.
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| castlevermin's Full Review: Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 Passenger/Performance Tire |
These tires came stock with my recently purchased 2004 Acura RSX. In the past several months, I’ve put about six thousand miles of use on them, in winter, spring and summer, in various kinds of weather and on every road imaginable.
The following is my opinion of these tires based on about five months of use.
Overview
These tires are one of Michelin’s several takes on “street sport” tire; the Pilot MXM4 reside on the milder end of the spectrum, which means that they sacrifice some of the sporting performance in favor of characteristics important in day-to-day driving. They come as original equipment on several sports-luxury cars, like Acuras and BMWs.
Sport tires are meant to deliver superior traction, handling and feedback in sport-driving conditions; these are generally assumed to be fast driving along a twisty road, primarily on dry pavement. “Real world considerations” encompass just about everything else—tire wear, performance in the wet and on the snow, ride quality, tire noise and price. As a rule, all of these multiple goals conflict with each other, and every tire is necessarily a compromise. Let’s see what compromise the Michelin Pilot MXM4 tires strike…
Performance in the dry: 8/10
These tires perform well on dry pavement. They do not break traction readily in turns or under acceleration. These Pilots let you take off from a stop very fast. While better drag-racing tires exist, these will suffice for 99% of all street situations; unless you do actually drag race the tires will serve you well in that regard. The performance in hard turns is better than in a straight line; through all the highway on-ramps that I took, sometimes at double the suggested speed, the tires never felt strained (except for the howling, but more on that later). I always felt confident that I could accelerate, brake, or make steering adjustments mid-corner, and there was traction in reserve to handle these demands.
The feedback returned to the driver is good; you always have a good idea of what’s going on at the contact patch. In fairness, the feedback depends both on the car and the tire, and I haven’t driven my Acura with any other tire yet. In any case, I am satisfied with the feedback the car/tire combination is giving me.
Now, about the howling… these tires squeal very easily, when turning, braking and particularly when accelerating. Taking off from a stoplight, the howl is just a light pedal tap away. Whether this is by design or not is hard to tell, but I do not like it; I prefer my tires to be quiet.
Performance in the wet: 8/10
These tires do reasonably well on wet pavement, especially considering that they weren’t really meant to excel in this category. The traction is reduced, of course, but the reduction is not dramatic and is entirely manageable so long as you keep it in mind; this is the case with all tires, really. The feedback provided to the driver is still good, although again you have to be a little more attentive.
Performance in the snow: 6/10
The MXM4s can be used in the winter, and they’ll actually do a passable job, but they won’t like it and they will definitely let you know. The traction drops dramatically on snow-covered roads; this is the case with all tires of course, but these suffer more than others. The driver has to be aware that the tires are pushed out of their comfort zone, and compensate by slowing down and/or braking earlier. Turns have to be done deliberately and carefully, more so as the speed increases, as the car tends to understeer. Driving up steep snowy driveways is nevertheless possible—a pleasant surprise.
You can make do with these tires in the winter if you are careful; ABS and traction control also help. The Pilots were not designed for the cold and the snow, however. If you can afford it, buy a set of winter tires—you will be safer and happier.
Comfort and sound levels: 7/10
Pilot MXM4s provide reasonable level of comfort for a sport tire. The ride in town and on the highway is smooth and not punishing. You do feel the potholes and the expansion joints, but they don’t rattle your bones. The noise level is higher than I would like, but again, acceptable for a performance tire. At surface-street speeds the noise is negligible, and picks up once you hit about 70 mph.
Treadwear: ?/10
I haven’t owned these tires long enough to form a definite opinion of their durability. Michelin’s website gives them a wear rating of 7/10, which suggests that they should have a decent useful life. The tires have not worn appreciably since I first got them, and I expect them to last at least another two years.
Surprise conclusion
You cannot say that these tires are bad tires; in fact, they are quite good, as my ratings above indicate. And yet, I cannot recommend them, for two reasons: their price and their “identity crisis”.
Let’s talk about the identity first. These tires aim to bridge the gap between performance and touring tires, but in the end, they turn out to be neither. No matter what tire you’re after, you can get a better tire for the job than the MXM4. There are plenty of touring tires that will give you a better and quieter ride, better performance in the wet and the snow, and longer tire life; the more expensive ones will even satisfy your craving for an occasional blast down a twisty back road. There are also plenty of performance tires (including some by Michelin) that will make a better sporting tire than the MXM4, because they were designed with fewer compromises.
The identity crisis is not the worst of it, however—the price is. Pilot MXM4s are extremely expensive for what they are. Michelin Canada website quotes the MSRP for these tires of $257 Canadian (around $200 US). That is simply too much to pay for a tire that’s neither fish nor flesh.
While I’m happy with these tires overall, I plan on replacing them with a different tire when they wear out. The current plan is to go with a premium touring tire, such as Michelin’s HydroEdge or GoodYear’s ComforTread.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 800
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Epinions.com ID:
castlevermin
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Reviews written: 17
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