Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin Pilot Sport 4S

Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin Pilot Sport 4S: What happens when you face off an all season tire against a max performance tire ? You will witness crazy trade offs especially on the winter surfaces & also some extra surprises. In this article we will pit the ultimate max performance tire from Michelin “Pilot Sport 4S” against its popular all season counterpart “Pilot Sport All Season 4” If you have not check out our previous coverage of Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Cross Climate 2, be sure to have a look. Pilot Sport All Season 4 was launched in 2020 with the main focus on the ultra high performance segment while Pilot Sport 4S was launched in 2017 with the max performance segment in mind.

Results

Results below were taken from a combination of 2 press tests. As the tire rack’s “Testing Michelin Tires Across Categories 2021” test only tested summer performance, we have to rely on Tyre Reviews snow test to evaluate the tires snow performances. The graph below shows the comparison between Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 vs Michelin Pilot Sport 4S based on the relevant performance category. The Pilot Sport All Season 4 was set as a reference hence at the 100% mark.

As both tires are categorized as all season tires, tire rack has included snow & ice in its testing portfolio. A detailed testing on snow including acceleration, braking & handling were evaluated. The tire size of interest is a 225/50 R17 for Tire Rack test while a 245/40 R18 was used for the Tyre Review test. 225/50 R17 is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Honda Accord on the other hand 245/40 R18 is a common size for Audi A4 & Mercedes-Benz C 200 Amg Line. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information.

Wet

The friction of coefficient of the tire/road dramatically decreases in wet roads compared to dry roads. Hence it is more likely to get into a road accident during wet conditions rather than on a sunny day. It was so important that the EU label has wet braking as one of its three criteria. With regards to our comparison, Pilot Sport All Season 4 has a big edge when it comes to wet braking, as it outperforms the Pilot Sport All Season 4 by braking 11 feet (3.4m) earlier. This was a surprising result as we did not expect an all season tire to be better than a max performance summer tire !

The performance edge in wet braking for Pilot Sport All Season 4 was not present in wet handling as the Pilot Sport 4S was rated 0.5 points better and has a 0.25 seconds advantage in lap time f Overall in the wet category, Pilot Sport All Season 4 has the better wet braking tire but was out-performed in wet handling by Pilot Sport 4S.

Pilot Sport 4S:

• -9% in wet braking
• +2.5% in wet handling (subj)
• +0.7% in wet handling (lap time)

Dry

As for dry, safety is usually not an issue as the braking distance is much longer than wet. However this is the default daily usage and the tires have to perform at a very consistent level. In this segment we would really expect a max performance summer tire to dominate but from the data, Pilot Sport 4S was only slightly better in dry braking compared to Pilot Sport All Season 4. The difference in braking distance was only 1.5 feet (0.45m).

However the differences were clear in dry handling as the Pilot Sport 4S scored a 8.5/10 rating while the Pilot Sport All Season 4 only managed a 7.5/10 rating. Even though dry performances favor the Pilot Sport 4S, it was not as much as expected from a max performance summer segment.

Pilot Sport 4S:

• +1.9% in dry braking
• +5% in dry handling (subj)

Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality

Ride comfort, noise & comfort was tested and the Pilot Sport All Season 4 was definitely second best with an overall rating of 7/10 compared to the 7.75/10 of Pilot Sport 4S.

Pilot Sport 4S:

• +3.8% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.

Snow

As Pilot Sport All Season 4 is rated as an all season tire, we were thrilled when tire rack included snow on its testing list. However the Pilot Sport 4S was not tested in Tire Rack’s program as its is classified as a max performance summer tire. Luckily for us, Tyre Review did a snow testing comparison between the 2 tires which we could use for our article ! From initial checks, Pilot Sport All Season 4 only has a M+S logo and not the legal conformed 3 peak mountain logo. This means that unlike its counterpart Cross Climate 2, Pilot Sport All Season 4 does not need to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation.

As we are comparing a summer tire vs an M+S all season tire, we kind of expected the all season tire to perform way better. As expected, the Pilot Sport All Season 4 dominated across all snow tests. It stopped 20.6 feet (6.3m) earlier than Pilot Sport 4S from a speed of 20 to 5 mph. While it was also quicker in lap time (68 seconds !) and also subjectively better in snow handling. This is the area where getting an all season tire would truly get your money’s worth when you are dealing with cold weather conditions.

Pilot Sport 4S:

• -39.1% in snow braking
• -75.9% in snow traction (time)
• -62% in snow handling (lap time)

Price

Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect Michelin to command the highest priced tire in the market. Both tires are priced at the higher end of the market with the Pilot Sport All Season 4 costing much more than the Pilot Sport 4S.

Tire size: 225/50R17

Pilot Sport All Season 4: $198

Pilot Sport 4S: $155

Difference: +20 % more expensive for Pilot Sport All Season 4.

Summary

Overall, both tires demonstrated clear strengths on different conditions. Pilot Sport 4S was strong in wet handling, dry conditions & comfort/noise while the Pilot Sport All Season 4 was strong in wet braking, snow & ice performance criteria. From our point of view, there is no clear winner in this duel and it depends what performances you value more (Winter vs Summer).

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