Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus vs Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4: After covering 2 of the best ultra high performance tires Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus vs Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4, we would like to continue the trend by introducing another premium competitor in the form of Pirelli’s P Zero All Season Plus. Similar to its Michelin counterpart, Pirelli’s P Zero All Season Plus is a dedicated region tireline specific to the North America market. It was launched in 2016 and covers most of the 17-20″ popular sizes. The Pilot Sport All Season 4 on the other hand was launched in 2020 with sizes primarily above 16″. Let’s put them in a head to head battle and see who comes out on top!
Table of Contents
Results
Results below were taken from tire rack’s “Testing Premium Ultra High Performance All-Season Tires 2021” test. A total of 4 tires were tested this time around. The graph below shows the comparison between Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus vs Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 based on the relevant performance category. The P Zero All Season Plus 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 245/40R18 which is a common tire size for Audi A4 & Mercedes-Benz C 200 Amg Line. You can check out our latest tire size table for more information. The testing vehicle for this tire test is a 2020 BMW F36 430i Gran Coupe.
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 was dominating when it comes to wet braking, as it totally out performed P Zero All Season Plus by braking 12.3 feet (3.7 m) earlier.
Pilot Sport All Season 4 continued the trend in wet handling as it managed a 0.68 seconds advantage in lap time over P Zero All Season Plus. However subjectively, both of them were ranked almost the same with P Zero All Season Plus having a tiny tiny margin higher of 7.38/10 compared to 7.36/10 of Pilot Sport All Season 4.
P Zero All Season Plus:
Despite the deficit in outright grip, it was a pleasure to drive if kept within its limits. Driven to the tire’s abilities, it was predictable, balanced, and freely rotated in a controllable and satisfying way. Start trying to match the pace of the other three products in this test, though, and it could easily get out of sorts as the driver attempted to overshoot the tire’s capabilities.
Test driver feedback on P Zero All Season Plus
In a nutshell, from the test results it can be shown that Pilot Sport All Season 4 is clearly stronger in wet compared to P Zero All Season Plus.
Pilot Sport All Season 4:
- +12% in wet braking
- -0.1% in wet handling (subj)
- +2% 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. Once again Pilot Sport All Season 4 showed its objective strength in dry braking by out braking P Zero All Season Plus at 3.7 feet (1.1 m) .
The trend however was reversed as P Zero All Season Plus was just slightly better in dry handling with a subjective rating of 8/10 while Pilot Sport All Season 4 had a 7.8/10 rating. Lap times were closer with P Zero All Season Plus only 0.13 seconds faster.
P Zero All Season Plus:
The Pirelli felt the most agile of the group, dancing through the slalom and around corners exactly as our drivers intended. A slight deficit in outright traction for braking and ultimate lateral grip kept the tire from leading in every objective metric, but the Pirelli did the best job of easily maximizing everything it had to offer.
Test driver feedback on P Zero All Season Plus
Overall, Pilot Sport All Season 4 has an edge in dry braking while both tires perform really close in dry handling.
Pilot Sport All Season 4:
- +4.6% in dry braking
- -1% in dry handling (subj)
- -0.4% in dry handling (lap time)
Noise/Comfort/Ride Quality
Normally in an ultra high performance segment, noise & comfort is usually not the main requirement. People who drive fast cars prefer to focus more on traction/braking performances rather than subjective comfort Anyhow the ride comfort was tested and the P Zero All Season Plus was ahead with an overall rating of 8.05/10 compared to the 7.29/10 of Pilot Sport All Season 4.
Pilot Sport All Season 4:
- -3.8% in average of Noise, Comfort & Ride Quality.
Snow
As both tires have been rated as an all season tire, we were thrilled when tire rack included snow on its testing list. From initial checks, both tires do not include the 3 peak mountain label to legally certified the tire as a winter tire. Hence they do not have to pass a certain threshold of snow traction level as determined by the legislation.
The numbers were really shocking in snow performances as Pilot Sport All Season 4 totally dominated across all snow tests. It stopped 11.3 feet (3.5m) earlier than P Zero All Season Plus from a speed of 25 mph (40 km/h) to 0. It was also extremely good when it came to snow acceleration as it took 7.4 feet (2.13 m) less distance to accelerate from 0 to 12 mph (20 km/h). While it was also quicker in lap time (8.5 seconds !) and also subjectively better in snow handling (+0.83 points). Overall, Pilot Sport All Season 4 is clearly the better snow tire
Pilot Sport All Season 4:
- +19.2% in snow braking
- +22.1% in snow acceleration
- +4.2% in snow handling (subj)
- +12.2% in snow handling (lap time)
Ice
With such dominating performances in snow, Pilot Sport All Season 4 continued the trend in ice. It was better in ice braking as it stopped 13.3 feet (4.1 m) earlier than P Zero All Season Plus. While in acceleration, it took Pilot Sport All Season 4 1.02 seconds faster to reach 60 feet compared to P Zero All Season Plus.
Pilot Sport All Season 4:
- +22.7% in ice braking
- +18.1% in ice acceleration
UTQG rating
We have previously shown that UTQG tread wear rating can be a good indication of your expected mileage. Below are the UTQG values of both of the tirelines.
| Brand | Tireline | Size | Tread Wear | Traction | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michelin | Pilot Sport All Season 4 | All | 540 | AA | A |
| Pirelli | P Zero All Season Plus | All | 500 | AA | A |
Pilot Sport All Season 4 has a mileage warranty of 45,000 miles. while P Zero All Season Plus has a slightly higher mileage warranty of 50,000 miles. Even though Pilot Sport All Season 4 had a higher UTQG tread wear rating, it still provided a 5,000 miles less mileage warranty compared to P Zero All Season Plus. Considering all the factors, we can safely assume that both tires have roughly the same expected mileage performances.
For more in depth information about UTQG, please check out this article here. We even have a free download on the latest UTQG values from the leading tire manufacturers.
Price
Being the undisputed technology leader, we would expect Michelin to command the highest priced tire in the market. This was in alignment as Pilot Sport All Season 4 was found to be 23 dollars more than P Zero All Season Plus.
Tire size: 245/40R18
Pilot Sport All Season 4: $232
P Zero All Season Plus: $209
Difference: +10% more expensive for P Zero All Season Plus.
Summary
Overall, Pilot Sport All Season 4 showed clear dominance on wet, objective dry, snow & ice surfaces. P Zero All Season Plus on the other hand excels in dry handling & noise/comfort performance. In our opinion, Pilot Sport All Season 4 is the clear winner for this duel with overall dominant performances in both winter & summer conditions!