Winter Driving on Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s
 

Swapped out the stock Michelin HPs for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's about two weeks ago. I liked the HP's, they where fun to drive on and the fuel efficiency was wonderful. But, I've read that they are not the best choice for Winter driving. Since my FRS is my daily driver, I wanted something more appropriate for Winter, but I didn't want to be swapping-out dedicated Winter and Summer tires.

So far, I find the PS A/S 3's to be very sticky in dry and wet conditions, but I've yet to try them in snow. That'll happen tomorrow as we are expected to get a few inches in the Maryland area.

Fully realizing that A/S's are not as good as dedicated snow tires in the snow, and for those that own Pilot Sport A/S 3's, what has been your experiences with your FRS in the snow?

Following this thread. I'm looking for a DD tire that can get me out of a pinch if I get caught in a snow storm. I mostly drive around down South but still need to visit the fiance in Ohio.

billyk, will you please update with your experience in the snow?

From my personal experience:

DO NOT USE THE PRIMACY HPs in the SNOW - EVER

Please excuse this public service announcement: Now please return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Sure - I plan to.

Here's an interesting comparison of snow, A/S and Summer tires...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2wTg0l3_wI"]Winter Snow Tires vs All-Season Tires vs Summer Tires testing on Ice - YouTube[/ame]

A/S's are definitely an improvement over Summer tires, but they are also limited in snow. I've always owned A/S's on my cars and I know what to expect with FWD cars. But the RWD aspect of the FRS introduces a new variable for me. I am hoping that with careful driving, the Pilot Sports A/S 3's are usable in Winter weather on the FRS.

Yup - I got this message loud and clear here on this forum!!
Hence, the new A/Ss after just 4 weeks on the HPs.

I personally don't even mess with A/S tires as in Maine they are 3 season tires. From looking at the tread design I expect them to be marginally okay if you deal with small inclines.

My first set of winter tires were a Dunlop wintersport. Those did great until I had to go up steeper hills at lower speeds. I switched to a dedicated snow tire after they didn't cut it where my old fwd car could pull through without a problem.

I think you need to take into consideration how much snow you expect, how often it will snow, and how long you expect it to be on the roads/surfaces you will be driving on. For a place like MD, I don't expect you to get as much snow, nor it to stay on the roads or snow often as it does here in OH. You may be able to get away with the A/S tires, as long as you drive carefully!

What Hunter said.
I have drove many a RWd car on all seasons through all kind of snow/ice conditions. The ASs are usually fine for smaller amounts of snow or even brief periods in deeper snow. Snows are only essential if you are going to spend longer periods in deeper snow or extreme ice conditions.
With RWD cars in the winter how you drive is much more critical then what you drive on for tires.

Sage advice guys.
Thanks!

@billyk I'm in Baltimore area and have been using pilot sport a/s 3 since last winter. It's been OKAY so far except when we had 5-6 inches of snow sometime last year and I had hard time trying to get out of the snow spot. I was going to home from work, just to clarify I didn't drive just to fool around. It can't go up the hills on snow road at all. My tires are wearing to the bars now, so I bought a pair of those Autosock in case of emergency. As others said, drive with HIGH caution and try to avoid snow covered road.

Geez - you've worn out your PS A/S 3's in one year? Yikes!

haha I know right? I've been going to track and back roads a lot this summer and tried to learn how to drift, so this tire went through a lot.

I did exactly what you did and for the same reasons last year. Live in the NJ area but I change the HPs to Michelin Primacy MXM4 All Seasons.


Was disappointed on how the BRZ handled in the snow with the All Seasons. Was all over the road and even when not moving if there was a crown in the road the car would just slide to the side!


My other cars with All Season tires did much much better. I concluded that the low profile nature of the tires just don't allow for much grip in the snow.


As you know, tomorrow will be our first snow (expecting 1 inch). I'd be curious how the Pilot Sports work out for you. Hopefully better than the MXM4s did for me!

Well the commute into work this AM in the Baltimore area was 2 hours long instead of the usual 30 minutes. We are on our way to having 3-4 inches of snow. The timing of the snow this AM really made the roads dangerous in my rural area, as nothing was cleared or salted yet.

I've got a relatively long/steep drive followed by a similarly steep hill up my small rural street. Reverse up the drive slipped a bit and 1st going up the street also slipped for a moment. In both cases, traction control kicked-in and I started to move. 2nd gear was good for getting up the hill. When my wife tried the same path a hour later with her Accord she couldn't get up the street at all. She returned home. Although we did not have much accumulation, there appeared to be ice under the snow in plenty of areas making travel really dicey for all cars. Everyone was going very slowly on the side roads.

My Beltway commute was in a couple inches of snow or slush and the PS A/S 3's did well. I shutter to think what the HP's would have been like. Again, the roads were deceivingly slippery - I watched a Camaro spin right in front of me and off the side of the Beltway. My FRS sped by just fine.

I felt that driving really carefully was the ticket, as I could have lost contact with the road at any point if I pushed it. The PS A/S 3s functioned predictably, and with caution, they felt safe. The FRS with these tires felt like cars I drove when I was a teenager prior to FWD popularity - not at all like the AWD SUV's I've driven more recently - but definitely capable.

As Tcoat said:
"With RWD cars in the winter how you drive is much more critical then what you drive on for tires."