Tire and Wheel Sets

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
February 26, 2013

From other reviews, it seemed this tire would change my life. It did not. You still slip, slide, and can easily get stuck in snow. Yes, these Michelins are better than all seasons, but the difference is nominal given the cost of a separate set of tires with new wheels. However, I can now equip the car with summer tires on the stock wheels, and the combined advantages may make the purchase worth it. Just do not expect a sea change in snow traction when equipping your car with winter tires.
Dry handling is absolutely fine, and road noise is reasonable. Still at new tread depth after 3k miles. If you see only 1-3 major winter storms per season, I would save the expense of winter tires. My Avalon does not have traction or stability control...perhaps that would help.

Initial Review, 700 Miles on Tires
February 27, 2013

This tire came standard with the Toyota Camry Hybrid LE. These tires are rated low rolling resistance (LRR) and thus they might provide a better fuel efficiency. They perform well on dry or wet roads in the city. Cornering could be better; if your driving style is rather spirited, you will notice some sliding of the rear wheels when taking a turn too tightly. Where this tire disappoints is on wet and cold pavement. I drove up to Snoqualmie pass in Washington state last weekend and at 70 MPH going uphill on the wet freeway (outside temp 38 F) the tires lost traction and the car felt like it was slightly skidding. I had to slow down to 60 MPH. It wasn't really confidence inspiring. The tires handled well on slushy snow, although brisk acceleration caused the wheels to spin and the anti-skid light to come on. I have not had a chance to test these tires on ice or deep snow, yet. I always carry tire chains in the trunk just in case.

Overall, this tire is ok for driving in the city if you don't expect lots of snow. If you like to drive up to the mountain passes or you expect snow in your area, make sure that you have tire chains or install a set of winter tires in the winter. Also, this tire feels generally rather stiff, at least compared to the Pilot Exalto A/S that we had on the old car. I would not buy this tire myself and I wished that the Camry had come with a more reliable tire like the Primacy MXV4 (or even the Pilot Exalto A/S).

Initial Review, 3,000 Miles on Tires
January 31, 2013

Four of these tires with studs makes a front-wheel drive car a brilliant performer on ice!

We live on a gentle hill that became slick as snot after freezing rain last week. It was so slick that it was perilous to walk down the sidewalk. But with their studs, these tires did great -- going down the hill our Mazda 3 never lost any traction. Even when I tried stepping hard on the brake, these studded tires did not slip even a little.

Besides ice, we've driven on a couple of inches of snow and with a set of four we had no problem in our front-wheel drive Mazda 3.

I bought these from TireRack, who also installed the studs and mounted them on rims. What we received from TireRack was ready to mount on the car, which we did at a cost of $25 at the local tire shop at the beginning of the snowy season. This was a good customer experience.

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
January 30, 2013

I have a 24 mile commute (one way) to my college campus in southwest Wisconsin. The plows aren't the best at keeping some of the roads cleared, and they can remain in pretty poor condition for quite some time after we get winter weather. After having a few close calls with some poor-quality all season tires, I decided to purchase a set of X-Ice Xi3's for my 2010 Ford Fusion.

I've had these tires on my vehicle for about 4,000 miles now, and have driven through a variety of poor winter weather driving conditions. I cannot say enough good things about these tires. Traction in light and deep snow is excellent. As long as I have ground clearance, these tires will grip with minimal wheel spin, and get me through it. Braking is much better too, as compared to regular all-season tires. Ice traction is much better than all-season tires. Hydroplaning resistance and wet traction are also excellent.

When the roads are clear and dry, the dry traction is also excellent. However, when cornering or with steering responsiveness in general, these tires can feel a little bit "spongy", as most snow tires do. However, I hardly notice it, and feel it is much improved over the previous generation of X-Ice snow tires. The ride comfort is excellent, and the treadwear is great (they're still practically new with over 4000 miles on them). These tires are also extremely quiet, however I have noticed they do make a little noise when driving on wet pavement, but even that's quiet.

In closing, I think Michelin did an absolutely amazing job with these tires. I highly recommend them, and will be purchasing another set of them once my current set wears out. These tires obviously can't overcome the laws of physics, give you perfect traction, and make you invincible/unstoppable in winter weather. However, with some winter driving experience and using common sense, they can make your winter driving experience much more enjoyable, and a whole lot less stressful.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
February 03, 2013

It rarely snows in Portland, but some life changes required that we drive over the Cascades to Central Oregon in winter. This is the first set of dedicated winter tires for this car, and I'm very happy with them. I had zero traction issues with my RWD car, even when climbing fairly steep hills with 2-4" of packed snow. No issues descending, either. Sure, I could slide the tail under power if I chose to; but that's not unexpected. At near highway speeds (45-50) in the mountains, I encountered patchy ice with a lot of embedded gravel and chain rutting interspersed with wet pavement at temperatures at or just below freezing. The car tracked beautifully; on occasion I could feel it squirm just a bit but that wasn't even enough motion to light up the ESP warning light...so the car wasn't alarmed by the level of traction. The tires do "sing" more on dry surfaces than my Pilot Sport Al-Seasons, but the level of grip in true winter conditions is far, far superior. I'll only put this set of wheels on when snow threatens or when we need to go over the mountains, so they won't be worn all winter. At this rate I'll get many years of service out of them.

Initial Review, 40,000 Miles on Tires
February 24, 2013

I live in the UAE and these tires have turned out to be a very good, inexpensive, on/off road tire. They have given 3 years of use mounted on a relatively light, short-wheel base 4x4. If it wasn't for local laws stating that I have to replace them due to the manufacturing date, I could probably get another 20,000 miles from them. The original tire size was 235x75R15.
In the sand, I run them at 12-15 psi and have never had a problem getting stuck in normal running. If the sand is very soft 10 psi lets me float over the dunes.
They have also been very good on-road tires, quiet with good grip around corners even when pushing hard. Can't report on how they handle on wet roads, doesn't rain here enough to give an honest report.
I like them so much I bought another set of the same tires for the truck last weekend.

Initial Review, 30,000 Miles on Tires
February 25, 2013

These are great tires. In fact, they are the best all terrain tire I've ever used. They go like stink in sugar sand, as long as you air down to 18-20PSI in 4HI. They laugh at fire roads, gravel, shale, and even wet grass and offer extremely responsive steering. Broncos have short wheel bases, and these tires have transformed my truck into a "corner carver". They are ABSOLUTELY SILENT. Even after 30,000 miles, they remain silent and evenly worn, unlike a lot of all-terrain tires. Because most of my off-road excursions include sand driving, I need a tire that guarantees I don't get stuck. I have NEVER been stuck with these. One word of caution, though (an I find their name to be a bit of a misnomer): They are not indestructable. Although they offer great proetection against puncture, their sidewalls will quickly get trashed if you rub curbs, as with most passenger car tires. Some "side biters" or sidewall protection would be nice, as I live in the real world, and not on the sand dunes. The other major advantage to these tires is their light weight, which reduces unsprung weight, increases power to the ground, and increases fuel economy. I have ended my search with these tires, and will be installing a set on another truck of mine shortly.

Initial Review, 45,000 Miles on Tires
February 21, 2013

This was a replacement tire for the original OEM Wranglers that were junk took them off at 20,000 and never looked back, This is my second set of these BRIDESTONE tires and love them. They ride very nice at high-speed with loss noise, My truck is all wheel drive so when the front wheels get about 50% wear i find the truck gets a bit squirrely in the corner when wet. I probably should have rotated them more often.I have a porsche 911 that i drive hard and find myself driving the same way in my truck. These tires have very little roll and handle very good in the corners. i am ready for 2 more tires for the front but im going to purchase all 4 because the tread has changed over the years and don't want to mix it up and have a performance issue. I live in Newengland with unpredictable weather and the tires have never let me down.Hope my review Helped you with your decision.....Scott

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
February 18, 2013

I just purchased the new ZIIs and ran them for a day at a POC time trial at Willow Springs, and I was very impressed. The dry grip is excellent as expected, but their greatest asset to me is the steering response and communication. I can really feel subtle changes in grip through the steering wheel and seat, which is invaluable for track use. I was the only car in the run group on true street tires (all of the rest were R-comp) and my times were top 6 out of the group of 20 or so). The rear end grip in the slower uphill Omega section of the track was particularly impressive.
I had 7-8 sets of the Z1 Star Specs for track/street use in the past few years, as well as a couple sets of Hankook RS-3 since then. The Z1 Star specs are the best all-around tire that I have experienced in terms of a dual-purpose street/track tire and dry/wet grip for the money. The Hankooks have excellent mid-corner grip in the dry and are dirt cheap, but I felt the sidewalls were too soft and the steering response/communication was not as good as the Z1 Star Specs. They also had no grip in colder ambient temps (below 60 F) and in the wet. The Z1s had excellent grip during the wet track days that I ran them on and would only hydroplane in deep standing water. Judging by the massive tread blocks on the new ZIIs, I am not sure if they will be quite as good as their predecessor in the wet. However, I did have to drive through some slush/light snow in 30 degree temps for a short period on the ZIIs on the way to Willow Springs (which is of course NOT recommended with this type of tire!) and they actually did pretty well! The excellent communicability of the tires conveyed that there was not much grip available and I never felt unsafe. I will report back after more track events (I will run them back to back with my Toyo RA1s at Streets of Willow this weekend), but I am extremely satisfied with the ZIIs so far!

Initial Review, 50,000 Miles on Tires
February 24, 2013

I've probably never been more satisfied with a tires all around performance than I am am with these. Replaced the OEM Dunlop (junk) with these and have been extremely impressed. The only imperfect aspects of this tire are that the didn't normally hold balance for any longer than 6-8k (not bad for a rig that was kept outside), and there isn't a very prominent center line, so they don't pull your wheels straight on the highway like a touring / highway tire would. Dry, wet and snow traction are phenomenal, and I never expected to get 50k out of them, yet here I am, just about ready to throw on a new set.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
February 19, 2013

This is my first set of dedicated winter tires. I should have bought these tires many winters ago. It makes a front wheel drive car almost as good as all wheel drive. They are far superior to all all season tires for driving in snow.

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
February 22, 2013

Fantastic tire. I am using this on a rear wheel drive high torque (430 ft/lb) diesel 3 series. I live in NE Pennsylvania so need excellent snow ability without giving up any dry traction. These tires handle precisely and are quiet. A set of these on a high power rear wheel drive makes you think that your car has four wheel drive in the snow while retaining the finesse of rear wheel drive in the dry. Highly recommended!!!

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
February 15, 2013

To sum it all up: Buy these tires. I've driven a 3.8 Genesis Coupe with both PS2's and PS3's, and after having seen how grippy the PS2's are I went for the PSS's seeing as how they are the upgrade. In wet conditions, I never had issues going around a corner at higher speeds than average, commuting, or even driving in pouring storms (literally). In dry weather, they grip like melting butter. After I had them mounted/aligned, I immediately felt that they were very sticky and planted, this being even before the break-in period. At high speeds (ahem), turning was no issue, and it felt like you were actually going the speed limit. I do want to chime on colder conditions since I see that's a concern of many; these tires do absolutely fine in cold conditions. I had to drive 3 hours in 30-35 degrees in the early morning (Thanksgiving commute), I didn't slip once or lose traction, and I was driving a bit above the limit but kept it down because of the conditions. Attribute bad driving to those reviews! I just bought a set of new wheels and again purchased the PSS's. Only downside is sizing (Michelin, please make some 275/40/18's, thanks), but other than that, you will not be disappointed.