Tire: Pilot Sport A/S 3
Category: High Performance All-Season
UTQG (treadwear): 500 AA A
This Pilot Sport A/S 3 is one of the best performing tires in this category. Developed to be a low profile, high speed tire for sports cars and coupes, it does a great job at giving you track performance while still being able to handle all four seasons. I'd say it's more able to handle dry and wet versus snow conditions, which is pretty typical for higher performance all season tires. In this case, Michelin used their Helio compound (made with sunflower oil!) and also utilized their Extreme Silica Technology to help make sure this tire would have good traction in low temperatures. The tread pattern was created to make sure the tire would have high amounts of lateral grip, which you'll notice when cornering with these tires.
By any objective matter, this is a great tire. In fact for this segment, it has some of the shortest wet stopping distances for braking that have been tested. So for the money, you'll have tires that you know you can count on for wet traction. They'll give you about 50,000 miles of life, but every driver I've spoken with says that proper rotations are essential. Also, most say that you'll notice some more road noise if you're replacing older, less aggressive tires with these. I'd say that while those two points good things to note, I wouldn't let them scare you away from looking at these tires. I think that in terms of combining all around traction with four seasons, you should definitely check these out.
