Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tire Review: Compromise-Free Ultra-High Performance

I was chatting with a fellow carnut about tires and the fact that I’d received a set of new Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 tires to review this summer. By chance, he shared that he’d just ordered a set of new Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S for his car. We quickly both agreed that Michelin is the Porsche of tire manufacturers.

This is meant to position the brand as being desirable and aspirational. Like the German sports car maker, the French tire maker is prestigious and offers excellent to extraordinary products. And like Porsche, Michelin does not sell “inexpensive”. This is not to say that there are no alternatives. At home, I may not have a Porsche in the garage, but I do own a Honda Civic Type R, or the Yokohama Advan equivalent – a quick plug for a tire I truly enjoyed reviewing last year.

This spring, though a little late in the season, I’ll be fitting a set of 225/40R18 Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 on my trusty family truckster that is a 2018 Volkswagen Golf SportWagen. As drivers, my delightful wife and I expect a lot from our cars and tires especially. Responsiveness is key however it must not come at the expense of noise and harshness, and handling of severe summer downpours can be nothing less than flawless.

The Pilot Sport All-Season 4 was designed to satisfy and exceed these needs from drivers who expect the best from their tires. While not the 911 GT3-equivalent Pilot Sport 4 S or all-new Pilot Sport 5 (for my Type R next summer perhaps…), the All-Season 4 is more like a Cayenne S where it is at home in nearly all driving conditions and scenarios.

Making this possible is a series of technologies and a smart tread design. To take care of wet and cool surfaces, the Pilot Sport All-Season 4 features an Extreme Silica+ tread compound conceived to stick to slippery surfaces. It works in conjunction with the tread’s 360-degree variable sipe technology. These deep and interlocking sipes provide biting edges grab for improved traction in wet and snowy conditions. All of these elements come together in an asymmetric tread pattern that positions more rubber via large blocks on the outer shoulder for exceptional lateral grip, or that responsiveness we so crave.

As it stands, the tires are stacked in the garage awaiting the new wheels I ordered – It’s a disease, I know it, and I’m looking into getting help, as soon as I select new wheels for summer 2024…

We seriously can’t wait to get these new Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 on the Golf. Maybe it’ll feel like a Porsche – they and Volkswagen are related after all.