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Originally Posted by sbc-yyc
The seasonal swap is done and the brand new summer tires are finally installed. Good riddance to those god-awful Continentals, and hello Michelin Pilot Sport 4 SUV ZPs  ! Drove around for about an hour after picking up the X5, running errands, over a mix of highways and inner city roads and covered about 50 kms to form a first impression of sorts and in direct comparison with the Continental Premium Contact 6 SSRs. Please note: this is a first impression summary and totally subjective, so YMMV. Plus, I'm heavily biased towards Michelin as a brand  Always found their tires to be more to my liking than any other brand.
Steering feel - much more precise and direct than the Continentals.
Ride - Not overly harsh, but much, much better than the Continentals. On smooth tarmac, I could tell that they're RFTs but not by much.
Handling - The X5 feels more taut and agile compared to how it felt with the Continentals.
Braking - didn't get to test hard braking in an urban environment so no comment at this time.
Subjective Comfort - significantly better than the Continentals, that's for sure, but not as comfortable as Non-RFTs as well.
Noise - definitely more noisy than the winter Pilot Alpin's I was running for the past 6 months. But not as noisy as the Continentals. They had this weird thrum at about 100 kmph on the highways that used to drive me mad. No such noise so far from the Michelins.
Some pictures attached for your viewing pleasure. Please pardon the dirty car and the dirty garage floor as well. Spring cleaning hasn't begun yet  . Also, a relatively long drive in about 2 weeks is about to happen. Total round trip distance is around 3000 kms. So I'll post a more detailed review and feedback after that. Stay tuned! |
They look great. I took the plunge and ordered mine from Tire Rack today. Thanks for making me aware of these. I'm interested to compare them to my Pirellis. I am also a big Michelin fan (just like I love Pirelli), so I am anxious to compare them back-to-back.