It happens that at the 18" wheel size, P3- owners can actually choose from all the best Ultra-High Performance All-Season tires. The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+, the Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus, the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06, and the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS are all available for this car!
So I've watched the video and read this review:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=230
I've also read some of the user reviews of these tires. They are all a little different and focus on different things to some extent!
It seems the PS A/S 3+ are definitely the loudest of the group, they are the most performance focused and wet/dry summer traction approaches that of summer tires. The tradeoff is that they are definitely considered to be louder, and also that they have a firmer and harsher ride. A number of user reviews I read about the PS A/S 3+ complained about the road noise with a variety of different cars, including some Mercedes and BMW's.
People seem to like the Pirellis, they are quiet and still perform well but some people also mentioned the Michelins have better grip hands down. The Continentals are the most civilized, with the softest and quietest ride, but the tradeoff is a less crisp steering response. It seems that most people agree the Michelins or the Continentals offer the best snow traction, for those of us who actually want to use our all-season tires in all seasons.
I'm pleased to see the prices of the tires for our cars are in the $800 range which is pretty nice, compared to the $1200 people were throwing around. They are reasonably priced, but now it comes down to which ones you want.
Interesting thing I saw while shopping these tires: I noticed that the Michelins are rated at 98V (up to 149 mph) for the 18" wheels on the Model 3, the other manufacturers instead sell their 98W (up to 168 mph) or 98Y (up to 186 mph) versions of tire for this car. The P3- is electronically limited to 145 mph (you have to pay for the P3+ PUP to get 155 mph top speed) so I don't know if there is any real practical difference between the PS A/S 3+ which are 98V rated and the other ones which are 98W/98Y rated because you're not allowed to exceed that speed anyways. I did Google a bit and I found that no one else really knew the difference between the 98V and 98Y rated versions of these tires either, other than you shouldn't exceed their rated top speeds (duh). Does anyone know more about this?
Edit: Just so you guys know, if you are Costco members, I checked their website and Costco carries the PS A/S 3+ 235/45R18 98V XL tires which Tirerack says are for Model 3. Costco offers sales on Michelin every 3 months and free installation and balancing during those sales plus lifetime rotation and inflation. Just something to think about.
https://tires.costco.com/Product?ItemNo=1134176&SearchID=235|||45|||18|||3|||en-us