M3P 20" All Seasons - ON

[SVL77]

Hi All - There's been plenty of discussion on how to manage winter weather in a M3P. I chose to replace the OEM Michelin's with 235/35ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ All Season Tires. A few hundred miles in and I can confirm that there is very little difference in sound and ride between OEM (with the foam sound deadening) and the All Seasons (no foam). I do notice a tick more road noise at low speed, but nothing that would reverse the decision. Side benefit of the all seasons is a more pronounced "lip" on the sidewall just above the rim edge, seems like it will provide a bit more protection against rim rash.

So...hopefully the AWD and all-season tires will get me through what will likely be a harsh Chicago winter.

PS - If anyone needs a set of OEM tires with 7k miles on them let me know!

 

[TheTonester]

Hi All - There's been plenty of discussion on how to manage winter weather in a M3P. I chose to replace the OEM Michelin's with 235/35ZR20 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ All Season Tires. A few hundred miles in and I can confirm that there is very little difference in sound and ride between OEM (with the foam sound deadening) and the All Seasons (no foam). I do notice a tick more road noise at low speed, but nothing that would reverse the decision. Side benefit of the all seasons is a more pronounced "lip" on the sidewall just above the rim edge, seems like it will provide a bit more protection against rim rash.

So...hopefully the AWD and all-season tires will get me through what will likely be a harsh Chicago winter.

PS - If anyone needs a set of OEM tires with 7k miles on them let me know!

This isn't a criticism, just a question: did you consider getting a 2nd set of wheels and running winter tires on them for the winter? Winter tires are considerably better for that purpose than all seasons. Then you could have run your OEM tires the rest of the year. The way you went is definitely less expense and hassle. But if winter driving was your major concern getting the winter tires would be better. I have 19's and I don't think I'll bother with getting winter tires, but instead will just drive in bad conditions as little as possible!

 

[SVL77]

Both considered and done. Had to do the Winter/Summer Tire Shuffle on my last daily driver (AMG S63) as no all-season tire was available. I've run Michelin all-season tires on two other cars (S550 4-Matic, Jaguar XJ8) and found that when combined with AWD they are more than capable of handling winter driving.