New Tires
 

I have a little over 15000 miles on my 8. Since I live in snow country, I would like to replace my nearly worn out tires with some all season tires. I think I would like to try the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires in the 245-40-18 size. Is there anyone out there that have had any experience this particular brand of tire? Thanks for the help.

Snow country? Then you really want real winter tires, not all-season tires. You especially do NOT want wider tires in winter - they "float" on the loose surface and give far less traction than narrower tires. Read this winter tire sizing article from the Tire Rack Tech Center for more information.

There's a lot of reasons why you need winter tires - all-seasons might be acceptable for areas where winter conditions are occasional or rare, but for snow country, they will be compromising performance and thus safety. Simply put, all-season tires are a compromise - they don't perform as well as summer tires in summer, and they don't perform as well as winter tires in winter. By performance, I'm referring to their traction and grip from a safety perspective, affecting cornering limits and braking limits. In winter conditions - well, tires are much cheaper than bodywork.

There have been extensive discussions about RX-8s and winter tire requirements over the past 15 months - a quick search for "winter tire" should turn up a bunch of threads discussing this. Please do the search and have a read, then ask away with any additional questions.

Regards,
Gordon

Gord, while I do agree that nothing beats a winter tire (I live in Winnipeg), I would consider the pilot a/s tires from Michelin.
Of course I would still use a winter tire but I would extend my change over a little later when the "real winter" arrives instead of the end of October.
The all season would might give an extra month before change over, and not turn into a hockey puck around Halloween.
The pilot a/s has a traction rating of AA, which is better than the stock summer tires.
The pilot a/s was also highly rated on canadiandriver.com, although the reviewer said they would not get you through a Winnipeg winter.
The wet and dry handling waas excellent.
All seasons are a compromise in the winter for sure but how much of a compromise are they ion the summer?
Keep in mind that I dont race my car, I simply drive it.
When my Dunlops wear out I will try the pilot a/s tires in a heartbeat.
Michelin has a 30 day exchange for whatever reason. If I am not happy with the pilot a/s tires I can simply exchange to the pilot sport summer tires.
Yes all seasons usually are a compromise but in my mind Michelin cannot produce a bad tire. I am very partial to them. I bought the pilot alpine pa2 for the winter (225/50/17).
Although I am no expert with cars and tires I think that unless you had 10 identical cars each with a different set of tires, driven one after the other, most people would not be able to tell the difference between the performance of the tires.
Obviously a summer tire in the winter vs a winter tire in the winter would be night and day, I think the spread between all season and winter or summer tire is getting smaller.
There is actually one tire that I have seen that is an all season tire that actually has the mountain and snowflake symbol on it. That makes it a very good choice for a winter tire. But, if memory serves me correctly, it didnt do so well in wet conditions.
Hmmm, maybe all season is still a big compromise.
All I know for sure is Winnipeg has some pretty nasty winter weather. I will let you all know how my pilot alpines perform.