Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires Enable Safe Winter Driving On Snow and Ice, Even On Our Rear-Wheel Drive 2025 Toyota GR86 Sports Car

It didn’t take long for Mother Nature to help out with our long-term test of the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires mounted on our 2025 Toyota GR86 Premium Sports coupe. We had a chance to try them over a few inches of snow in Metro Boston and Metro West this past week, and we got great impressions of this all-season performance tire.

Check Out Our Initial Test Report Here. 

Why Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires?
Our GR86 rear-drive sports car came with summer-only Michelin Pilot Sport performance tires from the factory. We loved those tires. They enable sharp, precise cornering, reduce stopping distances by comparison to touring tires, and are well-suited to the sporty GR86. However, summer-only tires are not safe below about 40°F, and our area sees temperatures below freezing for about nine months of the year. Heck, I’ve driven in snow in August and May in New England. The GR86 commutes from downtown Boston to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and also to TD Garden in Boston rain, snow, or shine when our primary tester and Torque News contributor, Ean Goreham, has a performance as part of Flagship Entertainment’s Drumline. We needed a tire that would keep the fun factor high, but enable reasonable winter traction.

Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires - Snow Performance
The Pilot Sport All-Season 4 tires earned our respect quickly during a recent snowstorm. Here’s Ean’s summary of the tires over a few inches of fresh snow:

Everything felt just like video game physics. When I would accelerate, the back end would want to come around, but the counter steer was exactly like every video game I have ever played. I don't know if the adjustment was instinctual or if it was the hours of gaming, but I got the hang of keeping the car sliding neutrally, or keeping it planted if I chose to within minutes. Acceleration was easy. The only hard part was backing it into my tight driveway parking space, which is on a slight incline.

Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires - Cold Icy Pavement
The Pilot PSort All-Season 4 tires work great on frozen pavement with patches of flash-frozen ice. This is a sports car with low-profile performance tires, so we are taking winter seriously. Not risking the car’s health by hooning around with it, despite the temptation.

Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tires - Winter Test Conclusion
We’d give these tires two thumbs up for those who want to drive safely and responsibly in light wintery conditions. Having the all-season compound and tread design gives us the confidence to head out to Patriots and Celtics games in weather that would have been downright undoable on the summer tires.

Have you tried the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4 Tire? If so, tell us your thoughts in the comments below. 

John Goreham is the Vice President of the New England Motor Press Association and an expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his fourteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on LinkedIn and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. John employs grammar and punctuation software when proofreading, and he sometimes uses image generation tools.