Every tire, part, car, electronic etc has some bad copies that get out into the wild and it's more likely that the unsatisfied will speak up. So the few folks in here saying the PS4S is a terrible tire are getting validated by each other when the silent majority mostly just shrugs.

 

I have had P4Ss on my Carrera (46k miles) and Boxster (77k miles) and have never had vibrations except for one issue on my 911. I had a tire plug put in and at speeds over 120mph it would vibrate. It wasn't a fault of the tire but a mass imbalance (albeit small but on the outside diameter). I replaced the tire and all was good.

These are great tires.

 

I am scheduled to replace the tires + alignment on my 981 at the Porsche dealership next week. In the meantime I am questioning if it is not better to have the tires replaced at costco or tireshop where they do tires day in, day out vs at the dealership where the mechanic does maybe 3-4 tire sets per week. I know the following is a little off topic but at the end not that much off topic. There was a recent study talking about quality of surgery and surgeons based on their experience and case load. They were saying the more a surgeon does a certain procedure the better they get in what they do (no kidding lol) and the better are their outcomes. The surgeon who was reporting about this paper brought the example of tire replacement of a Ferrari at the dealership vs tire shop and said exactly what I stated above.

 

That was my assessment when I went in for LASIK many years ago. It had just been approved a couple of years prior, but they had been doing it up in Canada for several years before that. I went to a guy in Vancouver, and never regretted that decision. A few friends who underwent the same procedure with less-experienced surgeons in US clinics didn't fare quite as well.

For tires, it's more a luck-of-the-draw kind of situation. You need to be familiar with the reputations of the local shops. A good local tire shop manager will hire, train, and retain decent workers, but a bad one won't. At the dealership the talent won't necessarily be any better, and they don't have as much practice as the independent tire reseller. But you can argue your case with PCNA if things go wrong.

 

I have been running PS4S’s for over 50k miles, several sets. Never an issue with vibrations.

 

My experiences with Michelin tires have been excellent based on multiple sets on multiple vehicles including E36 BMW M3 which saw a lot of track time as well as daily use, a 2011 Audi S4 with upgraded power and brakes on which I have had sets of PS4s and X-Ice tires, and my 2017 C2S. The only issues being due to the installer not doing as precise a job in balancing the newly mounted tires; I have had to go back to the installer and have them re-balanced because they didn't do the job correctly the first time or a balance weight came off, but never due to wear. Overall, I've been very pleased with the PS4s model compared to the earlier Pilot Sport models intended for general road use; I've not purchased any Cup 2 tires. In contrast the OEM set of Pirellis on my European delivery S4 had one fail due to tread or belt separation at about 16k miles and that happened on my way to my first ever track event with that car.

When I bought my CPO 2017 C2S a little over 5 years ago, because it was still winter in NE Ohio, my car's OEM wheels had Pirelli winter tires on them, and the dealership had the OEM Pirelli summer tires in storage and offered to swap them for me. I chose instead to mount new PS4s all around. Zero regrets.

 

I took delivery of my 991.2 GTS PDK in February. I was taken aback (and posted here in a slight panic) about the crazy vibrations when I turned the steering wheel. The car was sitting on the original Pirellis and I already had an appointment to replace the tires for the MP4S. As soon as the tires were swapped out the vibration was eliminated. I still don’t understand it but whatever.

 

Never had an issue with a particular tire brand/model.

I did have a set of Firehawk Indy tires that had a shimmy at speed that was easily addressed by a rebalance.

Start with something easy. That being said I have read about people getting a bad tire that required replacement to eliminate the issue. The good thing is that this problem should be easily addressed with a quick drive the installers to prove the point (if it still persists after a re-balance).

 

Are the Michelins supposedly smoother riding with less road noise than the perellis?

 

I just switched back to Pirellis from Michelin and there is no noticeable difference. in either ride or noise. Magazines all say same thing about noise.