You've never said this before that I have read. You said that the Motivo's had a weakness (which you had "discovered") on icy roads. Now you are saying that there is a better UHP A/S tire out there? Which one?
The reason why I question this is because any A/S tire is going to underperform when compared to a summer UHP tire when the road temps are well above freezing (minimum c. 40F as stated by Michelin). The Nitto Motivo UHP A/S tire is the best compromise for year-round driving in most climates. We've all agreed that in heavy, long winter areas any A/S tire is not going to cut it; so might as well go with winter and summer tires and swap them out. I have come down on the side of A/S in winter because of our local weather (not in the canyons, mind) seldom being snow or ice on the roads; thus an A/S is the best compromise for most of our driving conditions. But an UHP A/S is going to get outperformed in the "gription" department by a softer A/S on frozen roads. Above freezing roads will swing the advantage back to the UHP A/S. So it depends on what you want to prepare for.
Check back in the thread I started to review the Motivos, when I mentioned that they didn't have better wet performance as advertised. I'll put that below:
"The last couple of days driving in rain has let me find the wet grip limits of the Motivo. While it is advertised as having better wet grip than dry, I'm finding the opposite. To be fair, the issues I have experienced comes to light when cornering and turning. This morning the roads seemed overly slippery and it was mainly drizzle not actual rain like yesterday. I could feel some slip on local streets going through curves so I backed off a bit. A guy in a Taurus decided he could do better than the Stinger zipped past me and almost lost it. Seemed like one of those folks that don't want anyone in front of them, I passed him on the right as that's the lane I was in and continued into the next curve where again I felt a slip of the tires and pushed on as it straighten up as I could see him having trouble slightly behind me. When I was further along before the next light, I stomped the brakes to test the stopping ability and the ABS activated a bit more than I expected for the speed I was traveling.
I'll say this up front that I'm the type of driver that drives the same wet (a bit more cautiously) or dry and look for tires that can perform great in both conditions. The Michelin's held up much better in this regard but the Nittos are quieter and ride more comfortable over ruts and imperfections, yeah, I'm getting old and want a bit more comfort with my sport. LOL! Guess I'll need to tone it down for these tires. In my experience, these ride like Pirelli P7 AS+ tires, which are GT tires, not UHPAS. Really waiting to see how these do in the snow."
As Oryan mentioned, those top manufacturer's tires are going to perform much better than the Nittos, their road noise might be higher than the Nittos and they may also be firmer but if one can get that level of comfort and noise level on those versions, it would probably Pirelli but they didn't have a set for our car or that's what I would have gone for. With this one being better sealed than my 2018, the Michelins are faring a bit better now that I have had 600+ miles on them. Put them back on last week and today was the first real rain we have had since and had a couple of hard braking events, when folks just decided to change lane without checking, into my lane. I was on the horn hard and had I not been able to cut the speed fast to avoid them, they would have hit me (42 degree this morning). This happened in the dry yesterday and this morning in the rain. Some kid in an Accord, leaned back in a hoodie, didn't even signal or looked over, decided to just come over. Don't know if he heard the horn or just realized I was in the lane when he almost hit me and he just went back into his lane as if nothing happened. Similar thing this morning in the rain. the one positive thing I did note for the hard braking was that not once did the ABS come on, but I did feel a bit of vibration on the driver side wheel after the braking events.
I now have 2 sets of summer Michelins to rotate through, along with the winter tires. The Pirellis will have to wait for sometime in the future. With the 2019, the noise level isn't as bad as it was in the 2018 and surprisingly, the ride isn't has bad as it was, on some of the crappy roads I commute on, in that car either. Once the full summer hits, we will see if that is the same. Sway bar set to go in later and I may also put some springs on as well.
Other than that precaution, any summer tire is going to work without issues.
Our little existence (other than potential nuclear holocaust) doesn't "change" anything in the intermediate, much less long term. But that's more of a political agenda discussion, so I will leave it.
