Why Does Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis Use Michelin Pilot Sport 4s Tires?

[stingerbeagle]

Why Does Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis Use Michelin Pilot Sport 4s Tires? – The Answer Will Shock You

Hyundai, Kia, & Genesis use the excellent Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires on many of its performance cars. You may not like or even agree to the answer why, but it’s not just because the Pilot 4s is a great tire.

www.torquenews.com

I was never dissatisfied with the handling of the Stinger myself (not that aggressive a driver) but it seems this author had issues with it.

"Many praised the Stinger for being some almighty do everything car, and when it first came out, all the journalists hyped it up as if it fell from the heavens. It was even named car of the year, the car of the century whatever. I noticed when I first drove the car that it had a sloppy chassis, and it was all over the place. The car came equipped with Michelin Pilot 4s tires, of course, to hide some of the deficiencies of the Stinger."

"The G70 is another vehicle that uses the Pilot 4s tire, and a subscriber of mine conducted an interesting experiment. He owns a 2019 Honda Accord and a 2019 Genesis G70. Both vehicles share the same tire size, so he swapped the all-season tires from the Accord and put them on the G70, and he put the Michelins on the Accord. He found his Honda Accord to be the superior handling car to the G70 after he made this temporary tire switch. He continued to say his G70 felt sloppy to drive and was not all that it was made out to be by reviewers. Funny what you hear when actual owners get ahold of these cars and not just some giddy reviewers."

 

[ephone]

Quoting @joschneider on the genesisowners forum:
"Just another aspiring youtuber looking for a hot take to get those sweet sweet clicks".

It's a garbage article from someone trying to get attention.

 

[Waynerm002]

Let me add my 2 cents to this. In my years of driving, the one thing I know for a fact is that having better tires (depending on the conditions) on any vehicle will make it perform better. Car manufacturers typically try to balance comfort, economy, performance and noise when it comes to tire choice. Tire manufactures produce tires of different specifications to satisfy different class of customers. Some of us want the best grip and handling we can get from a tire and will dump it when the performance wanes. I used to be squarely in this camp. Some want a balance of comfort, noise and economy and others fell the tires should be the cheapest they can be, have a long tread wear rating and be driven until that mileage limit. You won't find me in this last one.

I, like many others, feel the tires are one of the most important part of the entire car. These are the only part of the car that touches the road, if they aren't gripping the road properly, your high powered car will just spin the wheels. The "donuts" need to be able to provide traction for going, cornering and stopping. They help the car to get the power to get you going and the ABS perform at it's best when required. If you use crappy tires on a car, it will perform crappy. The tires are an integral part of any car, if you create a car with a great chassis and the tires aren't sufficient to manage the power and carry the weight of the vehicle, you will know it.

The kid that wrote that review doesn't have enough experience to correctly speak on the subject, by his reasoning, it sounds like he thinks the Korean cars are only doing well because of the tires. There is truth to his argument, and that truth applies to all cars, not just the Korean brands. Of course the Stinger and G70, while being built on the same chassis, were tuned for different purposes. With enough money and time, the Stinger can be tuned to perform like a sports car however, it wasn't designed or tuned that way, for the price point it was being marketed for. Both the G70 and Stinger do quite well in the market they were produced for.

 

[Spaceme17]

Wonder if he checked the tire pressures? Pilot 4S tires are spectacular.

 

[niko]

I’ve seen some models of bmw and Porsche use these as well.

 

[P22Tyler]

Comes across as someone that is trying to go against the tide to get attention. He's acting as if everyone that reviews the car positively is incapable of being fair because they're "giddy" that's just silly. I trust the reviewers I've seen laud this and the G70, that's why I gave it a chance and fell in love with it.

The worst part of all of it though is that headline, he presents it as though he's discovered some unbelievable bit of information he got from a source somewhere but he just ends up just telling us his opinion and the opinion of a so-called subscriber of his. Not exactly a quote from a KIA executive admitting they put good tires on to hide flaws, is it? And since when is putting good tires on a car a bad thing? The whole article seems pointless to me.

 

[YEH]

Garbage article from some dork who thinks that going against the grain will garner him some hits.

I'll take what Pobst and the Original Venice Crew say about the Stinger than what some random wannabe says about the Stinger (not that the Stinger's suspension setting couldn't be improved; many think it's a bit "loose" at the rear, but some like that for the fun factor and its setting isn't as tight as the G70's since it was tuned to be a GT and not a sports sedan).

As for the Accord handling better than the G70?

What a complete joke.

Actual owners on the Genesis forum love how it handles and for those who came from the TLX, prefer how the G70 drives.

Simply saying so won't overcome the physics of FWD and the longer WB of the Accord.

And as for tires, H/K/G use garbage Contis and Pirellis too often on their higher end or sportier models/trims.

 

[Meckman]

Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m riding on Potenza 18s, but I thought the Stinger came stock with the PS 4 and NOT the PS 4S. There is a bit of difference in performance between the 4 and 4S.

 

[P22Tyler]

Garbage article from some dork who thinks that going against the grain will garner him some hits.

I'll take what Pobst and the Original Venice Crew say about the Stinger than what some random wannabe says about the Stinger (not that the Stinger's suspension setting couldn't be improved; many think it's a bit "loose" at the rear, but some like that for the fun factor and its setting isn't as tight as the G70's since it was tuned to be a GT and not a sports sedan).

As for the Accord handling better than the G70?

What a complete joke.

Actual owners on the Genesis forum love how it handles and for those who came from the TLX, prefer how the G70 drives.

Simply saying so won't overcome the physics of FWD and the longer WB of the Accord.

And as for tires, H/K/G use garbage Contis and Pirellis too often on their higher end or sportier models/trims.

Come on, one guy that supposedly owns a G70 and an Accord said it, so it must be true!

The most laughable part of the article is he seems to imply that guys like James May, Randy Pobst, etc. are incapable of reviewing a car fairly because they were "giddy" about it beforehand. That's laughable.

 

[skygtr]

Two things from me.

One, I couldn't find a 2019 Accord with a stock staggered setup, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.
Two, I use snow tires 4-5 months of the year, and while I don't push them as hard as I do the PS4s, I've never had an issue with handling on dry roads with them.

 

[vipeboy2000]

all 2020 awd's in the states , unless specifically ordered, now comes with not the best michelin primacy tour a/s tires.... definitely not a grippy tire by any means but the balance of the car is still fantastic! sure it doesn't corner as flat as our e39 with coilovers or even our stock 540i touring but chassis does not feel sloppy or cheap!
When the primacy's go, we will stick with all seasons but probably going to goodyear eagle exhilarates..

 

[Waynerm002]

Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m riding on Potenza 18s, but I thought the Stinger came stock with the PS 4 and NOT the PS 4S. There is a bit of difference in performance between the 4 and 4S.

You are correct, the 2018/19 come with PS4, in 2020 I noticed they are now using an AS Michelin's, I don't remember the version but I think they are GT tires instead of UHPAS. They weren't the AS PS3+ for sure, which I believe is what most that wanted AS tires were hoping for. Now, Michelin has released the AS PS4, at present there isn't a matched set for the Stinger, who knows if KIA will go that route if the produce a size or go to Pirelli as they are doing on their other cars. Pirelli's, in my experience, typically offer a slightly softer ride with less road noise. I can't find a set of UHP AS Pirelli that comes in a size for the GT. I had the P7s on my Volvo S60 T5 R Design, decent tires but the winter performance weren't that great. We just have to wait and see what they bring on the 2021 Stinger.

 

[Buzz]

How dare a performance car come with performance tires that perform well!

 

[MazdaBro]

It's a benchmark tire. Tons of other performance cars use them. Had them on my old SPEED3 and they saved my life more than once from deer and oncoming idiots!