Owners rate the Michelin Alpin A4 very highly overall (average 89.6%), with almost all reviews positive. The strongest consensus is winter ability: around three quarters of owners mention superb snow traction, backed up by strong ice grip and confidence-inspiring snow braking/handling. A sizeable minority also praise wet grip and the tire's quiet, comfortable manners for a winter fitment, with some reporting good longevity. The main recurring downside is higher rolling resistance (around one in ten owners), with a smaller group noting slightly numb steering feel.
What owners mention most counted across 45 reviews
I fitted these to a Zafira 2.0DTI towards the end of October 2011 and I'm only just looking to replace them in the next few weeks as they are down to nearly 3mm on the lowest.
Now that may not seem a long time but the vehicle in question is used as a taxi, can carry six passengers at times (a lot of weight when cornering or on roundabouts), does a lot of short stop-start nipping about runs as well as 300 mile round trip airport runs and travels from 7500-10000 miles every month. A hard working vehicle with hard working tires!
This Zafira runs on steel wheels with 195/65/15 so when loaded down and pushed the tires are working much harder than the 205's used with alloy wheels.
I would sum up these tires as the best overall performing and longest wearing tires I have ever had on for winter use and will get 40,000 from them from new to 3mm and by shopping around for circa £300 for all for corners fitted.
Would I buy again... YES, although a local Michelin supplier is trying to convince me on the comparable merits of the Kleber Quadraxer, an all-season tire thats FULLY winter rated.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
Got these in November expecting harsh winter conditions and found them to be very good on wet roads and snow on the Highlands. They corner well, even at speed, and do not loose grip. However, you can definitely feel the need to slow down in warmer dry days as the rubber is very soft and slips easily under happy acceleration. After 4,000 miles, the front tires have 6mm and rear have 8 mm, basically new.
Probably the most expensive set on offer but at the same time it is probably the best investment for the winter season especially when the snow comes. You will never lose the grip even in a foot of fresh snow. Good performance on ice as well. Would recommend it to anyone.
After reading many reviews I bought these tires for my wife's Audi A3. They are brilliant in every respect. Very quiet, excellent drive and most of all superb traction on snow / ice. I have Dunlop Winter Sport 3D on my car and althoug they are good, they are no match for the Michelin's. Look no further!
Ik bought these to replace my stock Conti premiumcontact tires for winter and I couln'd believe how the changed the car in whole. I felt like having another car all sudden.
While the Conti's drifted in allmost all conditions (really terrible tires !) the Michelin's glued themselves to the road. I felt like my huge Peugeot Partner suddenly became a sportsback. And it hadn 't even snowed yet !
Then snow came together wit tempatures of - 12 celcius.
In snow the tires break like the is no snow, even on ice the break better than the Conti's did in the rain. Grip in snow is fantastic ! So mush that I "ordered" my wife she had to take this car as long as the snow hasn 't melted.
These tires are extremely recomended by me and because I bought them before the 'winter-tire-rush' I only payed €360 to have 'm all four fitted.
hey, I have them, they are really good, I tested them a little and they passed the test very nice...last year I had also Alpin 4 (the old generation ) and I can feel the difference. I don't care too much about noise, comfort or fuel economy on winter, I put more accent on braking performances, on traction, on stability, on saving me and my car from disaster in case.
Bought a set of A4's last year - so new then that Michelin UK had'nt yet listed them on their website. Car is a good-handling mid-size 1.6 family saloon and I had these fitted to an old set of 6x15" alloy wheels for convenience.
Chose a modest width to help with traction/rim stability and deeper sidewalls to help the ride comfort/ground clearence.
These tires have proven a sound investment. As good as you could hope for in the snowy/slushy stuff and confidence-inspiring in more usual wet conditions. As usual with Michelins, the wear rates are very low, I expect these to last at least 3 cold seasons
- but an unexpected bonus was the slightly quieter ride these offer over the mid-range summer tires normaly fitted.
Rolling resistance is higher of course, but fuel economy only suffers about 3% and the trade-off in extra grip and safety is well worth it.
These were my first winter tires. At the first turn of the wheel the steering felt heavy and I could feel the high rolling resistance. Once the vaseline had worn away the grip on dry roads was very impressive (Felt like 80% as much as my Pilot Sport PS2s). Wet grip even moreso with a slow progressive breakaway when asking too much of them. They coped with unseen deep standing water just fine.
Once it snowed, my temporary 4WD system became redundant because traction was immense, lateral grip excellent and braking feels supernatural! If theres anyone who doubts winter tires, try braking on snow with these on!
When the snow got REALLY bad out in the sticks I was the only person who could plough through the 18 inches of snow and ice at -15C. In fact, as I had devloped a puncture previously, I had a spacesaver on the rear and progress through the 18 inches of snow was still childsplay.
The biggest downfall of these tires I found was driving through slush. At motorway speeds the car felt very very skittish through slush and at times I was concerned I might spin. For someone who does several trackdays with 140mph corner speeds it takes a lot to scare me in a car, but this was plenty enough for me to lift off the throttle.
Overall excellent tire. As the tread appears as new after 5 1/2 months and 8k miles on these, I'm stowing them away for next winter and hopefully the one after that too!
