Volvo USA called to offer me a new set of Michelin All Weather tires because as they said "The Pirellis are great tires, but not the best in inclement weather". So, on 1/31 I'm getting a new set of tires installed and I keep the Pirellis as well. I guess I'll run the Pirellis in spring through fall and swap the Michelins back come November up here in New England. I'm 63 and have owned a large number of new high end cars over the years.... I've never had a tire recall before. When I first took delivery of the car back in October they had to replace the right front Pirelli tire because it couldn't be balanced and the car had a noticeable shimmy. Maybe I'll just keep the Michelins on full time.

 

Not sure what model Pirelli tires you have, but there's a bit of investigation you should do before dropping a grand on new tires. First consideration is the category of the original tires. Tires are rated as either summer, all season, or winter. If your P's are summer tires, then you should consider a winter swap out for snow and icy conditions. Many cars ship OEM with all season, which is a mix of deeper sipes (better wet driving) and more aggressive side lugs (better snow) both of which increase noise and diminishing dry road braking and handling. The tire will say "all season" on the side wall and may even show a "M+S" (mud and snow) rating. Winter tires have even more aggressive side lugs combined with rubber compounds designed for colder temperatures to provide the best grip on snow and ice - again trading off ride, dry handling and noise.

Being from New England, I keep extra rims for both my Volvos and run narrower snows for the winter.

So when you say "Volvo recommended Michelin All Weather tires" are they suggesting you replace your Pirelli's with Michelin all season tires or are they suggesting you consider getting snows like the Michelin X-Ice? If your Pirelli's are already all seasons (look for a M+S rating on the side wall of the tire) then swapping for another set of all seasons is a waste of money.

My two cents is that given you are in NE, do a summer/winter change over and treat your baby to nice winter tires like the X-Ice or other top rated winter tires. Check out Tire Rack's web site for comparison ratings. Next, ask your dealer if they store and remount the tires. (The Toyota dealer does this for my wife's Highlander) - if not, look to see if you have a Town Fair Tire dealer near you - they will change over each year for free (just stay away from their offers to do alignments etc).

 

I'm not buying new tires. I only have 2000 miles on my 2017 S90. Volvo is giving me a set of Michelin All Weathers because, as they said, "The Pirellis on your car are great tires, but they aren't the best in inclement weather." The Pirellis are P Zeros... a $300 tire. I've never been involved in a "semi" recall before. I can keep the Pirellis... which is strange. They must be a terrible match for this particular model in snow.

 

P zeros come in both all season and in summer models - I would agree that if the car shipped new with summer tires, you'd want to either run snows for the winter or have volvo convert to an all season. I'm wondering if your car was originally destined for a southern dealer and got moved up north where most new cars come with all seasons as OEM... Good deal though, nothing bad with moving to the Mich's.

 

I am near to buying a new S90 and noticed in the fine print the following disclaimer:

"Note for High Performance Summer Tires: The special tread compounds formulated for ultra high performance summer tires are optimized for maximum dry and wet performance in warm temperatures. The compounds in these tires will have decreased performance, such as lateral and braking traction, at temperatures below 45° F or when driving on snow or ice. In addition, they can lose flexibility and may develop random surface cracks at very cold temperatures; therefore extra care should be used in handling tires. It is recommended to install winter tires in these lower temperature conditions. Please note that the Summary and PDF pages may show two or three wheels included in the build (the standard wheel and optional/accessory wheel. "

Maybe this realization came on them after shipping cars with the Pirelli's to colder climates. I don't know, but it certainly could be a safety issue. Nice that they offered you the Michelin's without prompting.

Sure is is a great looking car. Hope you're enjoying yours.

Guess I should check out the tires on the car I'm considering before I sign on the dotted line.

 

I took delivery of my S90 T6 Inscription on Jan 14th. It was literally a death trap on snowy roads. One call to Volvo and it was explained to me that all cars with the 20 inch wheels shipped with summer Pirellis. Without pause they arranged to have the tires swapped with all season Michelins. Volvo did right here.

 

I've got the new Michelins on and the Pirellis in the basement waiting for spring. The Michs came just in time, we've had 20" of snow in the past week and a half and the car has handled it just fine.

 

Glad to hear they've worked out for you -- and that you've got the Pirelli's for summer. Considering the potholes in my neighborhood, I opted for the 19" rims and received Conti ProContact's. They have performed very well in the snow here, but I find them a little noisy on the highway with a bad shimmy between 67 and 74 mph. May have something to do with the more aggressive tread. If your Michelins have good snow manners AND are quiet and stable at speed, I might prefer them. Would you mind posting which model Michelin they are?

 

I had a similar shimmy when I took delivery of my S90 in October. I brought it back to the dealer the next day and it turned out to be a bad Pirelli. They replaced it and the shimmy went away. I'll try to remember to look at the tire model they gave me. I live about 30 miles west of Boston in the Worcester Hills... I feel your pain about the potholes.

I'm also having a problem with the Pilot Assist. They fixed the Adaptive Cruise Control with a software update, but the PA is totally useless, and very unsafe.

 

The Michelins the dealer installed are 20" Pilot Sport A/S 3+

 

Glad to hear they've worked out for you -- and that you've got the Pirelli's for summer. Considering the potholes in my neighborhood, I opted for the 19" rims and received Conti ProContact's. They have performed very well in the snow here, but I find them a little noisy on the highway with a bad shimmy between 67 and 74 mph. May have something to do with the more aggressive tread. If your Michelins have good snow manners AND are quiet and stable at speed, I might prefer them. Would you mind posting which model Michelin they are?

 

Ah. Those are just the tires I had picked as the best potential replacements for my badly behaving Conti ProContacts. They (the Michelins) get great reviews. The Contis perform very well in the snow and for around town driving, but are annoyingly loud on the highway, and then there is the shimmy. My dealership (128 Volvo) has tried hard to rebalance them, but it just won't go away. (The dealership has been super helpful, by the way.)

This is all academic for the moment, though, as someone rear-ended me on the highway in stop and go traffic. The car is now in the body shop for extended recuperation.

If if ever I had any doubt about the safety of Volvos, that experience removed it, by the way. The other car hit me at speed -- I was stopped dead in heavy traffic. It's front end was totally folded up and destroyed. His steaming wreck had to be towed away. My car had bumper damage and a couple small dents to the trunk lid. We drove it home and then to the dealership the next day.

The Volvo WHIPS system works just as advertised. Just before we heard the crash the seat belts tightened like a giant hand crushing as back against the seat and headrests. Then it felt as if the seats moved forward, then relaxed to absorb the impact. We walked away with stiff necks and backs, nothing more. Of course, our beautiful week-old car doesn't take such a good picture from the rear anymore, but we are grateful for its sacrifice.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope the car comes back as good as new. Are the 128 dealerships still owned by the McManus family? I was their banker years ago. Good people.

 

As far as I know, they are still the owners, but that is just hearsay on my part. Whoever owns them seems to be doing a great job. I've truly enjoyed my buying experience there, which has not always been the case.

 

Jack:

I was in the same boat as you in Chicago. Bought my S90 last Fall....Volvo did not offer me any sort of financial help. I think Volvo listened to my complaining though. You're welcome!

I have my set of P-Zero summer tires sitting in my basement. I'm leaving the A/S on until the last Spring I own the car. I'll put the Pirellis on and drive through the summer and trade the car in the Fall with its original equipment tires.

At the time I bought my car, Volvo didn't even know any all season tires would fit their 20" wheels. I bought Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires from Tire Rack and had them mounted and balanced at my own expense. They perform as well as the Summer tires on dry roads...amazing.

...Had to do the same on my previous car...a '13 Audi A6 with 19" Sport Package.

Audi now offers a choice of Summer or A/S for this package. Volvo should do the same for their 20" wheel options. The car truly is not safe for winter driving with summer tires.

If you live down South, Summer tires are fine year around. Not in Chicago and not in NE.

I put a winter on my Michelins and they were great. Make a little more noise than the Pirellis, but not a lot. It's not tread noise...It's acoustic thrumming only on rough or grooved pavement. Pirelli glues a band of foam rubber to the insides of their P-Zeros as an acoustic damper....It works!

I think you're out of balance problem is a broken tire belt from hitting a pot-hole. Tire should be replaced. Sometimes insurance will cover it under a road hazard provision. If you don't replace, the sideways motion from the bad tire can wreck the tire on the other side of the car. Then you'll have to replace two! That actually happened to me 20+ years ago on a BMW.

 

P Zero A/S is not offered in the Volvo 20" size.

I got Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+. Very happy with them. Volvo didn't give me a penny toward these tires or toward the mounting and balancing.

Summer tires are dangerous for winter driving. The treads pack with snow and they're beyond awful. The rubber compound is not made for temps under 40F. They get progressively greasier as temps drop below that. Also, there is a risk of them cracking or coming apart in very cold conditions. Volvo's offering only Summer tires on a "safe" AWD Volvo sedan is reckless behavior. Not surprised that the OP was given a set of A/S.

Am surprised I wasn't even given a recommendation of an alternate tire.

 

Wow! You too? I guess dealers around here want you to drive into a tree!

 

Jack:

P/A is of very limited value. I use it on straight interstates when I'm pushing buttons or getting a drink of water. Not great for "real" roads.

Did you hear about the guy who rented a new motor home, took it out on the highway, set the cruise and went back for a cup of coffee? True story. He sued and won because there was no sign posted that the thing wouldn't drive itself.

All this self-driving stuff is going to get weirder. I think it's the worst thing to happen to the car industry in many years. Will we care what we drive if we don't do the driving anymore? Whose fault is it when there's a crash?

I guess Tesla has the most advanced system out now but a guy got killed relying on it. Now Tesla is playing defense on it. They investigate. It was a semi that came across the median at speed. Nothing to be done. The guy would have been killed even if he had both hands on the wheel.

 

To follow up on my tire experience. After Volvo put the Michelin Pilot Sport +3 tires on my car the winter experience was much improved however there was substantial noise. Noise that was so bad that between 60-65 mph you could not bear the whoomp whoomp humming. I brought the car back to the dealership two weeks later (which was as soon as I could, I live 1.5 hours away) and had them take it for a ride to determine for themselves. They weren't gone 15 minutes and came back and agreed there was a problem. Michelin was contacted and they wanted the DOT number off each tire and then they wanted the tires dismounted and sent to them for analysis. Volvo was initially going to let my car sit in the dealership without tires until the results came back, however the dealer said absolutely not, that this was not my problem and they should take care of the problem. So, Volvo agreed to put another set of tires on my car, this time they let me choose which tires I wanted from a list of 6 OEM tires. I chose the Continental Extreme Contact DWS, this tire is coincidentally the tire I asked them to put on before they chose the Michelins. The tires have been on for several months now and all is great. There is road noise similar to the Pirellis, but it seems there is just no way of escaping the road noise in these cars with the 20" rims. I am looking at putting some Dynamat style sound deadening under the trunk carpet and rear seat to see if it helps.

 

Wow! Must have been something really wrong with that set of tires! Mine have been fine. More noise than the OEM Pirelli but I expected a bit more. I can't call them loud at all. I've had mine on for 10 months now. Really like them.

I really don't like too much of an isolated feel in a car. The ride and handling on the S90 are pretty great. Not too sloppy and not harsh ever, even with 20" wheels.

I'm convinced the 2.5" layer of foam glued to the inside of the tread carcass on the OEM Pirellis do some real magic with tire noise.

Dynamat (road-hugging weight?) inside the car won't kill the noise at its source. It's an acoustical noise created by the hollow tire and amplified by the hollowness. This foam breaks that up. I'd suggest putting foam inside all tires, but it has to be done in a way so it can't move around and won't affect the balance of the tire. Probably best left to the tire companies.

My set of Conti DWS all-seasons, on an A6, were not the best. They work great in snow, better than the Michelin PSAS 3 (without the "+") and they handle dry exit ramps almost as well, but that split tread design on the DWS made my A6 track strangely. I think the "DWS06" version looks like it would work better.

For winter MPSAS 3 was really not adequate. Conti DWS was GREAT in snow and rain, but just annoying to drive straight down an interstate....imprecise..and annoying. MPSAS 3+ in winter is just enough to get me around OK on the S90. It's the one as far as I'm concerned, because it still has that summer tire edge on dry pavement. Conti DWS06 may be the best of all worlds. I've yet to try it.

Anyway, glad you're happy with yours. We all have different driving needs and wants. I'm a BMW CCA driving instructor for 20+ years. My other car is a Porsche Cayman S with a roll bar. I like that the S90 gives the driver a little feedback and awareness of what's going on outside. btw, thinking about it, I may remember the tread noise being kinda bad when I first put the MPSAS 3+ on the S90. It's a lot better now with a few miles on them.