Writing about the
Pirelli P Zero PZ4 given
64% (245-35-20-)
Driving on
mostly motorways for 1000
average miles
Full disclosure: I have a general dislike for Pirelli tires. My experiences from 'way back when' have always been bad to mediocre at best, with decent dry handling, but exceptionally poor wet handling (very inconvenient in wet countries such as the Netherlands). So I tend to stay well clear of Pirellis and recent experiences with the brand are pretty much non-existent. However these came as stock with my Arteon, and are of the official VW variety with 'seal-inside' or however VW brands that.
Having recently swapped out my winter tires for the Pirellis I finally got a taste of driving them. My impressions are that they were more noisy and a little less comfortable than I expected/would have liked, but steering and wet performance (what I would have considered their 'nemesis' if you'd have asked me before trying them) were a pleasant surprise. Of the 1500 km with these tires, I'd guestimate that about 50% of those were on the German autobahn, with speeds varying from 80 to 230 km/h. The car feels steady and stable even when the autobahn gets a bit undulating (southern parts of Germany, in very hilly terrain), while driving at high speeds. At those autobahn speeds, it also means that less than perfect surfaces feel like driving along cobblestones, but the tires performed still performed admirably when it came to handling. The big downside was that with these surfaces the tires very clearly started to transmit serious noise into the car though, making it a less than pleasant experience, effectively forcing lower speeds because that's simply tiresome on long distance driving.
Most notable reason for me personally to at least not buy this VW specific variant of the tire again was that I managed to get a screw puncturing my virtually brand new tires despite the proclaimed self-sealing abilities of the tire. Yes, I am aware that they only claim a 5mm (yes, just half a cm!) of puncture protection into the tire interior, but my experience has proven (to me at least) that the extra cost of this 'feature' is not worth it since it's apparently easy to punch through.
Couple this with my personal dislike (as stated above) it means I would not recommend this tire.