First time forum poster here, so if this has been discussed heavily before, my apologies in advance.

Last winter I became the proud owner of a used 04' AT sedan. Since then I have been bothered by the thin, pizza cutter like stance of the 215's that came on the stock 17" rims. When it came time to find my first set of replacement tires, I scratched through every post I could relating to what size tires fit on the stock 17", and which tires people were running. The OEM sizing of 215/55R17 didn't give a lot of choices however. I found plenty of praise for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S in a 235/50R17 on the forums, so I figured it was the hands down best choice for widening up the stance on the car and the first step towards better handling and performance. So I had them installed today, and took the car out for an entire day and an entire tank of gas to see what I thought of them.

First off, I have to agree that with these tires, I can't even break the car loose from the road if I tried. Drifts, slides, and spinning tires from launch, fun as it may be, is completely eliminated using the new tires. Given the increased size of the contact patch, along with the quality of the Michelins versus the OEM Turanzas, I'd be disappointed if they didn't.

However, in exchange for sticking to the road like glue, some other curiosities have cropped up, and I'm hoping for some feedback from some people who are running a similar setup. The first thing I noticed about the tires it that they seem to add quite a bit of weight to the steering wheel. Cutting the wheel hard seems to require quite a bit more effort than with my previous tires. Secondly, acceleration seems to have suffered. What used to be a sharp, g-force inducing launch seems to have mellowed somewhat. And finally, gas mileage seems to have dropped a mpg or two.

So, with all this in mind, I'm forced to ask the question - is all this normal? I had hoped to widen up the tires without buying new rims but given these new drawbacks, the car just seems less fun. Given the $900 spent on this little experiment, I'm beginning to question my purchase. Do I need to buy new rims that are perhaps lighter weight to compensate for the slight increase in weight with the larger tires? Do I need more horsepower to overcome the weight? Or is this just the price you pay for the performance you gain in grip?

I'm guessing there are mods out there that perhaps overcomes these drawbacks, but I'm not eager to spend another thousand dollars just so I can admire the wider stance and grip of these tires. If I have to bite the bullet and put 215's on the car, so be it. Thoughts please?

 

I have a 2004.5 coupe and the Pilot Sports Summer tires came as standard issue. They are very sticky - very hard to break loose - but you can take ramps and curves without hesitation. They do get noisy after 10k miles I have noticed. Infiniti did a free alignment, but said that noise might only get worse just because of the way the car is designed.

Gas mileage may drop due to increased friction with the road. You can try to increase the air pressure (or make sure the pressure is up to spec at least) - that may help the mpg issue.

Interesting observations about the weight and perceived decrease in accelaration - but I don't think it's that much heavier. Every ounce counts more though when you're talking rotational weight. You could try to get lighter rims to offset the increased weight of the tires - I don't see any other way around that.

I think you'll be happy with 'em. My planned replacement to correct understeer and get all season tires is to get the highly rated AvonTech 245s all around on the stock 18" wheels.

 

The steering wheel weight and acceleration does make sense given that the pilots are 2 lbs. heavier. A lightweight wheel is a good idea if it's feasible.