Tires are extremely subjective beasts particularly how we consumers experience them...generally vs our last set of loud as **** baldinis so yeah these serene riding contis or overpriced long lasting but bad in most weather michelins are when freshly mounted feel great. Per my experience any tire that lasted more than idk 30-35k+ was a dangerous pos when the going got rough because in order to acheive such longevity you have a compound that's as stiff as wedding cock particularly when temps drop below 40 ie fu king dangerous. The lx20s well in my experience they made a bad handling honda pilot handle even worse and get even shittier mpg which i was stunned at the opportunity cost..they were reasonably quiet and rode well but i hated the car even more with those on vs i think mich primacys that came on it that rode nice but were fkng scary (just rain) after about 18-20k
Let's discuss my Potenza's and Michelin's real fast.
Potenzas come OEM on the Sport/Touring combo packaged 370z's, at least, in 2012. At the 6500 mile mark, doing 65mph on the freeway, the vehicle hydroplaned spectacularly in the rain (keeping pace with traffic). Thereafter, I noticed that any time I hit water at over 50mph, it felt VERY LIGHT, even when it wasn't raining, and it was just water on the road FROM RECENT RAIN. I drove 50 or under from there on out. I replaced the tires at 17k miles with Michelin PSS's. Absolutely GONE was this sensation, and it never hydroplaned again. I have had a bunch of sports cars, and this was the ONLY situation in which doing 65 in the rain resulted in something like that. I've done 100+ in HEAVY rain on F1 GSD3's in my Trans Am when I was much younger and dumber. No loss of steering feel, even.
Now, as to my LX20's. They did great in the last snow storm I was in. Stopped, cornered, etc. just as well as my Destination LE 2's on my Jeep did. They are NOT A SNOW TIRE, but in 6" of snow, I felt quite safe and got home just fine through the mountain roads. Much thanks also to the CX5's AWD system and electronic nannies.
Going back to my Michelins, they were much better in cold weather than the Potenza's. I could expect no real degredation down to about 30-35*F, while the Potenza's became much lesser a tire at around 40-45*f, from what I recall. On my Z06, the cut-off with my F1 G:2's was only like 50-55*F!!!
That said, we are talking about perceptions without stop watches. So let's actually look at comparisons that are meaningful (have data andn ot "feelings", b ecause I kindof think feelings are bulls***, to be honest with you).
LX20 vs. Pirelli and Hankook (total budget tire, IMO)
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=196
LX20 vs. Bridgestone and Goodyear
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=157
More ratings where the LX20 did awesome. (Keep in mind, the Michelin was NOT available in my tire size in 2015...)
http://www.moderntiredealer.com/news/400801/consumer-reports-which-brand-beat-michelin
My point is, the LX20 slaughtered every other tire in nearly every category, across a menagerie of measurable and quantifiable data, that came in my CX5 Touring's tire size, in mid-2015. Are there better tires now? Yes, yes there are, and I plan to upgrade once these wear out, but I have 35K miles on them now, and they have enough tread to make it through this winter, I believe, and the summer thereafter, and I will upgrade them toward the beginning of fall, 2018.
I am unsure what tires came on the Pilot because I don't know what year you had. It is possible it had different size tires than my CX5 (likely, even...) and your tire choices were also different, and a better tire in that size was what WAS on it.
My CX5 on LX20's in the rain:
My CX5 on LX20's in a snowstorm (13*F, as you can see):
i had 1 fwd in my life..2006 acura tl 6mt..gone in 12mo..torque steer and sucked in snow..good car for the $ but it had to go.
