Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II Review: Provides a Luxurious Driving Experience

Grand-touring all-season tires become increasingly popular thanks to their balanced nature. These tires offer confident and safe handling while also improving ride quality and quietness. The latest premium models are also very durable and come with outstanding treadwear warranties. In the tire world, they sit between touring tires and high-performance tires.

One of the brands that consistently produces excellent grand-touring tires is Pirelli. Their latest Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II product promises several improvements, including a 5% larger contact area than the predecessor, which improves both dry and wet traction. Moreover, the tread features a new polymer with increased silica content, which provides better performance in a wider temperature range.

The Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II was designed to offer luxurious everyday comfort, which means that it should be great for a daily driver or covering long distances. Moreover, Pirelli focused on enhancing the wet traction of the tire, a quality that’s very important for safe driving. Ultimately, thanks to the all-season tread compound, Pirelli markets the tire as light-snow capable.

However, most manufacturers market their all-season tires as capable of every condition. And the reality is often different from the expectations set by the manufacturer. To see how the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II stacks against the increasingly good competition, I prepared a detailed review of the tire. In this article, you can read about the tire’s ability on dry and wet roads, light-snow traction, comfort levels, and durability.

Currently, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II is among the most available grand-touring all-season tires in the US. Pirelli offers it in 50 sizes, ranging from 16-inch wheel diameter to 20-inch wheel diameter. With all these models, the Italian tiremaker covers a significant portion of the vehicles driving on public roads. These include compact cars (Civic and Corolla), mid-size sedans (Honda Accord and Toyota Camry), sports sedans, and luxury sedans (Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, BMW), and even compact crossovers and SUVs like Subaru Forester and Toyota RAV4.

With that said, let’s see what are the features of the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II and then jump to our thoughts of the tire.

What are the features of the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II?

Pirelli utilized an improved tread compound with high silica content, primarily to improve the wet traction of the tire. The rubber is molded into an asymmetric tread pattern, which provides better traction on dry, wet, and snowy surfaces.

The tread features a continuous outboard shoulder for better steering response, and pitch sequencing and phasing of multiple inboard tread block sizes for reduced noise. Meanwhile, the four wide circumferential grooves take care of water evacuation.

Ultimately, the tread compound also features low rolling resistance, which enhances your vehicle’s fuel economy.

What are the maintenance indicators?

Pirelli utilized the industry-standard TWI’s (tread wear indicators) used to monitor the tread depth. These are narrow rubber bars, which stay recessed in the circumferential grooves of the tire.

When the tires reach 2/32-inch tread depth, the TWI’s will be completely flush with the surface. That’s the minimum legal tread depth for safe driving on wet roads, which means that you should immediately replace the tires at that point.

Fortunately, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II has an excellent treadlife and should last you for a while. Also, Pirelli provides a 70,000-mile treadwear warranty on all sizes, which is among the best in the grand-touring all-season category.

How does it behave on a dry tarmac?

Thus far, Pirelli tires have always excelled in steering response. However, things have changed a little with the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II. In a quest to make the tire more comfortable, the Italian tiremaker has cut the razor-sharp response of past models. The tire simply doesn’t react quickly to small steering inputs, as opposed to tires from Michelin, Bridgestone, or Continental.

That’s not to say that it’s bad, though. When you get used to it, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II actually communicates very well via the steering wheel. At medium steering inputs, this is one of the most responsive tires in the category, which makes it a good companion on twisty roads. Just don’t expect razor-sharp responses, that’s all.

Furthermore, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II provides outstanding grip in the corners. In that area, it’s neck and neck with the best premium grand-touring tires, which means that it’s excellent. More importantly, the tire is very easy to drive in dry weather, even at the limit. You can consistently push this tire to the limit with great confidence.

The braking distances are also very short, which further solidifies the Pirelli as one of the best driver’s tires in the category. It feels good behind the steering wheel, has a ton of grip, and stops strongly.

How is it over wet and slippery roads?

Pirelli focused on improving the wet performance of the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II, and that clearly shows in the tests. The cornering grip in rainy conditions is outstanding, better than the closest premium competitors. Ultimately, the Pirelli provides the shortest stopping distances in the category, which is another impressive trait of the tire.

However, while clearly capable of delivering a lot of traction, the Pirelli feels somewhat playful behind the wheel. Quick steering inputs can spoil the balance for a second, which gives the driver less confidence to push forward. However, you can only discern these things when testing the tire on the test track, and when you pit the Pirelli next to the competition.

Crucially, the overall performance on wet pavement is very safe and reliable. There is a lot of traction for acceleration, turning, and braking and the hydroplaning resistance is top-notch. Therefore, for daily driving in rainy conditions, it’s one of the best grand-touring all-season tires right now.

With that being said, how is it on snowy roads?

The Italian tiremaker made some winter-focused improvements on the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II. Namely, the tread compound now works better in freezing conditions, while the asymmetric tread pattern includes multiple sipes.

Fortunately, that improved the somewhat lacking snow traction of the predecessor. The tire feels better to drive on light snow, with good longitudinal traction and surefooted handling. It’s not a winter tire, that’s for sure, but it’s good for an all-season one.

Is it suitable for off-road driving?

The Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II isn’t designed with off-roading in mind. The tire doesn’t have enough traction for demanding surfaces, especially when things get wet. Moreover, the tread compound can be chipped or punctured from sharp stones.

Is it comfortable and refined?

The Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II is one of the most impressive tires I’ve ever driven on a broken road. The ride quality is simply superb – there is no way to state that otherwise. Put simply, the tire eats small imperfections for breakfast, transmitting almost no vibrations in the cabin. On a smooth highway, your vehicle will feel like it flies. It’s incredible how good the tire absorbs these little undulations – other tires would’ve transmitted at least some oscillations.

And it gets even better from there. Tires that glide over smaller imperfections usually fare worse over larger bumps or potholes. Not the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II, though. The tire soaks up larger imperfections so effectively that you can get away with a sports suspension on your car. The tire has the ability to transform any vehicle into a more luxurious version. I don’t remember that tires in the past could do that.

But that’s not all. Apart from being the best-riding tire in its category, the Pirelli also impresses with the absence of noise. On smooth roads, the engine and wind noise can easily cover the slight tread noise, even at moderate speeds. Moreover, the tire continues to be exceptionally quiet on rough pavement, even at very high speeds.

Overall, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II is the new comfort king in the grand-touring category. The tire fares outstandingly well in the ride quality department and produces little to no noise. If you care about comfort, you should immediately get the Pirelli, no doubt about it.

Should I buy the Pirelli Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II?

Absolutely! Currently, the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II is one of the best grand-touring tires in many aspects. On dry roads, it is close to the best in the category, and on wet roads, it overtakes its premium competitors.

Crucially, the tire provides a luxurious driving experience that few other products can offer. In that sense, the Pirelli is the new benchmark in the category. Besides, the tire also lasts for a very long time and comes with an outstanding 70,000-mile treadwear warranty.

Since the Cinturato P7 All Season Plus II has almost no significant disadvantages, it earns an easy recommendation. You should definitely purchase a set!