Well, I went ahead and purchased the MXV4 Plus tires from Costco to replace my Pilots. I have now driven about 10 days on them and am very, very pleased. Road noise is almost non existent, the car handles fine and tracks true. A lot of the S80 creaks groans and squeaks are gone as well. I think the MXV4 pluses absorb more of the shock than the pilots did. My wife, who doesn't get real excited about auto trivia, was blown away about the quality of improvement in the ride with the MXV4's vs the Pilots.

In short, I think these are the tires the S80 should have put on as OE and avioded a lot of the gripes about noisy ride and suspension noises.