I have tried a range of tyres over the years and there is definitely a large variance between them which is complicated by the fact that particular tyre might perform better on some cars rather than others.
There is a lot said about the Michelin PS3, it is a good tyre and they are wearing well on the front of my GTD... but I do not believe that it is any better than, for example, the current Continental equivalent the SportContact5. My car came with SportContact2's on and they are no worse than the Michelin in general terms... perhaps they were a little noisier but offered very similar grip (wet or dry) and perhaps slightly steering better feel... the Michelins seem to offer slightly better ride.
As for the efficiency question, I have not noticed an increase in fuel consumption since the MIchelins were fitted. I believe that, efficiency is a measure of the rolling resistance and there is a balance to be struck there between wet traction and low rolling resistance.
In reality, the Bridgestone is not a bad tyre - in spite of what MH says every other post
, but is not perhaps (a) for the Golf and (b) suited to cold temperatures. Of all the modern tyres I've tried in the last few years, the Bridgestone is the most temperature sensitive. Last winter in my g/f's Bridgestone shod BMW 120d, you could spin the rear wheels off the throttle in 2nd before you got some heat into the tyres. Once warm, they were fine with good feel and better than reasonable grip and most importantly the car was well balanced. The problem was that in the wet, getting heat into them (especially the fronts) was difficult which made the car feel edgy in the wet especially given their stiff sidewalls - which may be why generating heat was difficult in the wet... Funnily enough, her 320d M-Sport has the Bridgestones in 19" and I have no complaints about them... but it has not been very cold yet...
The other point here is that tyres are quite subjective because absolute grip is not the only story... or we'd all have a set of semi-slicks for the dry/damp, M&S tyres for the winter and so on... they're a compromise and everyone will have a different view on that compromise.
I personally, avoid Pirellis for while they offer decent grip, they also seem to wear very quickly and attract punctures but some swear by them.
