Top All-Season Tires? Michelin or Comparable?

[catluvnsongbird]

Hi…I’m new here. I have an ‘02 Jeep Liberty Ltd 3.7L 4x4 that needs new tires. I have had my heart set on Michelins for years, but cost was initially a factor. Now, after doing some research, I’m not totally convinced that, as much as I hold their ratings in high esteem, that they would necessarily be the “best” tires for my vehicle; let alone which type/model to choose. I’ve been searching tires via the UTQG ratings. They don’t always sync across tire sites/rating sites, but are relatively close. I’ve been shown Continental CrossContact LX25, Cooper, Michelin (few in my size), BFGoodrich, Yokohama Geolander, etc.

The most important aspects for me are wet, dry, snow traction/stopping, handling, noise, fuel economy, wear, etc.

I bought the Jeep in 2009 and it came with new Pirelli Scorpions.

 

[Blueshound]

I took Scorpions off my F150 and went with Continental TerrainContact HT. Second choice would have been Michelin Defenders. Both good all around, excellent wet.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Welcome to BITOG

Is your tire size 235/70-16?

Here are some good choices for you to consider:
Cooper Enduramax
Falken Aklimate
Toyo Celsius II
Nokian Outpost
Nokian Nordman Solstice 4 (old WRG4)
General Grabber STX2

If you want a cheap tire, there's the Milestar Patagonia HT. If that's still not cheap enough, Walmart has some tires in your size for under $100 each.

 

[dumkid]

Continental at?

Or maybe some Walmart dextero tires. I got mine for $120 a piece and they've been good but a lil noisy compared to the Michelin at2 that came off.

 

[FordFocus]

1. Michelin Defender LTX M/S
2. BFG Trail-Terrain T/A
3. Uniroyal Laredo HT

 

[M1Accord]

Another vote for Defender.

Michelin has a new all-season called Cross Climate 2 that is also winter rated and tested to be as good as many dedicated winter tires but last 60k+ depending on applications and other ratings. This will be my tires for the next vehicle. It looks like high performance tires, last as long as all-season and cost about the same, and include very good ice, snow, and rain performance.

They didn’t have it for the odd size of Honda Fit so I went with the Defender. I am hoping to get 70k+ miles on this set and that would put me in time for possible the last set to get to 300k miles. After that, any tire replacement would be blessing from the Honda god. Technically, I got my money worth with 12 years and 175k miles with only two problems; blow fan died around year 10th and A/C dying around year 3 or 4 and finally took it to the shop this past summer for fix of a leak for under $300. Honda Fit is known to have weak A/C but it worked great the first two years and just start to weaken. It is unknown if the leak was the design/material flaw or damage from being on the roads. It is fixed now and we’ll see if that holds for more than 3 summers. Other than that, no problem at all. I call the failed blow fan and A/C leak problems because my 22 years old Accord is still blowing ice cold air and never had been recharged.

 

[Jdeere562]

Bought Cross Climate 2 a couple years ago. Great tires on crappy Iowa roads. Fuel mileage did take a hit though.

 

[edyvw]

You say wet is most important performance variable?
Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 or Continental TerrainContact HT.
Run away from BF Goodrich in that case.

 

[daves87rs]

Good luck with my defenders……

 

[Mainia]

Continental TerrainContact HT

 

[CarbonToast]

I don't reccomend weighing the UTQG rating very high in the decision unless you rackup alot of miles. Figure the tires are good for 5-7 years max. You might find the lower rated tires gives better traction because of softer compounds and the lower rated life gets you plenty of service time before they age out.

 

[Blueshound]

Bought Cross Climate 2 a couple years ago. Great tires on crappy Iowa roads. Fuel mileage did take a hit though.

Great tires! We put these on our CX-5 and they are amazing. Unconventional looking but boy do they grip.

 

[John105]

1. Michelin Defender LTX M/S
2. BFG Trail-Terrain T/A
3. Uniroyal Laredo HT

We have #1 on one wheel because the Premier LTX is no longer made in our size and we got a nail in the sidewall.

Can’t say anything bad, nor good, it’s there. Paid like $103 road hazard pro rata but it was $245 in 2023 when the Premier was $190 in 2020.

What I do is look up the price at Costco. If it’s same as online etailers I get them and never look back. At least with Costco patch is free as are rotations. Now I know warranty is hassle free too. There does tend to be a Michelin tax but I’m ok with it…

 

[nickaluch]

On a 20 year old jeep Liberty cost has to be considered tough swallow spending close to $1k on Michelin tires

 

[Hermann]

The Conti LX-25's that I put on in October have been VG in the wet and the moderate amounts of snow they have encountered. They are super quiet. This is with FWD. Only drawback has been the squiggly feeling on certain pavement types for the first few thousand miles. The tread is 12/32". The squirming has mostly vanished over the winter. No noticeable fuel penalty now that they have 4K miles on them. My net cost $536 after rebates for 225/65-17. Install was $88 at DT

 

[edyvw]

We have #1 on one wheel because the Premier LTX is no longer made in our size and we got a nail in the sidewall.

Can’t say anything bad, nor good, it’s there. Paid like $103 road hazard pro rata but it was $245 in 2023 when the Premier was $190 in 2020.

What I do is look up the price at Costco. If it’s same as online etailers I get them and never look back. At least with Costco patch is free as are rotations. Now I know warranty is hassle free too. There does tend to be a Michelin tax but I’m ok with it…

Costco is way to go. I am looking for tires for Atlas once winter is done and I need to move from winter set to “summer.” Once I calculated installation at DT, even without that “certificate,” Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 is only $50-70 more than best tires DT has to offer, like Continental TerrainContact H/T. Conti goes $231 in Dt and Michelin $270 in Costco for 265/60R18. But, in Costco I don’t get DT service like: we forgot to torque wheels, lousy balancing etc.

 

[Johnny248]

Hi…I’m new here. I have an ‘02 Jeep Liberty Ltd 3.7L 4x4 that needs new tires. I have had my heart set on Michelins for years, but cost was initially a factor. Now, after doing some research, I’m not totally convinced that, as much as I hold their ratings in high esteem, that they would necessarily be the “best” tires for my vehicle; let alone which type/model to choose. I’ve been searching tires via the UTQG ratings. They don’t always sync across tire sites/rating sites, but are relatively close. I’ve been shown Continental CrossContact LX25, Cooper, Michelin (few in my size), BFGoodrich, Yokohama Geolander, etc.

The most important aspects for me are wet, dry, snow traction/stopping, handling, noise, fuel economy, wear, etc.

I bought the Jeep in 2009 and it came with new Pirelli Scorpions.

The Michelin is by far the best in class. Tire dealer. Conti's aren't on the same level.

 

[John105]

Costco is way to go. I am looking for tires for Atlas once winter is done and I need to move from winter set to “summer.” Once I calculated installation at DT, even without that “certificate,” Michelin Defender LTX M/S2 is only $50-70 more than best tires DT has to offer, like Continental TerrainContact H/T. Conti goes $231 in Dt and Michelin $270 in Costco for 265/60R18. But, in Costco I don’t get DT service like: we forgot to torque wheels, lousy balancing etc.

Yeah oddly for the first time, I did the rotation and noticed all 4 wheels were rebalanced by Costco. I get it’s part of the free rotation but thought they didn’t actually do it other than when repairing. I saw weights were shiny and stuck on different spots.

With Costco one doesn’t have to worry about price nor getting ripped off or whether warranties are honored. And for us it helps us to exceed the executive 2%. We’re usually close to breaking even…

 

[CKN]

Yeah oddly for the first time, I did the rotation and noticed all 4 wheels were rebalanced by Costco. I get it’s part of the free rotation but thought they didn’t actually do it other than when repairing. I saw weights were shiny and stuck on different spots.

With Costco one doesn’t have to worry about price nor getting ripped off or whether warranties are honored. And for us it helps us to exceed the executive 2%. We’re usually close to breaking even…

Correct.The big issue is multi hours wait at many locations to provide rotations and/or re-balance.

 

[edyvw]

Correct.The big issue is multi hours wait at many locations to provide rotations and/or re-balance.

Yes, but you can always book an appointment, and then have pizza and a hot dog, and chicken bake, with some sandee, and gain 2-3lbs.