A confession about Michelin

[Kuato]

For months I've been defending Michelin tires in stating that my wife's Wrangler went 169k on a set.

Well, I'm mistaken.

I was going over the maintenance records for the Jeep this evening, and the first set of Michelins LTX/MS went 100k. The second set, with much more in-town driving added to rough Montana roads, went just over 50k before being retired (pun intended), still with legal tread.

I thought it was too good to be true....but 100k or even 50 beats the heck out of the OE tires.

Since Michelin has quit making the Jeep's size tires, it's now shod with Coopers. We'll see what kind of life we get out of those.

 

[CarbonSteel]

I had really good luck with M/S2s on my 2010 FX4 (around 80K), but the AT2s on my 2015 suck harder than the intake on the turbo at 30 psi boost. I have had 6 new tires installed thus far--two ruined by alignment (not the tires fault), those two replacements replaced (each requiring over a pound of lead to even come close to balancing), then one of those replacements replaced, and one of the remaining rear OEMs replaced.

When they finally wear out a different brand will be installed.

 

[spasm3]

So far the defenders on the elantra are doing great.

 

[SZR48207]

Evem if I could make a set of tires last over 100k miles, it seems like they would at that point be down to the wear bars.

It's no fun driving in the rain or snow on tires with very little tread.

So that makes me wonder why so many people are so obsessed with tire life rather than tire performance? Wouldn't you rather have a set of tires with low noise and great traction but only lasted 40k instead of ones that went 200k but had no grip and howled?

Now if we're talking about retreads on a semi trailer, then that's a different story..

 

[CKN]

Just like car dealers hate threads you can count on Michelin love fests.........threads.

Bring them on guys!

 

[GiveMeAVowel]

Originally Posted By: CKN
Just like car dealers hate threads you can count on Michelin love fests.........threads.

Bring them on guys!



Yes, this is true. What are you going to do about it?

 

[demarpaint]

I don't like their tires. I had problems with them on more than one occasion many years ago, and as a result won't use them anymore.

 

[thescreensavers]

There are so many brands of tires these days just to be a fanboy for one is kinda meh.

I use which ever is best tire for my $ for my intended purpose.

I like Pilot Super Sports on my WRX but my Jeep has Cooper AT/3.

 

[rslifkin]

I don't get the obsession with "oh wow, these tires lasted 100k, they're amazing!" IMO, any tire that lasts that long is rock hard, way too not grippy and in general, a total piece of [censored] that I wouldn't run if it were free.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

We've had two sets of Michelin MXV4s on the wife's car and they have been fine...they are not really enough to get her FWD car through a bad winter in our hilly area, but they were better than the OEMs all around. She flat out refuses to buy snows and says she will just stay home when the weather is bad...of course, she ends up "having" to go to work and get stuck, then my cell rings.
My first car was a little CRX and I have no idea what tires came on it...I had moved to Michigan and was wondering why the [censored] I could barely do 40mph on the highway in the rain and everybody else was zipping by me and beeping. Oh, my tires were bald! Went to Sears and got some Roadhandlers (father's choice of tire), car was loud and clunky but so what?
Those tires took forever to wear out and I consulted CR when they finally did. They liked some Yoko Avid tire and I bought a set...man, my car was FUN to drive again! Since then, I have always searched for reviews from a variety of sources before buying anything...I know a lot of online reviews are fake, but I feel that careful reading is still worthwhile.

As mentioned above, I don't worry all too much about the brand and look for a tire that I think is going to perform for my application. Any major brand is going to have good tires and crummy ones, look for the good ones and don't be too rigid about the brand.

 

[Nick1994]

They simply can't be used here in the desert. They just rot away.

I had a set of Michelin HydroEdge's on my VW that went about 62k miles and still had 6-7/32" of tread left. Couldn't stand them anymore. They were insanely loud, sounded like an airplane going down the road. They also made the car drive like a dump truck, rock hard. One of the tires cupped (defective tire) and Discount Tire wouldn't replace it. Oh well. Was much happier with the Pirellis that replaced them.