michael007
Thread starter
Manufacturing location matters.
Not saying you can't make a quality product in China, but culturally its different. If there choice is to bypass QC to ship product, and not ship product, they will always ship product.
If the OEM owns the QC, then fine. However these days its sampling at best. So I buy nothing from China if I can avoid it.
Of course US production could do the same thing. Its just culturally less acceptable.
Mexico isn't that much different. The worst tires I have ever owned are ones I got a couple years ago from General (Continental) made in Mexico. 3 of 4 had to go back - out of round, and not by a little bit. How does an OEM ship a out of round tire you might ask? No QC.
Fair opinion but I think it's stereotyping rather than culture.
There was a similar debate in the made in China Tesla thread. I thought @JeffKeryk's comment hit it on the nail
I have no doubt Michelin is bringing their A game when it comes to Chinese QA for two reasons:
-The Chinese hate it when foreign brands give inferior products to their domestic market. This complaint is commonly found on Chinese forums (ex: some thought China was being singled out by Chevron when the PEA % dropped in Techron). To penetrate a competitive market with 1.4 billion people, skipping on QC is a death wish. It seems like Tesla is starting to learn this lesson as the rich Chinese seem to be going back to traditional brands like Mercedes.
-Michelin knows Chinese manufacturing will have a stigma with some but they chose to sell this tire in other markets like Europe and North America so if they want to ramp up manufacturing in the East, they better not ruin their reputation early in the game. They went so far as to make a statement about how tires from China will be the same as from elsewhere... c'mon now.
Do not forget that some tires are market specific and if one needs a replacement the wait may be a few months.
Speed rating is the same, load rating is the same. The pilot sport 5 is sold both in the United States and Canada. Since the border is near, finding a replacement shouldn't be an issue.
I wasn't very impressed with my experience running the Pilot Sport 4, hopefully the Pilot Sport 5 is better.
Not related to performance but found this tidbit to be interesting when reading a review from Australia
Link to the review: https://www.whichcar.com.au/reviews/tyre-review-michelin-pilot-sport-5-test
"As unsexy a starting point for new hi-po tyres as it might seem, the new PS5 is manufactured from 40 per cent sustainable materials and, in use, produces 20 per cent fewer particulate emissions than the outgoing PS4. In fact, Michelin says 80 per cent of a tyre’s environmental impact is on road."