Michelin CrossClimate2 Tread Life

[Sequoiasoon]

Not often mentioned is how much road noise a car allows into the cabin. This makes a huge impact on the perception of tire noise.

Probably any tire will sound ok with a super quiet car.

My Accord is notorious for road noise, so quiet tires are critical.
I live in SE Michigan, which sees a fair amount of snow, and I drive about 90 minutes round trip daily, so decent snow performance is preferred.

That said, I grew up driving rear wheel drives with crap tires and no ABS in the snow, so I'm confident in my skills.
BUT, my 15 year old is driving now...

Bob

What vehicle will your 15 year old be driving, the Accord? Michigan allows driving at 15?

Consider the investment in safety for the learner. If they can stop 20-30 feet sooner or not slide in a turn then that will help them. You will probably take them out in bad conditions anyway to practice and that is a good thing. A couple hundred $$ for winter tires/rims is normally less than insurance deductible for most. You might find some from already mounted from another vehicle. Hyundai and Nissan fit the Accord but have a slightly larger center bore. I had 16" steel rims/hucaps/tires from my Sonata first year. Accord now has 16" factory alloy winter and 17" Hyundai summer. My kids got to experience their car in same snow with good deep tread all season and then with VikingContact 7. All my cars get 4 winter tires. Not the place for me to save a couple $$ with my family.

Look up STREETSURVIVAL.ORG and sign them up for a class as soon as they have a bit of drive time with you. It is through Tire Rack and different car clubs. My kids and future daughter in law all went. It's not like drivers education in schools etc. It is more of an emergency class. They also put the kids in an 18 wheeler so they see what the truck drivers see (or don't see). Here is link to my pictures/videos from the classes.

 

[Looger]

Yes, they can have a learner permit at 15 in Michigan.
The driver training is much more involved compared to when I did it.
It is now segmented, with multiple steps over at least 6 months. Lots of classes and supervised driving.
He won't be able to drive independently until May 2024, and he'll have hundreds of hours behind the wheel.

I like the idea of the street survival driving course.

He'll be driving my Accord and a CRV.

I've considered winter tires, but have never felt the need.
If we get a huge amount of snow, I take the CRV, or just don't drive for a bit. They usually clear the roads pretty quick around here.
That said, I know winter tires work incredibly well.

Everything you thought you knew about winter tires but didn’t

Snow actually makes winter tires grip better.

www.google.com

I was honestly surprised at how well the Accord handled snow with the Conti PureContacts.

The car also has a vehicle stability assist system which fired for a fraction of a second twice last year while cruising at low speed, around 35mph.
I felt the car slide a little off-axis (I was expecting it). The VSA light popped on and the car straightened right up.
It was kinda weird.

The CrossClimate 2 will probably be a good compromise.
interestingly, I see a lot of them around here.

I just hope they aren't noisy. Our cars let in a lot of road noise.

Bob

 

[Sequoiasoon]

It's good that he will be able to have some supervised experience with you in winter, and rain etc. Definitely do the open parking lot thing, find one prior to snow with no obstacles so you can go there. Pretend someone pulled out in front etc to try and stop/swerve etc.

My reasoning for the snows on all mine and when I recommend is the increased traction for stopping and lateral grip. If I can't get going, that is more an inconvenience and I should probably stay home. Not stopping and sliding sideways can be much more problematic. VSA, traction control, ABS all rely on the small 4 contact points.

Way back it was told to me and from my own experience. 4WD and AWD won't help you stop or turn, it will help you get in trouble faster without proper grip and further away from help if you off road.

Daughter has the AWD CRV, wife has AWD Pilot. I use them if snow is deeper and I need to get to the firehouse for calls. They give me the added quicker starting ability . I also take them if it has snowed a lot or is predicted and I have to be at work. They plow main roads pretty well most of the time but the entrance/exit ramps and neighborhoods definitely lack. Accord was good for about 7-8" fresh stuff on GY WinterCommand Ultra but was pushing snow and scraping bottom trim pieces.

I definitely hear you on the noise with the Honda's. Sadly the Continental WinterContact Si was quieter than the '19 Pilot than the factory Bridgestone Dueler Sport AS. The Pirelli Scorpion Verde AS2 on the CRV definitely better than the worn Defender T&H. The factory B'stones were a safety hazard in snow. Wife almost wrecked it multiple times coming home from work (less than 2 miles but hills) when it was a couple days old. She wanted to trade it back in and get her Sequoia back, crying how crappy it was. I got her the WinterContacts a couple days later, now she is much more confident and happy. She won't ride with here friends as she see's the poor condition most of their tires are. She volunteers to drive in all conditions.

My son will need new 3 season for his Forte soon. I might get him the CC2 just to try them myself and then be able to try in winter just because. It will probably be them or the Continental TrueContact Tour.

 

[goingplacesanddoingstuff]

Had these tires on a 2016 CX-5. They are fantastic in wet and dry conditions. Braking and handling are like summer performance tires. Winter performance was sufficient, but not as good as three peak all terrains like Nokian Rotiivas.

 

[Looger]

Great insight here!

The Bridgestone Dueler comment made me literally laugh out loud. They were on my wife's 17 CRV, and they were quite scary.

My bro in law had to get snow tires just to get up his ridiculously long, steep driveway.
Blizzaks. They were **** impressive.

Like most BITOG'ers, I don't skimp on tires.
However, my wife's current tires (Goodyear Assurance) were a fluke. She picked up a big nail in one of the Duelers (I was preparing to replace them) just hours before a short road trip.
I took the tire to the only place that could do the repair quickly, a Chrysler dealer around the corner.
They are actually really well regarded in our community.
Unfortunately, the nail was too close to the sidewall and couldn't be patched and plugged, so I had to get new tires. The only ones they had on hand were the Goodyears.
They have been merely ok. Kinda noisy, handle decent but not great, and wore down way too fast.

There is 5.5/32, possibly enough tread to make it through the winter.
Not good enough.
I've replaced many tires early.

Also, my Continentals have a little over 35000 on them.
Fronts have 5.5/32, rears have 4/32.
I rotate with every oil change, but I missed a rotation (had the dealer change oil with another service) because it was too early to rotate.
I must have been driving like a granny because my maintenance minder went much longer than expected, and there was about 12000 between rotations.
This apparently explains the imbalanced wear.

That said, they wore VERY fast for a 70,000 mile tire.

Bob

 

[The Critic]

Update:

The tires are still at 8/32” all around; currently at 56K on the set. They are a bit noisier than before, but the car hasn’t been aligned in over 200K, so that probably doesn’t help.

 

[CarDoc66]

Update:

The tires are still at 8/32” all around; currently at 56K on the set. They are a bit noisier than before, but the car hasn’t been aligned in over 200K, so that probably doesn’t help.

Thats pretty impressive. I shy’d away from them because I was worried about tread noise down the road.
On the opposite end of the Michelin spectrum are the LTX Premier series……they wear quick. I see them OE on Jeeps and they are bald by 40k.

 

[JimPghPA]

A friend got these on his 17 CR-V and hates them. Said they feel squishy. Drove from MD to NJ and back and said he was exhausted from the drive. I have 2 sets of these. An 18 Legacy and the other a 14 CRV and I have NOT had that experience. Though, we did say they are starting to feel better after some miles he does NOT like them. I told him to check the inflation. Not sure if he did. I also suggested that he maybe increase a few psi and see if it feels better. I don't think he is going to do it. Said the car doesn't drive like he knows it can. I have to remind him that it is a CRV not a 328i.

Tell your friend to get his CRV aligned at some place that has a hunter alignment machine. It will very likely make a world of difference and how the vehicle performs. I have a set of these in my 2016 CRV and they are really nice. But I also had it aligned at a shop that had a hunter alignment machine right after I put them on.

 

[edyvw]

Thats pretty impressive. I shy’d away from them because I was worried about tread noise down the road.
On the opposite end of the Michelin spectrum are the LTX Premier series……they wear quick. I see them OE on Jeeps and they are bald by 40k.

Premier LTX start very shallow, like 8.5/32. Initially they were coming 8/32. I had them on X5. Good tire, but shallow start doesn’t help.

 

[Wheel366]

Tell your friend to get his CRV aligned at some place that has a hunter alignment machine. It will very likely make a world of difference and how the vehicle performs. I have a set of these in my 2016 CRV and they are really nice. But I also had it aligned at a shop that had a hunter alignment machine right after I put them on.

It's too late. He sold the car. He had some electrical issue and once it was fixed, he sold it.

 

[mbres2000]

Approximately 17K miles with these tires on my wife's AWD QX60. Tread depth is ~8/32 at the 4 places I measured it. I try to keep the cold tire pressure at 35psi. Ride quality and handling seems first rate to me, at least for an SUV. Tire slip on wet roads is non-existent, but some of that is probably due to AWD and traction control. The tires are quiet on smooth roads, but "sing" on concrete with lateral grooves that we sometimes find in North Texas.

On a related note, I've never worried about getting much more than 40K miles from a set of tires. I'd rather have a compliant tire that grips well, not a high mileage tire with a remaining 3mm of tread that's dried out and cracking due to the effects of oxygen and ozone.

 

[mbres2000]

For me it is quite good,,, I was getting 48.0 mpg when I put these on the Venza,, now it is 48.2. I really like these tires,, maybe they will last really long also.

MPG down to tenths of a gallon. Now that's OCD. I'd be lucky to guess my cars' average fuel mileage within 2-3 MPG. And on the 69 pickup, I don't even want to know!

BTW, that is some fantastic fuel mileage! What percentage highway?

 

[The Critic]

Approximately 17K miles with these tires on my wife's AWD QX60. Tread depth is ~7mm at the 4 places I measured it.

7mm = 9/32"? That's pretty good.

 

[Ws6]

9/32 at 5,000mi on my ev6 GT.

 

[dumkid]

9/32 at 5,000mi on my ev6 GT.

They'd probably last longer if you would stop driving your performance car like a performance car

 

[Ws6]

They'd probably last longer if you would stop driving your performance car like a performance car

The PSAS4s lasted about 20k miles to 4/32. This is in line with what I expect from performance Michelin tires on a daily driven sports car based on my past experiences. The CC2s are certainly doing better, and just pulled a 1.87 second 60ft on dry concrete. Way way way better than the Goodyear UHP summer tires, which struggle to run a upper mid 3 second 0-60.

 

[NO2]

Consumer reports claims 95K mile tread life for the CC2. That's crazy!