Michelin Defender T+H

Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
597
Location
Atlantic, Canada
Well,

After a disappointment with the Continental True Contact Tour, being balanced four times plus road force balancing, they are still a little shaky.

I had 30 days for customer satisfaction so I decided to return them and get a set of Michelin Defender T+H, size 205 60 R16 on a mazda 3 2018.

Any of you had Defenders before? How did they do? My dad just put a set on his car, they are very quiet and handles surprisingly well in corners, but we have no long term experience with them.

Please feel free to give your opinion and inputs.

Thanks!
 
I agree with your decision. l have had excellent service when dealing with Michelin. Both at the dealer and with Michelin corp. They always honor their warranty as I normally get a new set for about 25-40% discount. I rarely get
a set that goes the full mileage warranty. l hope they never go the full warranty as I get new Michelins quicker at a great discount. LOL

I bought my 2005 LS430 used and it had a mismatched set of Michelins. I called Michelin Corp, explained my situation and by working through my dealer Michelin replaced 2 of my tires so they would all match. Can you imagine
better customer service? I can't.
 
Originally Posted by Gebo
I agree with your decision. l have had excellent service when dealing with Michelin. Both at the dealer and with Michelin corp. They always honor their warranty as I normally get a new set for about 25-40% discount. I rarely get
a set that goes the full mileage warranty. l hope they never go the full warranty as I get new Michelins quicker at a great discount. LOL

I bought my 2005 LS430 used and it had a mismatched set of Michelins. I called Michelin Corp, explained my situation and by working through my dealer Michelin replaced 2 of my tires so they would all match. Can you imagine
better customer service? I can't.


that is amazing service.
 
They were the most awful michelin I ever owned and wore out in
That being said they were a first year batch and there were some known issues back then (7-8 years ago??)

I'm sure the ones they make now are a totally different compound.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
They were the most awful michelin I ever owned and wore out in
That being said they were a first year batch and there were some known issues back then (7-8 years ago??)

I'm sure the ones they make now are a totally different compound.


How much of a refund did you get?
 
I have the same tire, same size on a 2014 Mazda 3. So far so good. No complaints.
 
Originally Posted by wolf_06
Well,
After a disappointment with the Continental True Contact Tour, being balanced four times plus road force balancing, they are still a little shaky.


The Continental True Contact TOUR(CTCT) were very high on my list of ~3 or 4 tires, prior to ending up with Pirelli Cinturato P7 A/S+ again. I've owned several Pirelli tires in the past(4 sets/P4 & P7) with great success. These Pirelli's just happened to be on closeout. Although I did have to have this set RFB'd, everything turned out fine.

I've never been a fan of the Continental tires that I've owned which has given me a sour taste for the brand. I know others love'em and I can't blame them if they've experience great success with the brand.

Sorry to hear about your dislike for them however, his makes me glad that I didn't get the CTCT
 
Since you asked... I had a set of Michelin Defenders on a Town and Country and a set of Michelin LTX on a Chevy Silverado.

The Defenders were mediocre at best, and were no better than tires at half the price. The LTX's had to have been counterfeit. Absolutely no wet or snow traction at all. The LTX's got me into a wreck (so little wet traction that my ABS never even kicked in), and I took them off and sold them on craigslist.

By far, the two worst sets of tires I've had the misfortune to own for the price that was paid. Never again.
 
Originally Posted by mrsilv04
...Absolutely no wet or snow traction at all. The LTX's got me into a wreck (so little wet traction that my ABS never even kicked in)...
.


I'm not a tire or brake expert, but I don't understand how having so little wet traction that an ABS wouldn't kick in. It seems to me the ABS would be kicking in a lot more since the tires would be locking up and sliding. On my cars the ABS only comes on when my tires lose traction. IDK????
 
Wife's Armada came with Latitudes as the OEM tires, they rode nice and wore evenly but they were shot by 35K miles. Rotated and balanced regularly. Has Nexus rodian ATs on it now, very happy with those after 55K on them.
 
I also had problems with Continental True Contact which came as OE on my Golf. Problems with balance, quite noisy on highway, squealing in sharp turns even on low speed and very little thread left after 25,000 miles.

Defender T+H was on my radar besides two other brands. After some thorough research I eventually decided to go with General Altimax RT43 which I got on Amazon for $78 per tire using some of my Amazon credits. That was almost $160 saved per set compare to Defender. Total cost including installation and balance was $392. And now after 15,000 miles on RT43 I can say I am very happy with them. Very quiet on highway, good grip in corners without any squealing noise and thread still looks like new. Can't comment on RT43 snow/ice performance due to my dedicated wheel/tire (Cooper Glaciers) set up for winter months.
 
Originally Posted by js1956
I also had problems with Continental True Contact which came as OE on my Golf. Problems with balance, quite noisy on highway, squealing in sharp turns even on low speed and very little thread left after 25,000 miles.

Defender T+H was on my radar besides two other brands. After some thorough research I eventually decided to go with General Altimax RT43 which I got on Amazon for $78 per tire using some of my Amazon credits. That was almost $160 saved per set compare to Defender. Total cost including installation and balance was $392. And now after 15,000 miles on RT43 I can say I am very happy with them. Very quiet on highway, good grip in corners without any squealing noise and thread still looks like new. Can't comment on RT43 snow/ice performance due to my dedicated wheel/tire (Cooper Glaciers) set up for winter months.


I had a set of RT43 one a chevy cruze, was good in snow, not as good as a dedicated snow tire, but still, very good.
 
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