Michelin's worth the money?

Costco Michelin’s or Bridgestone on the daily is the answer. What was the question?

I had Michelins on my benz for the past few years great tire even my super sports lasted almost 50k. Felt very confident on them wet or dry even as a summer tire. I paid for the tire replacement certificates when I bought them at discount which ended up getting me 2 free tires due to punctures

We had defenders on the odyssey and only got 40k. It’s a pretty heavy vehicle though. 

Michelin makes a fine tire, all I run on a truck/SUV.  I have only had one bad experience.  The OEM tires on my 1998 Integra sedan were Michelin all season radials, ostensibly the sporty model of tire.  They were very prone to hydroplaning, which they made up for by being very loud, with poor dry grip.  I upgraded to summer tires when there was plenty of tread left on them.  Only tires I sincerely hated.  When I put the Yokohama AVS intermediate tires on it, the car was transformed.  Braking was so much better with good tires, just astonishing.

I put them on my daily drivers. I forget which model was in my RDX, but they were excellent in every type of weather while still being comfy and quiet. My CT200H has some crappy Tigerpaws on it that are loud and terrible in the wet. They’re getting replaced with some MXM4s soon. 

Talking about Michelins generally is sort of silly, isn't it? I suspect it depends on which Michelin you're considering, and what tire you are comparing it to, and for what purpose. 

They make a great tire from what I've heard, but in any given category, they may not make the very best. 

grover said:

We had defenders on the odyssey and only got 40k. It’s a pretty heavy vehicle though. 

My experience,  Honda is pretty hard on tires. Good cars, pretty reliable, but seems to wear tires out quickly.  SWMBO  barely got 40,000 miles out of her OEM tires on her CRV. 

frenchyd said:

grover said:

We had defenders on the odyssey and only got 40k. It’s a pretty heavy vehicle though. 

My experience,  Honda is pretty hard on tires. Good cars, pretty reliable, but seems to wear tires out quickly.  SWMBO  barely got 40,000 miles out of her OEM tires on her CRV. 

 

I've heard the same and after 150,000 on that car I can confirm that it eats tires.  

OEM tires on Hondas are generally pretty uninspiring.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/tire-failure/139357/page1/

I just bought a set of Michelin LTX Defenders. Whether or not they are worth the premium over their competition is a personal decision, but I can tell you that Michelin will at least stand behind their product if that is important to you.

I've had good luck with the LTX light truck tires.  For a balance of performance and price, I prefer the Continental DW for my road-going sporty cars.

Until recently I was not a Michelin fan. I love the cups on my Porsche and the tires on my Duc. I guess it depends. Used to be long mileage but too hard for my tastes. Now they have a great ballance and yet perform.

It's looking fairly likely that the next set of three season tires on my 128i will be Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ (current are BFG Sport Comp-2). Anybody have any experience with these particular tires?

I ran the A/S3+ on my GS430. They had a ton of grip and were quiet, but I didn't put that many miles on them. (1000-2000 miles or so.) I did one track day and they were communicative but worked well for a 3800lb car. Sold the car and now have it back so maybe I'll put some more miles on it with those tires before I start pulling it apart.

After a lot of internet research I put Michelin Defender LTX on my wife’s GX460. On all my previous 4x4s they all got BFG ATs or Kuhmo ATs. But since this would see a lot more road use I went Michelin.  I was also thinking “if we have this car a long time, I want it to have good tires”

WOW!!!  I’m impressed. They not only made the car quieter (which The Lex was already pretty freakin quiet) but it made it ride better/smoothed, and has much better handling. I’ve especially noticed much better handling and road grip during lots of rain.

So far I like them a lot. 

frenchyd said:

grover said:

We had defenders on the odyssey and only got 40k. It’s a pretty heavy vehicle though. 

My experience,  Honda is pretty hard on tires. Good cars, pretty reliable, but seems to wear tires out quickly.  SWMBO  barely got 40,000 miles out of her OEM tires on her CRV. 

 

I don't think I've gotten much over 40k miles on ANY set of tires, EVER.  You guys must drive like little old ladies.

octavious said:

After a lot of internet research I put Michelin Defender LTX on my wife’s GX460. On all my previous 4x4s they all got BFG ATs or Kuhmo ATs. But since this would see a lot more road use I went Michelin.  I was also thinking “if we have this car a long time, I want it to have good tires”

 

WOW!!!  I’m impressed. They not only made the car quieter (which The Lex was already pretty freakin quiet) but it made it ride better/smoothed, and has much better handling. I’ve especially noticed much better handling and road grip during lots of rain.

 

So far I like them a lot. 

I second this 

I did the same with my wifes Ford escape. It's just a fwd four pot.  I've got a lot of experience with these tires on other people's cars  from my dealership days, but  still been impressed by the tread wear, ride quality, winter and rain grip, and even a small fuel economy improvement. We have somewhere around 25,000 miles on this set and have lost about 2/32nds of their tread  all four are at right about 9/32nds. Smooth as can be.  By that math, we might hit 80,0000 miles on a set. Likely longer than we will own the car. 

In my opinion, for  light trucks and suv's that see primarily pavement,  Michelin's LTX is plain awesome. Worth every penny of money spent above other brands we've had on it. Honestly, I think the price difference was  less than 100 bucks for the set from costco. I've been so impressed,  I'll be installing a set on my Armada this winter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_3Pk0fJUeY&t=872s

Watch this video - it essentially is trying to answer the same question. It is based on a tire test done by AAA.

Great video, thanks for posting. It really illustrates just how complicated this is. And that's data for only six tires, in a certain kind of wet condition. It's strong vote for THOSE Michelins, but not exactly safe to extrapolate to all tires a given manufacturer makes. You need data. 

From my days of installing tires, roughly 25 or so years ago, it's immediately evident just by handling them that Michelin tires are a quality product. Something to think about though is they are noticeably heavier than almost any other brand for the same size tire. Which could either be good or bad depending on what you're going for I guess. I've never been disappointed with a Michelin tire that's been on one of my vehicles. 

I'm happy with the Super Sports on my 135.

However, slightly porky car + lots of low down torque + Run flats means they don't have fantastic grip trying to get the car moving from a stop, but they stop well, turn well, are quiet, and great in the rain.