Are Michelin Tires Worth It?

No! Dry rot, and I've never had a set last over 50K miles. I'm not the only one, others in my shop have experienced the same issues. I will give them high make for traction on wet roads.
They have had problems over the last few years and have had recalls.
I'll never buy another set again.

 

yes, right outside the Bluffs on the other side
Michelins have been highly recommended by my goto Toyota/Lexus mechanic, but many on TW are trying to push me into getting the Wildpeaks, its a tug-of-war

 

As one that also chose Defenders and drive in winter conditions with snow and ice, I found the tire does very well as far as traction is concerned. I don’t know if it’s the tread or compound of the tire, but it just seems to hold the road in adverse conditions and that translates to more confidence and less white knuckle situations.

 

Ultimately, its your money and your choice.

I urge you to compare the ratings of Tread Wear, Traction and Temperature between the tires. These ratings are base on Tire Industry (UTQG) standards and test procedure. They are meant to enable consumers to compare tire life and performance.

I haven't looked at the ratings for Wildpeaks. Although, I would suspect the tires are nearly the same price or more with lower ratings.

The purchase depends on what you want. Cosmetics, Life, Traction, warranty, cost..........

 

Short story: Two years ago I headed to a cabin in the remote hills of eastern WY from N.Cal. in a friends new Z71. We had to delay the start a day while the dealer installed the Michelins on the new 300 mile 4x4 truck. When we reached the BLM access gate in WY there was a foot of fresh snow and it was snowing. It is about a 1/2 hour across the BLM to the private gate and in dry summer you need to be in 4x4 to go the last 1/4 mile to the cabin. The Michelins never missed a beat and if I wasn't sold on them before I certainly was then. You can see our tracks center of first photo.

 

awesome, looks like a good Covid bug out cabin

 

How do the LTX's perform off road? Not rock crawling but mild off-roading

 

A lot of places will price match Costco. A little bit of effort will result in much cheaper prices. I paid a little over $750 for 4 LTX defenders mounted and balanced at America’s tire.

 

Imogene Pass has widely been considered an easy pass
as opposed to Black Bear Pass nearby

 

More work trucks “off-road” with Michelin tires every single day than all of tacoma worlds tire choices combined.

In everything short of deep/thick mud they are going to do great.

 

We have them on all our service trucks, and 1 ton and smaller delivery trucks. If you have ever been to construction sites in winter or summer mud you know how it is. They go, they stop, no more unloading the mini excavators to pull the truck and trailer out, then reload excavator to bring in or out. We have 10 different trucks running the LTX Defender M/S. It has just eliminated sending another truck or using the equipment to get out.
Just my experience.
When the Sumitomo Encounter are worn out that came on my truck I will buy LTX Defender M/S

 

Yep, yer right. The point was.......(I did Black Bear a couple of years prior in my Jeep)... You can still reach some awesome places and experience some challenging "off road" travel in a stone stock Tacoma on factory tires. It's not a surprise that someone would point out that it wasn't the toughest road to take - but, to travel Black Bear pass, you would need significant mods to your truck and not likely to do it on stock Brigestones or Michelins.

 

see if your costco will order the LTX A/T2, gives a bit more attitude. Aired down you gain traction. The comments about Eastern US vs western are legit. The A/T2 is a legit AT tire that is STELLAR for a daily driver.



I've put over 30K on a set in the last 15 months. At one point towing a trailer loaded with pontoon boat to a mountain top lake on a fire path. M/T tire wouldn't do any better. I've got 35 years driving trucks offroad EAST US style, and no tire has been better on a DD that needs an attitude than these.

 

You literally wont find a better tire than the Defender LTX MS for dry grip, wet grip, icy / light snow grip, quiet, low rolling resistance, longer lasting tire. The extra price of them is offset by how long they will last.

THE ONLY situation where the Defender LTX is lacking is your extreme off-roading situations.

 

I love my Defenders for practical purposes. It's great in the rain and does okay in the snow. But I would use something else for an off road tire.

 

Do it quick! They have a rebate expiring 12/9.

I just paid for my wife’s replacement Defenders. I got 70K out of them. They have some life left, but I want to replace them before winter.

Michelins are all I buy now. You get what you pay for. You can spend less, but IMO, you can’t find better.

 

+1

my approach for my 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles

 

This. Had defender MS2's (now known as defender ltx m/s) on an old truck before the tacoma... id play "lets see how far we get up the icy road to the ski resort in 2wd game"... never needed 4x4 unless for some reason i got 100% stopped on steep hills. I could never do the same with the Hankook ATM RF10's or the Cooper LT3's that i had on my tacoma.... the Hankook suffered a horrible blow out, and the Coopers had some of the worst traction and road noise ever.

I finally got off the game of "i want a cool looking AT tire" when they started making the Defender LTX M/S in the non LT load range in a 265/75R16, and EVERYTHING has been SOOO much better than any other AT tire.

 

Lets do a cost comparison using UTQG data......

Size 265/65-17, All Terrain tires. No discounts or mounting costs or balance costs or disposal fees or taxes, just tire. All data is from Discount Tire website.

Michelin Defender LTX M/S: Cost $213/tire. Wear 800 (8X greater than baseline), Traction AA (highest on wet road), Temperature A (highest)
Falcon Wildpeaks A/T3: Cost $186/tire. Wear 660, Traction A, Temperature B
Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac: Cost $209/tire. Wear 500, Traction B, Temperature B

Don't know about y'all, but from the least expensive a cost increase of $100/set of 4, I get more wear, better traction and better temperature buying the Michelins.

Looking at the GY tires, the increase cost is a whooping $8/set of 4 with big gains in all ratings.

Unfortunately, my truck was purchased with a set of GY Wranglers.......looking forward to wearing them out then onto a good set of Michelin Defenders.

If you want more understanding of the UTQG ratings....use Google.

BTW, I think there is a $70 rebate on set of 4 Michelins until 12/14 as a prepaid MasterCard.