In October I replaced all four tires on my 2014 Camry with new Michelin CrossClimate2 all season tires. In the five months since, I’ve driven on four inches of packed sleet overlaid with four inches of snow that took three weeks to get fully cleared and/or melted away on most roads in the metro area, on snow only, on wet roads, and in bitter below zero temperatures. Today I drove on wet roads from snow flurries with a few patches of black ice in high sustained winds with gusts as high as 56 mph. So the tires have had a good winter workout so far.
The results are impressive. Excellent traction and handling in all road conditions. Short stopping distances. Secure traction starting steeply uphill from a stoplight on an especially slippery section of local road even in rainy and snowy conditions. Secure handling on curves and turns. Secure traction and handling at highway speeds. Secure handling in high wind. Also, these are nicely quiet tires.
These are proving to be one of the two best sets of tires I’ve driven on in my now fifty years of driving. They cost about $50 more for each tire than several other highly rated good quality brand options I considered. The all around excellent performance is proving worth the total extra $200 for the set.
My personal opinion is that Michelin CrossClimate2 all season tires are very much worth considering for anyone getting new tires.
Hi @Marnet
We’ve had the CrossClimate2 on both of our vehicles for several years now. Our assessment aligns with yours. I also really like how quiet they are.
There were some complaining that they cause up to a 10% drop in gas mileage. We saw a minor drop when the tires were new, but that seems to have largely disappeared.
I can echo Marnet’s opinion.
I’ve had my Cross Climate-2 tires since early December, and their traction–in all conditions–has been impressive. Additionally, they are quiet and their handling quality is excellent. And, as is typical of Michelin tires, their ride quality is amazingly smooth.
I recently had Bridgestone Weatherpeaks put on my GMC Envoy. They did get reviews as good as the Michelins. I haven’t had to take them out in the snow/ice (yet?), so I guess I have nothing to report…? Generally happy with them though. Nice comfy, quiet ride. (My last tires were AT’s with big, noisy tread - I didn’t choose them - nice change).
One of my rivieras came with Michelin tires on them. Don’t know which ones they were but I liked them and they always felt stable. In recent years I’ve just been buying goodyear weather ready and like them. Just goes to show there is more than one product to satisfy and that’s how loyalty is built. Tires are too expensive and important to experiment with so you should buy what you have come to rely on.
The other best set of tires were a set of low-rolling resistance Michelin that were the original factory tires on this same Camry when I bought the car new eleven years ago. Those tires were great but wore out the tread at only about 28,000 miles.
I replaced those with the only set of Pirelli tires I’ve ever had. Never did like those and replaced them with these Michelin CrossClimate2 tires five months ago.
They were very noisy and somewhat rough riding. Traction and handling were not nearly as good as the Camry’s OEM Michelins. In fact, the Pirellis were not as good an experience overall as multiple sets of Goodyear tires I’ve had on previous cars. I will say, though, that the Pirellis tread lasted well.
Buying a wheel that fits your car is best/cheapest route. Dismount wheel to have tire leaves you with a spare rim. Now you need to have new tire mounted on old rims. I figured out every explorer in yard has 235/70/16 tires but they seem to lean towards LT tires. Which I don’t like. I got 235/65 tires which are gm only
Will not say that I would not buy a Michelin tire but I still have the memory of a set that we had that were just awful. I have had good results from a local family owned Cooper dealer and I have Yokahoma tires on our present vehicle that are fine.
I think that we all develop favorites as well as no-go brands. In my case, my experiences with Bridgestone have not been good, and my one experience with Continental was absolutely awful. By contrast, my experiences with Michelin have all been great. YMMV
