Yeah I wouldn’t be happy either but still I paid $1300 for my set of tires so 30% off will put you under $1000 for a new set. So you want to argue to get another $200 off or so which you are unlikely to get while you drive on tires that you said are not good for the coming winter? So every once in a while you are faced with undesirable choices but still have to pick one. Banging ones head against the wall usually only results in a headache.
I suspect Triedaq is correct in that they skimped on the size of the tire in the first place so this is a good time to correct it.
The Consumer Survey results on Tirerack show your Michelin Primacy MXV-4 as being a very respectable tire with an “Excellent” rating for treadwear. And that’s with over 26 million miles behind the survey results.
Getting 30% off tires that will only lat 15-20k miles isn’t much of a bargain, so I see the OP’s point. [quote=“KitchenQueen67, post:1, topic:96301”]
These are OEM and I am more than annoyed that I am being told I need to buy new tires, when these haven’t reached 1/4 of their expectancy.
[/quote]Have you checked the tires yourself? perhaps they are being less than forthright with you.[quote=“KitchenQueen67, post:1, topic:96301”]
Handling is squirrely on wet roads covered with leaves, no hope of driving in the snow.
[/quote]I don’t think any tires are going to be too good on wet, leaf-covered roads. How were they in the snow last year when the tires were brand new?
Did these tires wear evenly?
The original Continental tires on my Toyota Matrix wore in a strange pattern.
The innermost last “rib” wore down much more than the rest of the tread; only on the front.
This would suggest a camber problem, but alignment was in spec.
By 15k miles and time for the 3rd rotation they were almost bald on the edge.
So I had them flipped on the rims to reverse the inside/outside treads.
This made them much quieter and the “new” inside edges wore down evenly with the middle.
Still, they were worn out at 25k miles. @CapriRacer might chime in and point out that original tires are often made to a different set of specs than the aftermarket version.
The replacement Yokohamas still had 4/32" after 37k miles of mostly city driving, and wore evenly.
I recently (2500 miles ago) replaced them with Continentals (different model than the originals) that are highly rated at TireRack.
Any tire can have problems with wet leaves because it’s the leaves that slide on the pavement, no matter how good the tires grip.
I have a friend who totaled his car avoiding another on wet leaves.
Re OEM tires, my Forester came with Tokohama Geolanders, and after 22k they have 8/32 of tread left. Started with 10/32, so they are only 20% warn. (33% by my criterion)
Then only experience I have had with a tire company honoring the warranty on tires that came with a new car was on my 1978 Oldsmobile. It came with Firestone 721 radials. I had tread separation on two of the tires. The local tire.store that was the authorized dealer for Firestone would not honor the tire warranty. I was told I had to go to a Firestone store 50 miles away for an adjustment. They did offer to sell me new tires. I declined and went to Quality Farm and Fleet and bought Duralon tires which were made by Dayton Rubber for much less than the price of new Firestone 721 tires and lasted three times longer than the tires that were the original equipment.
Wow. There’s a sales statement I hadn’t heard yet. How do salespeople who lie like that sleep at night?
If you had a Bugatti Chiron your tires would be specially designed for the vehicle. Affordable cars get recommendations from the tire manufacturers for a particular application based on the car designer’s parameters for the car, but they use tires already being manufactured by eth tire manufacturer. And that’s okay. Tires today are very highly engineered and excellent if from most “brand” manufacturers. To spend many thousands more for a tire that might squeak an extra 1% out of one or two performance criteria just wouldn’t be cost effective.
By the way, the Bugatti tires cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The Michelin MXV-4 is a very good tire. I have had several sets and I have always liked them. Unfortunately Michelin has discontinued them. I think you have another problem.
First, have you looked at the tires yourself? There have been several comments suggesting that you may have an alignment problem, but you have not responded with any description of the type of tire wear you are having or just how low the tread is right now. Have you measured the tread depth for yourself?
Tire wear this premature suggests to me that the tires have been way underinflated, the alignment is way off, and/or the tires were too small to begin with. A P235/60-R17 sounds about right for this size vehicle though.
About all I can add here is that the tires that came new on my Corolla didn’t last nearly as long as the tires I’ve used to replace them. I don’t think the car’s original tires even lasted 1/3 the distance as the Michelin’s I’ve used since. I forget what the original brand was, but it wasn’t Michelin. I get about 80 k from a set of Michelin’s now, but not much more than 25 k from the original set. I’ve always purchased the sort of econo-box better quality tire Costco stocks, what is probably the equivalent of the current Michelin Defenders.
If you think about it, the car manufacturer has a sort of incentive to equip their cars with less expensive tires that may well handle superbly when new, but aren’t going to last long miles. The car buyer isn’t going to notice that point until many miles after the car is paid for and driven from the lot. Maybe that is part of the explanation here. Sorry you are having this problem, but I just don’t know exactly what you can do about beyond what you’ve already done. I mean practically speaking. Best of luck.
Tire companies play games with the names of their tires, often the tire sold on a new car is a cheapo tire with almost the same name. They do it with tires sold to Walmart also. I bought a set of Goodyear Viva ii tires for $70 each with a 60000 mile warranty for both a 2004 PT Cruiser and a 2003 Town and Country. Tires were kept properly inflated and rotated. On both xars , tires were down to 3/32 after 22000 miles. Walmart would have adjusted them but only for a new set of the exact same tire which I didn’t want.
I found out later that these tires are made in China and sold only at Walmart and not at Goodyear stores.
Short version: OE tires are unique, designed to meet the car manufacturer’s specs, different than what is designed for the replacement market, aren’t any less expensive (except to say the OEM gets a huge volume discount!). and typically don’t wear well because of the specs.
Please note: That OE tires typically do not carry anything but a material and worksmanship warranty - meaning no wear warranty and no 30 day satisfaction warranty.
In this case, I suspect we are dealing with a tire where Toyota pushed the envelope on wear, plus a driver who is on the low end of the wear curve.
Michelin isn’t the easiest company to work with on warranty - and this is a case in point. My recommendation is to get a second opinion from a reputable tire dealer, and then plan on replacing the tires with another less expensive brand. What Michelin is offering is just enough to make going to another brand a slightly better deal.
The alignment is fine on the van, the tires seem to be wearing uniformly but they handle so sloppy, esp. in wet weather & high speed highway (dry). The tread is 3/32 on the Left side F&R and 4/32 on the Right side F&R. I bought Nokia Hakka 2 snows for the winter, and I am having them put on tomorrow at my local tire shop. Is there a different way to measure the wear once the tires are off that would better determine if the wear pattern is funky? When the tires were measured last week, I believe he just measured in the center of each tire. Should we check all the long groove channels?
If I have to pay to replace these Michelins, I’d rather buy a different brand altogether, as this experience with their CS and these tires has not been pleasant. But, if the dealer and Michelin want to replace my tires with new replacements at no charge, then I will, knowing that I may only get one season out of them, and then purchase a different brand altogether, but at least I wouldn’t feel so taken advantage of. I am just boggled that OE tires are legal, with no recourse for the consumer.
I can think of no way that will happen. Sounds like they just wore a bit quickly. Now that you’ll have winter tires, you have a lot of time to research good replacements on tirerack.com and elsewhere. Good luck!
.[quote=“texases, post:34, topic:96301”]
But, if the dealer and Michelin want to replace my tires with new replacements at no charge
[/quote]
IF you could get that to happen, that would be great. But try to recognize when it’s time to accept the reality of the situation and move on. No offense intended
none taken! it’s a long shot, I know, but I can be very persistent and persuasive I was on tirerack.com yesterday looking at the ratings on the michelins, scratching my head! Happy November!
I was on