Well, I have been kicking myself ever since I replaced my Michelins with Dunlops. I wasn't concerned about the stickiness or durability as I hadn't planned on keeping the car too long.
It has now been 10K miles and I must decide by May (that is my cut off to either add a 150 or patch this one up for another year).
If I keep it I'm sure it will be with new Michelins but when I saw this I wondered just how bad it might vibrate!
wj

 

Yep, have had yokohama, khumo and Pirelli in the past, but Michelin was always my favourite. Had them on last 2 vehicles I had, never had any issues and were nice and quiet.

 

Several tire companies have caught up and in some cases surpassed Michelin for certain applications during the past decade or so. I was partial to Michelin back in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, but not now. The Yokohama YK580 tires on my wife's 2006 XK8 have been superb, and so are the Continental PureContact tires on my S-Type. The General Altimax RT43 tires on our Outback may be the best bang-for-the-buck tires I have ever owned....

Well before tire-buying time rolls around, always do plenty of research on the particular application you are looking for. You may be surprised....

 

I have several friends that own tire franchises and they have told me that Michelin’s construction is different than all the others. The most obvious difference being that where the tires a bonded. Michelin joins the material in 120 degree spacing whereas the others use a single joining point. A single point is more apt to be a high/low spot and will contribute to those ever so slight vibrations. Michelin on the other hand joins in three sports which allow the high/low variance to be less since it is spread between three points and the rubber growth as things warm up is less at each point…making for a smoother tire.
Make no mistake, technology is closing the gap but while I have had some other brands that had zero issues I have never had a Michelin that was so out of round that it had to be sent back as ‘faulty’.
The cost difference is at times significant but my last go around has me convinced that the additional cost is worth it on this auto.
ymmv
wj

 

Michelin has had its share of product defects over the years. The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus front tires that were on my wife's 2006 XK8 when we purchased it in February 2012 began "chunking" within six months with less than 10,000 miles on them. Pieces of the tires the size of pencil erasers were literally falling off them at routine highway speeds. Fortunately for my wife I noticed this dangerous characteristic within a couple of days of it first happening, limped the car to my good friends at Discount Tire, they were well aware of the "chunking" issue and identified it immediately, and they essentially forced Michelin to reimburse me on the spot for 75% of the cost of these tires when they were new. I threw Michelin out the door and went with the Yokohama YK580 based upon previous tire research I had done. We have been happy with that choice ever since....

These particular Michelin tires were infamous for "chunking" and I was just one of several members of this forum who experienced this dangerous defect at that time. I do not know if Michelin eventually recalled all of these tires, but as unsafe as they were, they certainly should have....

 

yep, I guess all manufacturers have their 'bad' moments.
life goes on

wj

 

'I have several friends that own tire franchises and they have told me that Michelin’s construction is different than all the others. The most obvious difference being that where the tires a bonded. Michelin joins the material in 120 degree spacing whereas the others use a single joining point.'

Your expert friends are talking nonsense. I used to work for michelin an I can assure you that staged joins are standard practice throughout the industry. With the number of material layers involved in a tyre contruction, if all of the joins were in one spot you wouldnt be able to drive it over 10mph with the vibration issues, the tyre would be egg shaped. What sets michelin aside is that the staged joins are not 120 degrees but each position is calculated using the weight of the join to work out the best position in relation to the others in the construction. If each layer was the same mass per unit length and the join lengths were the same for each layer then 120 degrees would work but unfortunately tyre construction isn't that simple

 

I guess they were trying to dumb it down for me. Thanks for the accurate insight!

wj

 

Just read the rest of your post about 'out of round' Its done for balance which in itself could lead to 'more roundness' by default. its done so that less or no balance weights are used that could make alloys look awful as demanded by car manufacturers. They are graded when they come off the production line, OEM get the 1/2 grades, replacements are 3/4, 5's are used to give to employees as a perk. we were allowed one complete set every 2 years. Grade 6 and above are scrapped once an autopsy is performed to determine who screwed up during manufacture. They are then dragged out of their beds and shot