Costco Michelin X-Tour vs Michelin Defender T+H

Considering buying Michelin at Costco for my 2017 Prius Two. Suggestions?
Thanks

 

I suggest you ask in the 2017 prius sub forum.

 

Update/Thread-Bump: My Premier A/S have been pretty great these past four years. But due to pandemic and shifting work arrangements, I've only put 14000 miles on them in that time - and they're down to 4/32" already. They're also a bit noisy now. Today I had to get one patched after it ate a nail, so maybe getting thin. I'm thinking of replacing before another incident / bulk of rainy season / etc.

The Premiers have been great for stopping distance - which has turned out to be important on a couple of occasions when other drivers swerved in front of me. Looks like Discount Tire still sells them if you order them. With wear like that, though, I'm hesitant. If I go with Defender T+H, will stopping distances, wet/dry traction, cornering, etc. take a noticeable hit?

 

How did you buy new tires without warranty?

 

The Defender tires are more of a long lasting tire.
The Michelin Primacy A/S tires, are premium A/S tires, that have class leading dry and wet traction. They are also Low Rolling Resistance, and came stock on Rav4s.

I just bought a full set of 4 Michelin Primacy A/S tires from BB Wheels - the tires are now $143 each, with free S&H.
My stock Bridgestone Ecopia tires are "okay". But, they are not top of the line Michelin "touring" tires.
As you said, depending on driving conditions, braking distance can be Super Important! Imho, there are more and more idiots not paying attention on the roads.
Hence, why I spent well over $1K for 4 Michelin Primacy A/S tires, rims, and TPM sensors. I'm keeping the Bridgestone Ecopia tires as spares (in a cool, dry, no- sun, basement area).
Imho, my health/life, and my awesome 2022 Prius Prime Limited, are worth it. And, I have the money/budget.

Fwiw, for specialty tires, like Winter, or Summer Only Extreme Performance (and very poor tread life), I use Bridgestone tires.

Links below:
Tire rack descriptions, and test results.
And, the link to the BB Wheels web page - for Michelin Primacy A/S Tire 195/65R15 tire (the size the Gen4 uses, not sure about the other Prius Gens).

Code:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin-defender-t-plus-h

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin-premier-a-s

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=237

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=237


https://www.bbwheelsonline.com/michelin-primacy-a/s-tires-195-65r15-91t-bw-69504/
Michelin Primacy A/S Tire 195/65R15 91T BW
Price: $142.97

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin-defender-t-plus-h

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin-premier-a-s

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=237

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=237


https://www.bbwheelsonline.com/michelin-primacy-a/s-tires-195-65r15-91t-bw-69504/


Good Luck!

 

Dup post, server hiccup.

 

Dup post, server hiccup.

 

Dup post, server hiccup.
Please be the last one.

 

If America’s Tire is still the same, they will prorate the percentage of mileage you didn’t get out of the treadwear warranty and credit you on your new set that percentage. As you got 14k mi, if the treadwear warranty is 28k mi, they should credit you 50% on new tires. (At least this is how they’ve done it in the past)….


iPhone ?

 

You’ll be a senior member in no time.

 

Opening post mention 80kmiles warranty. What kind of warranty is that? Covers manufacturing flaws or something like that?

 

Manufacture flaws and tread life, down to 2/32” remaining IIRC.

 

I'll call Discount Tire tomorrow on the warranty. Hoping Michelin will prorate - I think the Premier had a 60,000 treadwear warranty, whereas Defender's is 80,000 (Defender uses a harder rubber compound, apparently, so wears better.). Not sure if a) they (Michelin) will make me run them down to 2/32 before doing anything b) will ask for all paperwork for every rotation, which I think either I or Discount Tire has, but haven't gone digging for yet c) some other warranty "gotcha."

In any case, warranty or not, I'll need new tires pretty soon. Safety-wise, wondering if the Defender T+H is as good as the Premier A/S? (Panic stops, handling, wet/dry traction, etc?) Is it reasonably quiet? I've read lots of reviews, and other than the T+H's lack of Premier's groove-widening features as the tire wears, haven't got a conclusive sense of comparison.

 

We had an experience decades back: Michelin tires warrantied for 120K km tread life, had solid wear bars by 60K, exactly half. The tire place contacted Michelin, and we got a new set of tires half-price.

These days I tend to bring in loose rims, since I'm averse to tire shop monkeys slamming on the lug nuts. Maybe a little OCD, and one downside: you don't have documentation about the miles they were installed at.

Thing is, our miles are so low, our tires tend to "age out" long before tread wears down. This is compounded by my swapping over to snow tires for 4~5 months of the year.

 

That's always been my experience in the not-too-distant past, even when I drove a whopping 8K miles a year. Now I just drove 14K miles over 4 years, but the tread wore out first! So, needing to claim the tread warranty was not something I envisioned needing to do.

 

I’m at 60kkm’s with my Michelins in other car and they are pretty much done. 20” rims which give some extra kilometers. But i think that is good number, maybe one of the best i’ve experienced. Here roads are not the smoothest thanks to studded winter tires. Eat tires fast.

 

Our roads don't have that excuse in sunny San Diego, but many of the local ones are nonetheless pothole paradises. So I imagine driving mainly local miles in pandemic era contributed to the worse-than-usual miles vs. wear ratio.

Anyway, I ended up getting the Premiers again. Discount Tire knocked a decent amount off the price for the fast wear so I wouldn't have to come back at 3/32 to do the warranty claim. It sounds like I wouldn't like the Defenders as well in terms of ride and stopping performance, so as long as either Discount or Michelin compensates for sub-warranty wear, I figured I'd rather go with another set. So, back to Premiers at 8/32... (let the countdown begin!)