[thirdmainroad]

I believe that tyres are an extremely important aspect when it comes to safety and I think Michelins are in a position to offer the best possible tyres - being the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world and also with how much of money and effort they put into R and D.

Having driven with other tyres; MRFs, Yokohama's, Apollo - I find Michelins offer far better grip control.

But heres the biggest thing that made me a customer for life:

There's a tyre shop called Mahendra Tyres in Vannanthurai, Besant Nagar, Chennai. They have been there for decades and who I go to for replacing tyres. The shop is nothing overly fancy, and is in an almost obscure part in South Chennai but is an authorised dealer for Michelin, and they do give the best prices and good advice when it comes to tyres, so have a good following and do good business.

Sometime ago, I was there to do a routine tyre tune up and noticed two white folks examining tyres and prodding around. So I picked up a conversation and asked what they were doing. And I was absolutely shell shocked to find out that one of them was the Head of Michelin, Germany, and the other, an even bigger man in Michelin - Jacques Cambazar, the director of Quality, Michelin! A later google search on him revealed a lot more information - including pictures of him with top F1 team managers and the what not.

I mean how cool is that? The Director Of Quality, Michelin, prodding around a small tyre shop in Vannanturai, Chennai, investigating quality!! I doubt any local manufactures like Apollo or MRF has ever bothered to be poking around tyre shops in India getting feedback and would instead send low level interns or such - but here on the other hand..

This and more, is what makes Michelin the world's best tyre manufacturer and our safest and best buy!

[Chillout]

Nice of Michelin executives to inspect such shops, would be interesting to see what they do during these checks, is it checking on equipments for tyre fitment or storage of tyres etc .

[Mr. Nobody]

Has the shortage with Michelins got any better now? Early this year there was barely any stock with many dealers n NCR and the ones that had stock were carrying quite old tires that were nearly a year old or charging higher than usual.

[Iyencar]

Full marks to the top guys for making it to a small shop. However, that doesn't automatically mean an MRF or an Apollo hasn't bothered to "poke around". There are some truly crap tyres out there but dissing entire brands is a disservice. I for one am very happy with the MRF ZLXs on my car. Find them extremely well suited for bad road conditions, yet I wouldn't recommend the ZVTVs to anyone. For my use the ZLX is the safest and best buy but if someone runs their car all day long on good roads I have no hesitation recommending Michelin as superior. Point is let's not get too carried away.

[harry10]

My experience with Michelins were superb for our Honda City for around 135000 Kms.
My experience with Yokohama Earth 1 has been quite good so far on Tiago.
It's early days but Apollo Alnac 4GS are also doing fine on our Sonet.
I will anyday prefer Michelin but they are harder to source now and expensive than the rest.

[KPR]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

I find Michelins offer far better grip control and longevity. They easily out last MRFs and Apollos 2X if not more.

My experience with Apollo Alnac 4g and Michelin XM2 has been good and both gave a life of 45 to 47K km. Last week I had to change tyres. Alnac 4G is 40% cheaper than Michelin P4ST. So I will happily live with Apollo and use the saved 10K money on a new set of component speakers .

[thirdmainroad]

Originally Posted by Iyencar

Full marks to the top guys for making it to a small shop. However, that doesn't automatically mean an MRF or an Apollo hasn't bothered to "poke around". There are some truly crap tyres out there but dissing entire brands is a disservice. I for one am very happy with the MRF ZLXs on my car. Find them extremely well suited for bad road conditions, yet I wouldn't recommend the ZVTVs to anyone. For my use the ZLX is the safest and best buy but if someone runs their car all day long on good roads I have no hesitation recommending Michelin as superior. Point is let's not get too carried away.

I did check with the Tyre Shop, and they had never had any executives from other brands visit and check.

Have you tried Michelins? I think they are many leagues better than MRFs - if you do change to Michelins after running on MRFs, I am sure you will "feel" what I am saying.

I am a TOTAL Michelin fanboy now for sure, and think justly so.

Originally Posted by KPR

My experience with Apollo Alnac 4g and Michelin XM2 has been good and both gave a life of 45 to 47K km. Last week I had to change tyres. Alnac 4G is 40% cheaper than Michelin P4ST. So I will happily live with Apollo and use the saved 10K money on a new set of component speakers .

I beg to differ. On an older car of mine, the XM2 did well over 70,000 mark and still had wear left. My father went and got Apollo’s for himself to save some money, but they wore out close to the 40 k mark. He then got Michelin’s as I had suggested, and he too was extremely impressed with the ride quality and felt they are much better than the Apollo’s.

On my present WRV, the primacy 3 STs have clocked 60,000 km, and still have a LOT of wear left. They could have easily touched the 80 k mark, if not for the fact I treated them very badly riding them hard repeatedly on a really bad highway.

Originally Posted by Mr. Nobody

Has the shortage with Michelins got any better now? Early this year there was barely any stock with many dealers n NCR and the ones that had stock were carrying quite old tires that were nearly a year old or charging higher than usual.

When i changed my tyres about 10 days ago, I was informed by Mahendra that Michelin are now working with very select and few dealerships in every city.

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

I believe that tyres are an extremely important aspect when it comes to safety and I think Michelins are in a position to offer the best possible tyres - being the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world and also with how much of money and effort they put into R and D.

Having driven with other tyres; MRFs, Yokohama's, Apollo - I find Michelins offer far better grip control and longevity. They easily out last MRFs and Apollos 2X if not more.

I can see that you're a very satisfied Michelin customer and I wish you many miles of safe driving, however there are many errors in your post.
Michelin tyres are a soft compound tyre. They cannot outlast a hard compound tyre. Apollo and MRF (most variants) are harder compounds and will easily outlast the Michelin by a huge margin.

But heres the biggest thing that made me a customer for life:
Sometime ago, I was there to do a routine tyre tune up and noticed two white folks examining tyres and prodding around. So I picked up a conversation and asked what they were doing. And I was absolutely shell shocked to find out that one of them was the Head of Michelin, Germany, and the other, an even bigger man in Michelin - Jacques Cambazar, the director of Quality, Michelin! A later google search on him revealed a lot more information - including pictures of him with top F1 team managers and the what not.

I mean how cool is that? The Director Of Quality, Michelin, prodding around a small tyre shop in Vannanturai, Chennai, investigating quality!! I doubt any local manufactures like Apollo or MRF has ever bothered to be poking around tyre shops in India getting feedback and would instead send low level interns or such - but here on the other hand..

This and more, is what makes Michelin the world's best tyre manufacturer and our safest and best buy!

All companies do market research, and that involves interacting with the customers in various ways. Unknown to you, many senior executives routinely have customer touchpoints. This is true for all industries, and in all countries.

While its good to know that the Michelin senior management did do a market visit in Chennai, it is ridiculous to assume that others don't do it. Its even more ridiculous to use that flawed argument, to then assert that a market visit makes them the world's best tyre manufacturer, and our safest and best buy. Like seriously, if this isn't known as "Jumping to conclusions", what is ?

I actually like Michelin and think its a good tyre. However, I just can't agree with the flawed logic that a market visit by senior leadership makes them the best in the world, the best buy, the most durable tyre. Whatever happened to common sense?

[saket77]

I have had Michelin XM1+ ( made in Thailand) on my Zen. Grip wise, they were good but after a few years and 12K kms, they started spitting on the circumference in between the treads. All four of them. Some dismissed this and put it down to lower usage of mine. Mind you, no sidewall cracks whatsoever.
However, my usage pattern is same as ever and I’m on my third set of wheels on the zen and second set on the Civic. None except Michelin failed prematurely and in this way.

Here’s my experience: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...e-failure.html (Michelin XM1+ Tyres: Age-related damage or failure?)

A few months later, I spotted set of XM1+ on an Alto in my apartment parking. The owner was well known to me. He told that he had covered about 35K kms in 3 years and the condition of tires were just like mine. Splitting/ cracking in between treads. There went the theory of low usage down the drain. Michelin dealer was highly uncooperative, so I decided no Michelins again. I understand that XM1s has issues on that front. Or a bad batch. Or a rejected foreign dump. But that experience was enough for me to move away from Michelins permanently. There are Pirellis and yokos available which I’m pretty happy to use. In fact the tire dealer from whom I got my replacement tires told clearly that this was a manufacturing defect.

It doesn’t mean that not having Michelins on your car is like it’s end of the world. Lots of equally good or even better options are available with better service.

[thirdmainroad]

Originally Posted by Lalvaz

Michelin tyres are a soft compound tyre. They cannot outlast a hard compound tyre. Apollo and MRF (most variants) are harder compounds and will easily outlast the Michelin by a huge margin.



All companies do market research, and that involves interacting with the customers in various ways. Unknown to you, many senior executives routinely have customer touchpoints. This is true for all industries, and in all countries.

While its good to know that the Michelin senior management did do a market visit in Chennai, it is ridiculous to assume that others don't do it. Its even more ridiculous to use that flawed argument, to then assert that a market visit makes them the world's best tyre manufacturer, and our safest and best buy. Like seriously, if this isn't known as "Jumping to conclusions", what is ?

I actually like Michelin and think its a good tyre. However, I just can't agree with the flawed logic that a market visit by senior leadership makes them the best in the world, the best buy, the most durable tyre. Whatever happened to common sense?

I'd say the Michelin's are a medium compound tyre leaning towards the softer side. The Pirellis, on the other hand are true soft compounds. I do believe you are wrong by saying harder compound tyres in general will out last softer compounds. Fact is that Michelins will not only out last MRFs - but they will by a HUGE margin, close to if not over 2 times. Many people will attest to this. And not only in wear, but also longevity. The MRF's and Apollos, I have found, tend to get harder quicker over the years and go unusable quicker than Michelins even if not ridden much upon.

I do agree that other companies will do market research of course, but I really doubt they would have to the extent I experienced with Michelin - with one of their most senior personnel doing the rounds. I could well be wrong, but thats my opinion.

I am not sure as to the purpose of this thread. It seems like a fellow members opinion on a particular brand.

As such it can be moved to this (Michelin XM2 Tyres in India) thread or any of the other threads that talk about Michelin tyres on the forum.

I have had Michelin XM1+ on my Zen. Grip wise, they were good but after a few years and 12K kms, they started spitting on the circumference in between the treads. All four of them. Some dismissed this and put it down to lower usage of mine. However, my usage pattern is same as ever and I’m on my third set of wheels. None except Michelin failed prematurely.

I am not sure as to the purpose of this thread. It seems like a fellow members opinion on a particular brand.

As such it can be moved to this (Michelin XM2 Tyres in India) thread or any of the other threads that talk about Michelin tyres on the forum.

We should restrict creation of new threads to topics that would help fellow members. No need to create a new thread just for a member's personal opinion.

The thread is a personal opinion of a particular brand, and opened here for discussion and views. Not sure why you think personal opinion threads should be banned. But we have a great set of mods, I am sure they will take a correct call on this!

I have had Michelin XM1+ on my Zen. Grip wise, they were good but after a few years and 12K kms, they started spitting on the circumference in between the treads. All four of them. Some dismissed this and put it down to lower usage of mine. However, my usage pattern is same as ever and I’m on my third set of wheels. None except Michelin failed prematurely.

When I just changed my tyres a few days ago, I got a 5 year warranty for them, and option to increase to 8 years by paying Rs 150 more per tyre. This was direct Michelin warranty - I got a text message on my phone from Michelin soon after purchase. It's unfortunate that your tyres failed prematurely - like every product, some are bound to have issues. I am sure Michelin would have sorted you out if you had approached them.

Also, does any one else offer 5-8 year warranties in tyres? Not sure. I think most others offer 3 year warranties - if that.

Anyway, what I am trying to say really is that Michelins are the no 1 car brand in the world re sales figures, and that they do spend a HUGE amount on R and D, and just by the fact they sell the most tyres - they are an extremely rich company and can afford to put in much more money on R and D than many others. And this IMO, makes them a safe and sound bet.

I also think that any brand with an F1 presence is a good bet when it comes to motoring- the technology and research employed there should trickle down to every product.

I do think its a bit of a joke if anyone tries to argue that MRFs and Apollos are as good as Michelins. They are most definitely not IMO. But they are much cheaper. But again, Michelin for the win, cos they are going to out last the others by a 100% margin!

[ABHI_1512]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

Fact is that Michelins will not only out last MRFs - but by a HUGE margin, close to if not over 2 times. Many people will attest to this. And not only in wear, but also longevity otherwise.

When someone says fact then they should corroborate the fact with figures as well. There is no fact which states that Michelin tyres will outlast MRF’s by a huge margin or so. While I am no fan of any particular tyre brand in particular, over the years my experiences have been very good with MRF, Bridgestone and Yokohama.

To put things in perspective, my MRF ZVLS tyres on Ecosport ran for almost close to 90k kms in 5 years and they were practically puncture resistent due to their hard compound and I had driven those across rocky terrains as well as city drives. I really doubt whether Michelin’s will be able to withstand the boulder laden road to Bumla Arunachal Pradesh !! So to say what you said is little devoid of facts. DBHPian Saket has clearly shared his experiences and going by that, Michelin might count as the worst tyre company around but that’s not the case since singling out a company for a bad product is not judicious at all.

While it’s a good drill to inspect the products and it was nice of the Michelin officials from abroad to do what they were doing, but brands across segments, I am sure do the same. One of my friend is from Bridgestone and I have heard stories of how the Japanese top executives were particular about the brand value addition and all.

Going by the contention that since top executives were visiting some obscure shop, that means the product is devoid of any faults. I can understand the member’s view here but to generalise is the worst trait going around the country right now

[thirdmainroad]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

When someone says fact then they should corroborate the fact with figures as well. There is no fact which states that Michelin tyres will outlast MRF’s by a huge margin or so. While I am no fan of any particular tyre brand in particular, over the years my experiences have been very good with MRF, Bridgestone and Yokohama.

To put things in perspective, my MRF ZVLS tyres on Ecosport ran for almost close to 90k kms in 5 years and they were practically puncture resistent due to their hard compound and I had driven those across rocky terrains as well as city drives. I really doubt whether Michelin’s will be able to withstand the boulder laden road to Bumla Arunachal Pradesh !! So to say what you said is little devoid of facts. DBHPian Saket has clearly shared his experiences and going by that, Michelin might count as the worst tyre company around but that’s not the case since singling out a company for a bad product is not judicious at all.
Going by the contention that since top executives were visiting some obscure shop, that means the product is devoid of any faults. I can understand the member’s view here but to generalise is the worst trait going around the country right now

I am not saying that Michelin’s are the best tyres out there simply because of the fact that their top most execs were visiting shops in India. I am saying that it is that and SO much more that makes them the best, IMO.

Have you had Michelin’s? I don’t think anyone who has had Michelin’s and cares about grip and ride quality will go back to MRFs or other brands. Unless of course someone’s had a bad experience like Saket.

[tud]

Originally Posted by thirdmainroad

There's a tyre shop called Mahendra Tyres in Vannanthurai, Besant Nagar, Chennai. They have been there for decades and who I go to for replacing tyres.

Why don't you write about the shop for the Team-BHP vendor directory section. This shop is pretty close to my place but I have never got any work done with them because I have not seen any stories about them online.

I have always travelled to Tyre Store, Lal's or MRF. It will be great if there is a good vendor close-by.

[anb]

I have been using Michelin P4ST, PS4 & LTX Force AT tyres on my cars. I feel that they are worth extra money over other brands. Michelin P4ST is an all round tyre with low noise, good ride quality, good grip in wet and long life. PS4 offers excellent grip, but they are noisier and have less life than P4ST. Michelin LTX AT provides comfort of an HT tyre on highway. I have used various tyres from Appolo, Bridgestone, MRF, Pirelly and Continental. I find Michelin to be better than these tyres.

[NPV]

My first gen Swift Dzire VXI of 2009 vintage came with stock JK tyres that were quite bad and I had them replaced with Michelin XM2's around the 40k Km mark in 2013.

I had a pretty much incident less experience of 60k Km with the Michelins till the odo reached 100k Km. After that I simply went with a new set of XM2's again last year, very happy with these tyres.