Need tires for 2016 CX-5 Sport, Michelin - Defender2, any good?

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txt990

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2016 Mazda CX-5 Sport & 2010 Toyota Corolla LE
Looking to replace my tires and saw the Michelin - Defender2 on sales at Costco for $739 installed plus tax. Does anyone else have these tires on their CX-5? I live in South Florida so would be getting All Season tires.


There are also the BFGoodrich - Advantage Control for about $649 installed plus tax.

 
That's a really good price. Costco must have lowered their prices since I last checked, which admittedly has been quite a while.
I can't speak for the Michelins but Costco sells a lot of them. You could check tire reviews on Tirerack.com website.
I won't touch a BF Goodrich tire after my experience with them. Between the two I'd go with the Michelin. Also , Michelin owns BFG and it's their middle tier tire with Uniroyal being the lowest. So Michelin is at the top of the hierarchy.
I'm sure other members here could give you their experiences since as I said I don't have experience with them.
 
txt990 said:
Looking to replace my tires and saw the Michelin - Defender2 on sales at Costco for $739 installed plus tax. Does anyone else have these tires on their CX-5? I live in South Florida so would be getting All Season tires.


There are also the BFGoodrich - Advantage Control for about $649 installed plus tax.

Click to expand...

Get those exact Michelins. They are excellent for a daily driver. You cannot do better.
 
txt990 said:
So, went to Costco and spoke to the tire guy and he said they didn't have the Micheline Defender 2 in stock, but he said that the Michelin X Tour A/S is the same exact tire but made exclusively for Costco. Bought those and will have them installed next Saturday @Jmaz @theblooms .

Click to expand...
Bingo. You'll appreciate them, for real.

And as far as being $240 more, look at it this way: these tires will last at least 60,000 actual miles. Assuming 12,000 miles per year, that's 5 years, or $4 per month. Pretty much nothing.
 
theblooms said:
Bingo. You'll appreciate them, for real.

And as far as being $240 more, look at it this way: these tires will last at least 60,000 actual miles. Assuming 12,000 miles per year, that's 5 years, or $4 per month. Pretty much nothing.
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If I can get 60k on these tires in South Florida, I'll be happy.
 
theblooms said:
Bingo. You'll appreciate them, for real.

And as far as being $240 more, look at it this way: these tires will last at least 60,000 actual miles. Assuming 12,000 miles per year, that's 5 years, or $4 per month. Pretty much nothing.
Click to expand...
Of course we can easily justify the extra money for tires for a car that we enjoy driving. After all, we are enthusiasts.

However, that does not describe everyone. The vibe I got was they were looking for mid-range tires, based on the price range they were looking at. Therefore the question becomes, is it worth the difference for someone who just wants to daily drive their car and doesn't really care about the details? As far as I can tell, the Michelins might be 10-20% better but are more than 10-20% more expensive.

Another real world example: I'm putting Continental ExtremeContacts on my CX-5 and can justify it, however the Mrs wants something more along the lines of the Kumho HP71 in terms of bang for the buck. She is not a car enthusiast. Therefore I didn't want to assume.
 
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txt990 said:
Looking to replace my tires and saw the Michelin - Defender2 on sales at Costco for $739 installed plus tax. Does anyone else have these tires on their CX-5?
Click to expand...
My son has those on his Mazda 3 for about a year now & is very pleased.
I know, different car but still on a Mazda.
 
I bought Pirelli Scorpion AS+3's from COSTCO and absolutely love them. I had considered the Michelin CC2's and the Continental LX25's but the spec's on the Pirelli's matched all my wants.
 
My CX-5 had Michelin CrossClimate2 installed two seasons ago at Costco. Best all-season tire I've ever used hands down. I've since put almost 40K on them and they are still quiet, have ferocious grip in water or bad weather.

I've made a point of scheduling a rotate and balance around each oil change when the wrench pops up on my dash. Costco doesn't seem to mind rotating early each time.

They also seem to make the vehicle handle a bit better.

Was hesitant on the price, but if I get anywhere near 70K+ out of them it is well worth it.
 
I just got the Michelin X Tour A/S installed on 2016 CX-5 sport at Costco and they are very nice. So, took it to BJ's because they do alignments and Costco does not. The guy put it on the machine and showed me the report that I don't need an alignment. Usually, I get the alignment when I get new tires.

The car never pulls, and the previous tires never had uneven wear.
 
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txt990 said:
Looking to replace my tires and saw the Michelin - Defender2 on sales at Costco for $739 installed plus tax. Does anyone else have these tires on their CX-5? I live in South Florida so would be getting All Season tires.


There are also the BFGoodrich - Advantage Control for about $649 installed plus tax.

Click to expand...
The Michelin Defender is rated high by Consumer Reports and I have been using them for many years on all of our family's cars. It lasts longer than any other tire and this is definitely the tire you want if you are drivibg a lot of miles per year. However, the tires tend to start showing cracks after 4 years while you still have quite good thread depth left. I am not sure if the rubber has dried out in 4 years affecting tire performance. I certainly did not feel safe to drive on the highway with that tire condition. This is not an issue if you are putting a lot of miles per year. The issue is for cars driven seldom and for short distances. You may be paying premium for higher mileage rated tire, but it is useless after 4 years unless you drive 60 to 80k miles during those 4 years.
 
N7turbo said:
I'm sure they are. The question is, are they $240 better than the Kumho HP71?
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N7turbo said:
⋯ Therefore the question becomes, is it worth the difference for someone who just wants to daily drive their car and doesn't really care about the details? As far as I can tell, the Michelins might be 10% better but are more than 10% more expensive.
Click to expand...
I agree. I used to get only Michelin tires no matter how expensive they were. Since I had 2 blow-outs on new Michelins on my previous VW Vanagon driving on the I-45, and Michelin refused to do any compensations to the tires and the car damaged (but Discount Tire did give me new Michelin tires for replacement with their own expense), I decided to have a second thought. I’m now getting the tire with better reviews from TireRack and others, and the best C/P value. Currently I have these Radar Dimax AS-8 225/55R19 103V tires installed on my CX-5 and they’re satisfactory with my needs. Paid only $84.49 each and I have no complaints.
 
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Mete said:
The Michelin Defender is rated high by Consumer Reports ⋯ However, the tires tend to start showing cracks after 4 years while you still have quite good thread depth left. I am not sure if the rubber has dried out in 4 years affecting tire performance. I certainly did not feel safe to drive on the highway with that tire condition. This is not an issue if you are putting a lot of miles per year. The issue is for cars driven seldom and for short distances. You may be paying premium for higher mileage rated tire, but it is useless after 4 years unless you drive 60 to 80k miles during those 4 years.
Click to expand...
Ha, just about to say this! The factory Michelins on my 2001.5 VW Passat GLX was having the same dry rot problem on the side wall less than 3 years with plenty of tread depth left. Contacted Michelin and they said it’s “normal”, nothing they can do and nothing to worry about it. This’s the only time I have this problem on the fairly new tires. Heck the General AltiMax RT43’s on my 1998 Honda CR-V are almost 10 years old (opps, need a set of new tires ⋯ $$$) and I can’t see any sign of dry rots! 🤬
 
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