roxy208

I was wondering, has anyone replaced those horrible Bridgstones with something better?

Tweaker

I did a couple of months ago with 10k on them. Mich Primacy made a huge difference in both noise and ride. You will find other threads here attesting to the difference.

Mike728

The bar is pretty low!

Maikerusan

My 2015 ES 350 came with Michelin PRIMACY MXV4 as the stock tire (Canadian Car). Happy with them so far.

roxy208

I've got 2700 miles on my car and I hate these tires. Our RX came with Michelin, 30000 + miles and much less noise than the ES. Smoother ride too.
I just hate to replace brand new tires

SW17LS

The tires I would buy is the Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus. I'll be doing that for my LS as soon as I can bring myself to replace the Bridgestones.

PirelliRC

.......

+1

lesz

I've now had sets of the Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires on 2 different vehicles, including my 2013 ES, and also a set of the Michelin Energy MXV4 tires that preceded the Primacy tires in the Michelin lineup. With regard to ride quality and minimizing road noise, the Michelins have been excellent tires, but my issue with the Michelins is related to tread wear. The Primacy MXV4 has a wear rating of 500, which is very average for today's tires, while similar tires from the competition have wear ratings in the 600 to 700+ range.

The Primacy MXV4 tires start out with only 9/32 of an inch of tread. Many of the competitors' tires are starting with 12/32 of an inch of tread. Since the tires will need to be replaced at around 3/32, that means that tires and 12/32 of tread are likely to last roughly 50% longer than tires with 9/32 of tread and similar rubber compounds.

On my previous ES, I eventually bought a set of Goodyear Comfortred Touring tires. The ride quality and road noise levels were similar to what I had gotten with the Michelins. They, like the Michelins, are a V-speed rated tire, but they have a wear rating of 640 and start with 12/32 of an inch of tread. With those tires, I had over 60,000 miles of use when I traded in the vehicle, and their cost was over $200 less than the cost of the Primacy MXV4 tires. Based on wear up to this point, I'll be lucky to get 40,000 miles out of the Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires that came with the 2013 ES, and when they need to be replaced, I'll likely go, based on my previous experience, with the Goodyear Comfortred Touring tires.

lesz

I think that is a very accurate statement. Besides ride quality and road noise, the Bridgestones that come on many ES vehicles have an even worse tread wear rating than do the Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires.

I know that, on this board, people like to talk about how great the Primacy MXV4 tires are, but, for me, the bottom line is that there are multiple other choices that will perform similarly with regard to ride quality and minimizing road noise and that will be far superior to the Michelins with regard to tread wear, and many of those choices come with a price tag much lower than that of the Michelins.

SW17LS

The Primacy MXV4 has been discontinued and replaced with the Michelin Premier, so discussing them really doesn't serve any purpose.

As for treadwear, I really don't care about treadwear beyond 40k miles. What I want is the best riding and quietest tire, even if I have to sacrifice treadwear.

roxy208

Me too. I'm seriously considering the Pirellis, but I will check into the Goodyears.

SLH

Both TireRack and Consumer Reports seem to like the new Michelin Premier tires. The CR article raves about how the traction (measured by stopping distance) remains good throughout the life of the tire. Most tires lose traction gradually as they age. The TireRack reviewers give it high scores in all categories.

One measure that is hard to find is "rolling resistance". RR measures the amount of energy that is consumed by just rolling the tire down the road while supporting the weight of the car. RR is a large part of the energy consumption of modern cars. Lower RR tires yield improved fuel economy.

Much of that energy loss translates into noise and vibration. Lower RR implies less energy used to make noise and vibration.... and less noise and vibration...

lesz

It should be noted that, while the CR review praises the Premier series tires for many aspects of their performance, including ability to maintain traction as the tires wear, there was a significant negative. The dry pavement stopping distance for the Premier tires was actually worse than for the Primacy MXV4 tires.

Also, according to the specs on Michelin's own web site, Michelin gives the Premier tires a lower rating than the Primacy MXV4 tires with regard to rolling resistance, which would translate into worse fuel economy and, perhaps, as noted above, more noise.

I also noted from the Michelin site and from the sites of various tire dealers, including Tire Rack, that, while the Premier series tires have replaced the Primacy MXV4 tires for some tire sizes, the Primacy MXV4 tires are still being made and sold by Michelin in many sizes, including the sizes used on the ES. The only place where I found any information that would indicate that the Primacy MXV4 tires have been "discontinued" was on forum posts, including multiple posts by the same person on multiple forums.

SW17LS

The Primacy MXV4 has been discontinued, they are selling out the stock they have, and continuing to produce a few OEM sizes until they reach agreements with those manufacturers to accept and use the Premier tire on those applications. Thats why the MXV4 is still in production for that size, its an OEM application, but you will find that a lot of shops no longer carry them. None of the Lexus dealers for instance here carry the tire, its in all their systems as discontinued.

That information is from my independent tire dealer who I know well, I saw the information in his inventory computer myself that the tire has been discontinued. He had a meeting with his Michelin rep himself and confirmed the tire is being phased out. They produced the MXV4 S8 for a while alongside the Primacy for the same reason, doesn't mean that the Primacy wasn't intended as a replacement for the S8.

In any event, I directly replaced a set of Primacy MXV4s on my old 2003 ES with the Pirelli Cinturato P7 Plus. I've been a big fan of the Primacy, I've owned multiple sets on multiple cars. The Pirelli is overall a better tire, at least "as good" in every category as the MXV4 for less money and with better treadwear. I wouldn't purchase the MXV4s again over these Pirellis.

Why people get so uppity and rude about tires is beyond me. Does anybody else have direct experience to disprove what I've said about them being discontinued and being phased out? Has anyone else directly replaced the Primacy with the Cinturato P7 Plus like I have?

Some articles to back up my statement:

Tire Rack - Michelin Replaces Primacy MXV4 with the New Premier A/S:

http://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-d...new-premier-as

Consumer Reports - A car tire that doesn’t give up grip as it wears Wet or dry, impressive new Michelin Premier A/S retains traction:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/n...ears/index.htm

New York Times - A Tire That Evolves as It Wears:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/au...ears.html?_r=0

Am I still the heretic saying this tire replaces the Primacy MXV4

chromedome

How much quieter are the Pirelli P7 compared to Bridgestone Turanzas? I'm interested in getting either the Premier, Primacy or P7 to replace my noisy Dunlop SP Sport 271. I'm wondering if the noise reduction is worth the expense.