fibromd

Mine came with Bridgestones. I tried to get them to change with Michelines but they wouldn't. They said with the tire sensors they must be linked to each car specifically so they couldn't just take wheels from one car and put on another. The cars at the dealership were 50/50 Michelins and Bridgestones. My car had just arrived 3 days earlier and had the Bridgestones. I didn't have a lot of options, the dealer only had 3 cars with luxury package and only 1 of them had the interior color I wanted (Parchment). However, I drove the car before and have no complaints about the ride or noise. We have a Prius with Michelin low rolling resistance tires and they are terrible, so I'm fine with the Bridgestones.

gmanusmc

We switched over to Michelin primacy mxv4's H rated when our car only had 115 miles on it - handling and ride are like night and day. We received a good allowance on the bridgestones, so were glad to get out the door with the michelins for around $400. The H rated are different than the OE michelins that come with the car so the ride may be different. I only offer ths info for everyone's future consideration on the tire choices. When you read the tire threads on this forum, the Michelin H rated is the hands down favorite choice - and they last a long time if rotated regularly with proper inflation.

Bill G

ElliotB

My dealer offered to swap out the tires for $300. I decided to leave the Bridgestones on as like the previous poster, I had driven the car and had no handling or noise issues. $300-$400 buys a lot of gas!

gmanusmc

Like I said in my post, only offered the info if anyone wanted to consider the michelins in their future tire purchase - and to highlight that the OE michelins are not on the same level as the H rated, so doing a dealer switch probably would not have given us the result we were looking for. We are extremely happy with the tire switch, but as you say, that's about 100 gallons of gas (haha). Not trying to drag this out but if you check reviews, you will see that the bridgestones that come with our cars have terrible ratings as compared to the Michelin H rated. For us, the difference is very noticeable, so the $400 is worth it to enjoy the car a little more the next few years.

Bill

G550guy

Hey All,
Just picked up our new ES300H today and much to our surprise it had Michelins. What's a great car!. Traded out CT200H.

gmanusmc

Congrats on your new car - you're gonna love it. I believe the original poster in this thread also traded a CT200H for his.

Bill G

djrobsd

In deed I did. The quality is night and day difference between the two models - the perforated seats with built in cooling is an amazing luxury on a hot summer day, compared to the NuLuxe I had in the CT. The ride quality is much better, and the car is so much quieter - and I love how it effortlessly goes up the hills as opposed to having to punch it in the CT and listen to the loud engine winding up. The auto dim driver and passenger mirrors are a great plus too, I hated getting blinded at night in my CT. Lexus really went cheap on the CT for sure, and since you can build it up to 40k MSRP I don't see ANY excuses why they went cheap on that car given how much more expensive it is then a Prius.

The gas mileage is another story, I was averaging 38-40 in my CT, but I haven't seen this thing break past 33 yet... Only on my second tank though so we'll see.

Since I'm leasing mine, I think I'll take the stock tires off and throw em in the garage and get some new Michelins. That way when I trade it back in I won't have to worry about replacing tires.

Arty101

djrobsd, coming from a CT, have you ever consider the Avalon? Apparently, there's a lot of discussion, pros and cons, over the Avalon vs. ES (Why don't Avalon and ES Just Switch Badges, and No rear heated seats or third zone climate control) from another CT owner that doesn't think the ES stacks up. I got my ES before the Avalon came out and have never driven the Avalon so I can't tell.