I asked my tire store if they would price match Costco on a set of Michelin Defender 2s. They asked me for a screen shot of the price, which I sent. They responded that the Costco item number is different than theirs so it is not the same tire, so they declined to match saying that it may be an inferior tire. It had the same 80k tread life warranty.

any thoughts?

 

couple things about Discount tires
if you want to keep an old tire for a spare they will charge you
if you have a tire go bad and they replace it like they should they will charge you for warrenty on new tire.

 

Costco and other big box stores often do have some tire models that are exclusive to their store, however, if it's specifically a Michelin Defender 2 with the same speed/load/traction/temperature ratings I'd wager that the tire shop just wants to get out of price matching. If the two tires do actually have a different model number, it's very likely so that Michelin can more easily keep track of how many of those tires they've sold to Costco because they very likely have some kind of agreement to sell X number of tires at X cost or X discount. So all of the Michelin tires sold to Costco may have a special Costco identifier built into the model number to help keep track of that in their accounting system.

On the flip side, Michelin could actually be making a cheaper variant for Costco, maybe with a cheaper rubber compound, with the agreement that Costco covers the warranty claims in whole and does not pass it back to Michelin. Usually though, in my research, when companies do that they change the name slightly making it a Michelin Defender 2C or something.

Also, a Michelin is still a Michelin. Even if the Costco version is slightly different, it's not like it's subcontracted out to Linglong or some other bad Chinese manufacturer. You could contact Michelin and ask them if the model number sold to Costco is different specifically in manufacturing process or rubber formula(s) than the one sold to your local tire shop and see what they way. Or if you just want to make sure that the Costco tire is made in America you can ask to see one and check the plant code on the tire to see what plant it was made in. US plant codes for Michelin are easy to find online. I'm a bit of a tire snob so I specifically seek out tires made in reputable places like America and Japan.

Just my 2 cent observations of the industry.

 

Discount Tire has always gladly matched the Costco price for me with no issues. That said, they then add the price of the warranty certificates which is fair. My guess is that your shop just doesn't want to price match. So, you gave them a chance and they didn't take you up on it. That means it's time to get some value from your Costco membership and buy a set of tires from them.

 

I switched to Discount Tire from Costco over 10 years ago and never gone back. Price match has never been a problem. When I checked way back then the warranty without certificates was identical to Costco. The certificates are extra warranty for damage to the tire for any reason which I never buy. When I go below 5/32 DT will call Michelin and the last time I got $400 off set of 4 for mileage warranty.