I think I would be foolish to spend another dime on these tires as the dealership has checked and rechecked them. Michelin is replacing the tires. The tread wear rating is 300 on the Pilot and 620 on the Primacy. This speaks to the fact Primacy would have a harder rubber compound. I am still perplexed by how different the tire has performed for different people who own the same car.
What shocks me even more is at the beginning of this I called Michelin and asked for a tire recommendation and what the difference was between the two Michelin's I was considering. The reply was, "I don't know". I was told I would get a call back within 24 hours. That was weeks ago and as of this posting I have not heard back from Michelin. Any information I have about these tires I have looked up myself. I will share the outcome in hopes none of you have to experience this. I sincerely hope this is not a sign of where Michelin is headed.

 

I have had good experience wit my Michelin's

 

I agree, I was thinking the dealer might do this as a last resort to replacement. Though it's probably cheaper for them to replace at this point as they'll just ship the whole first deal back to Michelin.

Beyond installation issues, I'd say it's possible QC isn't the issue and people are really having the identical experience and just perceiving it differently.

 

I spoke with a Michelin VP today who told me I will likely never have another Michelin tire as quiet as the Michelin MXV-4 Plus, because Michelin has started adding the side treads that sweep water away but add noise. I was told the Pilot was my best chance of duplicating the ride and silence I was accustom to with my old tires. If these Pilot's are as loud as the Primacy I will just have to go to a different brand.

 

I just tossed on the comfortred touring from GY and they are quiet, handle well and ride nice no shakes with simple bubble balancing at Sears. Best part with the rebate they where like 100 bucks a piece before balancing and such with rebate so far 50 miles on em pretty happy. Hope this helps they have a 30 day guarantee so time will tell. Check out the rating on tirerack #1 above the Primacy for what that means.

 

Thank you for your recommendation. I will keep that in mind as I may have to buy another brand of tire for my daily driver for the first time ever.

 

I just got a set of Michelin Primacy "H" rated mounted on the 16" rims I had, so we'll see how they go. I'll add my two cents here once I install them this weekend and give her a ride around.

Costco, $150 for 225/60x16 and $70 off right now for set of 4. Mounting was only $15/tire. All said and done, $630, can't beat that... except if they were free.

 

I have them on my Volvo with sixteen inch rims and they are a completely different tire than on my LS. On the Volvo they are good. On the LS they are not.

 

Just got them on and don't know what to make of them. The LS is just too quiet that I can't hear much of anything so notice is about same as my continentals. ride on 16 from 17 feel like I went from Toyota to Oldsmobile... like riding on blubber. I have to get use to it.

 

I thought standard size rim for an LS430 was 17". Did they stock 16" rims OEM from the factory on the 04 LS?

 

A new slow rolling resistant Primacy is now avaible -- the MXM4. Supposed to be quieter than the MXV and is a "green" tire. Anyone tried it?

 

Try to rotate the tires and realign all 4 wheels. Just rotating my tires made a big difference in road noise.

 

What happens in 5k miles when ya rotate em back? It sees irregular wear from underinflation and/or misalignment happems more on the front and really never goes away once it begins and that is why tire care is so important from day one. But then again we are discriminating drivers and others just run el cheapo tires and don't even notice it.

 

I was thinking about the MXM4 at one point, but I'm on 18s for all season tires and the MXM4s only come in OEM size on 17s.

Ended up going from some badly worn Hankooks to Continental DWS and they're definitely a lot quieter, but I'm not sure how the Contis would compare straight up to Primacys.

 

Just passed 28,000 miles on these mounted to the stock 18 inch rims. The were very quiet till about the last couple of oil changes (every 3K). I recently replaced all of the original wheel bearings at 140,000 miles (they didn't go all at once, but within about a thousand miles of each other), which I thought was the sole source of the noise. Seems to be a combination of tire and bearing noise now that I have the new bearings installed. Tires seem to have a ringing sound around 65 to 70 mph. Really annoying. I did notice that they have a tendency toward flat spotting, but it goes away within a mile of rolling. Will probably go back with another set of Conti's.