Great tire, horrible price
Written: Apr 04 '06
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Pros: performance, longevity (and they look cool too if that matters to you)
Cons: PRICE!!!
The Bottom Line: Recommended, with reservation. If you can live with the price this is a great tire- especially if you like to drive sporty! Results may vary for other sizes though!
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| the_veg's Full Review: Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 Passenger/Performance Tire |
First off the picture of the tire here looks nothing like the HX MXM4's I had, or that are displayed at Discount Tire's website- so I can only assume the we all go the name right and are talking about the same tire here.
Mine came from the factory on a 2002 VW GTi 1.8T. I opted for the 17" wheel package, which included HX MXM4s in 225/45 R17. I had no prior experience with Michelin tires so I cannot compare at this time to other experiences with Michelins.
I was immediately impressed with how these tires performed. I had never owned anything so big and wide and low-profile before (moved up from a beat-up Integra), so it was a whole new world of sporty handling. The tires never ran out of dry grip, and always kept the car right where I wanted it. Precisely. Wet tractions was good- under most circumstances I didn't experience any lack of grip, but a small few times when I pushed things a bit I had a couple of minor slips.
Noise was a small issue. No problem most of the time, but on rough surfaces such as chip & seal or gravel & tar they could get loud.
I live in Texas so winter weather was not usually an issue, but during those rare three-day snow incidents we get that leave the streets a little slushy, the tires were good enough. I only really tested them in REAL snow (Wisconsin) once, very near the end of their life so I can't really comment about it since the tread was so thin by then- but I will say that I still got where I wanted to go, although it took a lot of wheel-spinning to do so.
I'm pretty religious about how I care for my car, and I did all the tire rotations myself every 5K miles. I also prefer keeping pressures on the stiff side so mine stayed at 51 PSI (for those readers who are shocked, that's not unusually high for low-profile tires, which have less sidewall depth in which to absorb sharp bumps and such).
I had no major issues with the tires. At first they seemed to attract every sharp object on the pavement, and when I found a screw in one at only 1200 miles I was incensed. I started pricing them and was shocked to see that they were about $245! EACH! But the guy at the tire shop found that the screw did not fully penetrate and simply needed to be removed and I was on my way. I purchased a road-hazard warranty for the tires at that point, although I didn't ever use it even when I should have.
Somewhere around 20-25K miles, I found a nail in one tire. It was very near the centre of the tread so I knew it was repairable, but the leak was extremely slow so I forgot about it except when I checked the pressures now and then (and these tires were very good at holding pressure). The edge of the head of the nail was wedged into the side of a tread-block so the nail wasn't able to work its way out, and therefore caused nothing but the need to add a few pounds now and then so I left it alone. It stayed until the end, and I imagine is still in the tire, which now resides in the discard bin at the tire shop (I just replaced the set this morning).
At around 48K I started thinking the tread was getting a little low, and I expected to need to replace the tires soon. But the wear was slower than I thought- as 55K loomed up, I was now into the wear-bars on one tire, but only just getting them on another and the other two were still a couple of mm above the bars. Oddly enough the two most worn tires were both on the right side- maybe that says something about how I take a left turn? ;)
So it was finally time for new tires. I arrived at the shop at 55131 miles. I thought that was pretty good for such sporty grippy tires. I did do my homework though and found that the price had come down a bit, probably because the tires were not as new a design anymore. Now (May 3 2006) they are $207 each. Still shocking though, and I am now self-employed and the business is still young and struggling. Because I'm on a tight budget I opted to replace them with a less-pricey tire, but still a Michelin and not that far downmarket. For $177 each I got a set of Pilot Exalto A/S, which seem good so far and I will write a review once I have more miles on them. But for now I can say that they seem like a very good replacement if you liked your HX MAM4's but are experiencing sticker shock for a new set.
To conclude, I really liked the HX MXM4's. I do think they are overpriced, but not severely enough to rule out buying them again if my income was steadier.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0- OEM tire
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Epinions.com ID:
the_veg
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Reviews written: 2
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