MICHELIN PILOT PRIMACY (Michelin)

Member Name: Richada

Product:	Michelin
Date:	02/02/06 (18372 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Longevity. Quality. Ride and Handling Quality. Low Road Noise. Good Investment

Disadvantages: Expensive - But You Get What You Pay For!

I will begin by saying that however much of a motoring enthusiast you are - or you are not, if you are a driver, then the four rubber bands between you and the road surface are, in terms of safety, the most important component on your whole car.

This being a "RICHADA" review, and to reinforce my point above, a short sharp shock story before arrival at the crux of the actual product review……..

…….It makes me wince when I see people abusing tyres by bashing them over curbs or leaving a car balanced precariously on a curb, with only half of the tyre supporting maybe as much as 500kg in weight. I know a gentleman who does just this, and then his wife comes out with a horror story about suffering:

"A terrifying blow-out at 70mph in the outside lane of the M25".

Well dear, if he didn't bash the front nearside wheel over the curb every night when he came home then this frightening experience would have been avoided!

"How did YOU know that it was the front passenger side tyre that blew-out?" She asks.

"Oh, just an educated guess" say I as diplomatically as I can.

The best tyres in the world will not protect a serial abuser from harm; Mr Blow-Out's tyres were actually manufactured by Pirelli, a very good make of car tyre indeed.

A serial abuser? Yes, I am afraid so. Obviously I am not going to name and shame him, but one evening, some months after the blow out incident, we drew up and parked behind Mr Blow-Out's car. My wife, who does not even drive, had her attention drawn to a white ring around the outside tread band of the rear nearside tyre. Closer inspection revealed strands of steel, fully visible. I am not going to go into the technical details of tyre construction here, save to say that the inner steel bracing was visible on his tyre and that the rubber was fully worn away.

Apart from them being serial tyre abusers, we like our neighbours sufficiently well to knock on their door and point out the fact that the rear tyres on their (company owned) car were worn to an extremely dangerous extent. I kid you not, following that conversation it was SEVERAL weeks before those tyres were replaced!

For goodness sake, they did not even have to put their hands in their pockets to pay for replacements. They also have two children.

This is not a "discussion" piece, but it does pose a moral dilemma here: should I, or should I not, for the safety of not only those children, but also that of the general road using public, have contacted the police regarding this flagrant breach of the law?

TYRES AND THE LAW:

The law actually states that there should be 1.6mm, or more, of tread visible over at least 75% of the central tread area of the tyre. It also states that no part of the "ply or cord" should be visible. The fine is punitive; up to £2500 and three licence penalty points PER TYRE that breaches these important safety laws.

It also states that there may not be any splits or bulges in the tyre wall and that inflation pressures should comply with the manufacturer's recommendations.

OK, hands up! So far off subject, but I am hoping that a vital point has been made as strongly as I am able to do so, using real life, anecdotal evidence.

TYRES ARE A VITAL SAFETY COMPONENT ON ANY CAR!

Attempting to save money, by driving either on over-worn tyres, using cheap re-moulds or buying counterfeit tyres from dodgy outlets is potentially tantamount to suicide.

My advice, fit the best tyres that you can afford!

Once fitted get into the habit of checking them regularly, both the pressures and for visible signs of damage - after all your life, and the lives of those you hold dearest, could one day depend upon it.

OK, that is the legal and safety lecture out of the way then.

What a lot of people do not realise is just how important the choice of tyre fitment to their car is in terms of dynamic behaviour. The same car can actually "feel" quite different to drive depending on what brand and tread pattern of tyre is fitted to it.

Before launching a new car, motor manufacturers generally do extensive testing with two tyre manufacturers to ensure optimum handling and safety characteristics. In some extreme cases, a manufacturer will work with a tyre manufacturer to specifically tailor or design a tyre for their particular car. We are generally talking about very expensive, exotic sports cars and extraordinarily expensive tyres here though.

For the majority of us we are faced with a choice of several different "household name" brands of rubber with which to fit to our car. Do we simply replace the car makers' original choice of tyre like for like - not a bad idea usually - or do we seek a better, cheaper or more up to date alternative?

My recent cars have tended to come already shod with my favourite make of tyres, so come replacement time, the decision has been a bit of a 'no-brainer' really, until now!

MICHELIN PILOT PRIMACY

Well then, here is a challenging review subject! Car tyres! Not just any old car tyres, but in my opinion, the best - Michelin.

Michelin are a very old and famous French tyre company, founded in 1889, who are also extremely well known in the field of (excellent) maps, travel guides and gourmet associated hotels and restaurants. This is not however a review of Mr Bibendum's (that's the Michelin Man to you) travels around Europe, increasing his already substantial girth, but of his notably good tyres.

The specific tyres that I am reviewing here are not the very latest, most hi-tech available on the market. Six years ago my previous car, a Vauxhall Omega was delivered from the factory on them, as was its' successor, my now 20 month old Honda Accord Diesel.

That tyre is the Michelin Pilot Primacy. Both cars have 16 inch alloy rims, and a 55 percent profile, the Honda's being slightly narrower at 205, in lieu of 225 (mm) on the Omega.

Hold on a minute, 55% PROFILE, what is that?

You have probably seen car manufacturers boasting about low profile tyres in their glossy brochures. The profile of a tyre is quite simply the depth of the tyre, measured between the wheel rim and the road, expressed as a percentage of the width of the tyre. Therefore the two cars referred to here both have a tyre "wall" height of 55% the width of the tyre. 20 years ago a 55 profile tyre would have been regarded as very low profile and sporty, now a 40, or less, profile tyre is regarded as truly "low profile".

In terms of weight distribution and on the road dynamics, these two cars are very different. The Honda is a front wheel drive car with approximately 60% of its weight over the driven wheels, the Omega an almost perfectly balanced rear wheel driven car.

Looking at Michelin's comprehensive website, I see that they are recommending the Pilot Primacy for "high mileage" motorists. Well, covering around 30,000 miles a year I guess that I am the kind of driver they have in mind - I have certainly had some experience with testing different tyres over the years!

These particular Michelin tyres, along with most other manufacturers these days, are referred to as "directional". In simple terms this means that you (well the tyre fitter really!) can only mount the tyre on the rim one way around - the tread pattern is different on one side to the other - a look at the pictures below should clarify this.

WHY DIRECTIONAL?

Well, theoretically, the tyre manufacturers are attempting to offer you the best of both worlds, good and safe handling characteristics and a quiet and comfortable ride. A tyre specifically designed to be excellent in just one of these elements, by nature will not be very good at the other. Therefore, just like several of its competitors, the Michelin Pilot Primacy offers two entirely different tread patterns over the width of the tyre.

Having driven many different cars on both directional and non-directional tires I can vouch for the best of all worlds quality of the Michelin tread pattern as fitted to both of my recent cars.

Of all the tyre manufacturers, Michelin has without doubt the finest reputation for longevity. But so they should have, they are priced at the top end of the market when compared to all of their household name competitors.

MICHELIN PILOT PRIMACY 225/55 VR16 - FITTED TO 1999 VAUXHALL OMEGA V6.

As already mentioned the Omega is a car driven by its rear wheels. This will cause the tyres to wear in a different manner to those on a front wheel driven car. From my practical experience, with three sets of tyres in total on this car, the Michelins will last for approximately 40,000 miles, a little more on the rear wheels which do not steer.

For the record, one of the three sets of tyres put onto this car were Pirelli P6000's, a very good tyre, but nowhere as long lasting (just under 30,000 miles) and providing neither the ultimate grip or steering response provided by the Michelins.

In short the Michelins got the very best in terms of ride, handling and noise suppression out of the Omega, the Pirellis quite noticeably by comparison did not!

The Omega was a notorious model for tracking problems (otherwise known as wheel alignment). In 105,000 miles of motoring, I had the tracking checked and adjusted just once - at 70,000 miles, when the Pirellis came off and were replaced with Michelins. How much of this is down to the quality of the tyres and how much down to my respectful treating of them is hard to say!

I can tell you that the Omega was a much better car to drive on Michelin Pilot Primacy's than Pirelli P6000's and that the £120 saving on the full set of Pirelli tyres was more than lost due to their faster wear rate.

The Omega, as with our current car, was not only used extensively on business in this country, but was making two annual journeys across Europe to Poland. This journey involves every conceivable type of road surface - some even without surface - and during the summer, extensive use of the "de-restricted" German autobahn. That includes cruising speeds of above 120mph. These tyres are certainly well up to continental touring.

I would remind you of the need here, whatever make of tyre is fitted to your car, to increase the tyre pressures according to the car makers recommendations if you are intending to cruise at speeds in excess of 100mph on the continent.

MICHELIN PILOT PRIMACY 205/55 VR16 - FITTED TO 2004 HONDA ACCORD DIESEL

New car, new model, same tyres!

This being a front wheel drive car, a heavy front end at that, with a lot of torque (251lbs/ft) being delivered through the steered wheels, I expected the front tyres to wear much more quickly than on the Omega. This indeed has proved to be the case.

In 20 months and 44,500 miles of driving, the front tyres have just been replaced for the second time, the rears for the first. 22,000 miles is quite good going for the front tyres on a largish saloon such as this - there was possibly another 1500 miles wear left in them, but I never run them down to the 1.6mm "legal minimum".

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO CHANGE THEM?

Well obviously you keep a visual eye on them; you can visibly see the tread becoming less deep on tyres. The Honda also makes me very much aware of its desire for new rubber - especially on the front. In the autumn with greasy, leaf strewn and wet roads you can feel the ABS system occasionally coming into action. Likewise you see for the very first timer the "TC" (Traction Control) light flash for the first time. More obvious than that, even to passengers, is that you can hear the tyres squeal as you round roundabouts at even modest speeds.

As tyres wear down, particularly below about 75% worn, even Michelins loose their efficiency slowly, in the summer it is less apparent, in winter as I have said, the car actually has its own little ways of telling you!

The rear tyres, at 44,500 miles were equally as worn as the front tyres and strictly speaking would have been legal for another good 3000 miles or so. However, on this particular car we suffered a little problem with the Michelins on the back wheels.

In the summer, on continental roads which are much smoother than ours here in England, we suffered some alarming road noise from them. So much so that the rumbling sound that the (well over half worn) tyres were making, lead me to believe that the Honda had a wheel bearing in imminent need of replacement.

My wife called the local Polish Honda dealer in Rzeszow to obtain advice. He sent us to a tyre dealer nearby. They looked at the Honda, asked how many kilometres it had covered (almost 50,000) saw the Michelins and said (naturally in Polish - I'll do you a favour and translate!): "Oh they all do that sir!" - Yes those immortal words alive and well in deepest eastern Poland!

They were a friendly bunch, a mine of information in fact. With the Michelin tyres approaching half worn, Japanese cars - particularly Honda Accords and Toyota Avensis models, suffer from this road noise. He assured us that it was in no way detrimental to the safety or performance of the car, and suggested that to drive peacefully on Polish roads that we chose Goodyear or Dunlop tyres as replacements…….

……and against my better judgement, last Saturday that is just what we did, replaced the Michelin Pilot Primacy tyres with the very latest Dunlop Sport SP01 tyres - all four of them.

Only time will tell, and in a couple of weeks we make that journey to Poland on the new tyres. Yes, they were half the price of the Michelins at £72.50 each but in all truth I did not question the price, the manager at Iverson Tyres in Chiswick West London also gave them a glowing recommendation in terms of noise reduction and wet grip.

So far I can only speak as we find and that is that there is very little, if any road noise reduction due to the fitment of these new tyres. More than that, currently, I am not going to say - a review on the Dunlops will follow when I have had more experience with them.

Whilst Michelin Pilot Primacy may not be the ultimate choice of tyre for every car, it is a very sensible, safe and long lasting choice on the cars that I have recently owned. Shop around for prices - they vary hugely on car tyres, you can pay anything from around £125 to £175 each for the 205/55 VR 16's for the Honda, but whatever you do pay for Michelins, as a premium over any other make of tyre, look on it as an investment and you will not go too far wrong!

Summary: With car tyres, probably more than with other things, you get what pay for.

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