I'm glad you get good mileage out of your Michelins. Mine mileage was
terrible. I follow Honda's severe maintenance schedule religiously and had
my Honda mechanic rotate the Michelins using Michelins rotation schedule.
The snow here in Colorado Springs during the Autumn and Winter is this
powder that when compressed turns to a snow/ice mixture. In the late Spring
we get the wet slushy stuff. I dreaded driving in the Autumn and Winter it
was better in the Spring. The Toyo's grabbed the Autumn and Winter powder
much better than the Michelins in Spring. The Spring snow was absolutely no
problem with the Toyo's. Honda Accords are notorious for there light front
ends resulting in the occasional tire spin. I'm sure that does not help
matters in the Winter. Yes I've heard something to the affect that retail
and OEM Michelins are different but I was not the mood to try a tire I
already was very unhappy with so I went with the Toyo's. If you check out
the Toyo web site they give a great shot of the Spectrum tread pattern. I
may try the Toyo Proxes or 800 Ultras next time as I drive 2-3 trips to
Southern California every year. I've heard good things about Yokahoma tires
as well. In any case my Toyo Spectrums have been excellent in all weather
conditions and have been quiet on the highway.

Good Luck

Rick


"TL" <tlehman@visi.com> wrote in message
news:bfbemvophh35ronuphjam053nn04rmorvc@4ax.com...
> That's good information on the Toyo tires. I'll consider them next
> time I'm in the market for tires. However, I disagree with your
> assessment of the Michelin tire. I'm on my second set of MXV4+ Energy
> on my Passat and have been extremely happy with them. They are quiet,
> the handling is rock solid, and I've had no problems with snow here in
> Minnesota. I also put these tires on my 95 Camry a few years ago, and
> they have been great. They now have about 60,000 miles are in pretty
> good shape. The Michelins on my Passat lasted about 40,000 which I
> found a little disappointing. I'm not sure if the OEM version of this
> tire is different from the retail version??. The Passat is a heavier
> car than my Camry. Maybe that made a difference.
>
> I've got these on my 03 Accord. I think there's a lot of road noise,
> but I'm inclined to believe that it says more about the insulation in
> the car than the tires. I don't have road noise in either my Camry or
> Passat.
>
>
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 08:38:09 GMT, "razingkane"
> <razingkane@adelphia.net> wrote:
>
> >I had OEM Michelin MXV4+Energy tires on my 99 Accord EX. They were
terrible
> >in the rain and light snow. I had them rotated at the recommended times
and
> >they lasted about 25,000 miles. I had the alignment checked as they wore
> >uneven. I replaced them with Toyo Spectrums. I'm closing in on 60,000
> >miles. I'll get 65,000/70,000 out of them before I have to have them
> >replaced. They've been great on the highway, snow, rain, and they've
been
> >quiet. They ran about $55.00 a piece. I was looking at Michelin X-Ones
but
> >they were to expensive at the time. I'll probably investigate other
tires
> >but will compare them to my all to my Toyo's. Most Toyo tires have a 500
> >mile or 45 day trail period in which you can return them for a full
refund
> >if you're not happy with them. No I don' work for Toyo I'm just really
> >impressed with the tires.
> >
> >Rick
> >
>