Back to OEM Michelins

[eboose7]

I just replaced the Goodyear ResponsEdge tires that were on my car with 4 OEM Michelin HX MXM4. After 10,000 miles and three years of normal weekend driving around Atlanta, the Goodyear tires were toast. In 2008, I selected the Goodyear ResponsEdge based on price, as well as the reviews from owners. Also, the Michelin MXM4's that came with the car were getting older, and I was concerned about the safety of six year old tires, even though there was plenty of tread left. At the time, I only had 27,000 miles on the car. This year my car will be ten years old in October. I considered all of the current offerings on TireRack.com, fully aware of the fact that tire technology has improved significantly from the time when the Thunderbird was new. Many here have chosen the Pilot Sport A/S Plus, a superb ultra-high performance all-season tire with excellent reviews from owners. Additionally, I am aware that the MXM4 received one of the lowest ratings posted by reviewers on Tire Rack's website, but in the end, I was mainly persuaded by my desire to restore the original appearance and handling characteristics of the car. My emphasis now is on ride comfort and that "relaxed sportiness" promised by Ford in their old Thunderbird advertising.

[007Cruiser]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Did you achieve your goal?

[lasuvidaboy]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

The original tires also look good on the car. I've gone through 2-sets of Pilots installing the 3rd set late last year and they are pretty decent tires.

[bottomtime]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

I just replaced the Goodyear ResponsEdge tires that were on my car with 4 OEM Michelin HX MXM4. After 10,000 miles and three years of normal weekend driving around Atlanta, the Goodyear tires were toast. In 2008, I selected the Goodyear ResponsEdge based on price, as well as the reviews from owners. Also, the Michelin MXM4's that came with the car were getting older, and I was concerned about the safety of six year old tires, even though there was plenty of tread left. At the time, I only had 27,000 miles on the car. This year my car will be ten years old in October. I considered all of the current offerings on TireRack.com, fully aware of the fact that tire technology has improved significantly from the time when the Thunderbird was new. Many here have chosen the Pilot Sport A/S Plus, a superb ultra-high performance all-season tire with excellent reviews from owners. Additionally, I am aware that the MXM4 received one of the lowest ratings posted by reviewers on Tire Rack's website, but in the end, I was mainly persuaded by my desire to restore the original appearance and handling characteristics of the car. My emphasis now is on ride comfort and that "relaxed sportiness" promised by Ford in their old Thunderbird advertising.

I agree with what you stated about Goodyear tires. I used to use them years ago, but my last set of Goodyear's were almost completely worn out around 20K miles. I'm a conservative driver, and they were on my '93 Ford Escort which is a "Lightweight" and I don't abuse tires. Goodyear is definitely not as good as they used to be, IMHO.

[Gobird]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Don't know. My Goodyear Eagle GT's have 15,000 on them and still look like new.

[Rondor]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Goodyear makes a lot of different quality tires, but I found from years of Co. cars that the better they wear the worse they ride. I too like originality on our cars and am not familiar with how many different tires ford used, during the run.

[bottomtime]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Goodyear makes a lot of different quality tires, but I found from years of Co. cars that the better they wear the worse they ride. I too like originality on our cars and am not familiar with how many different tires ford used, during the run.

Do you remember when Ford was using Firestone tires on the Ford Explorers and all the blowouts they were having? Ford dropped Firestone tires in a hurry, big time. That proves that the various tire manufactures don't always make good quality tires, for whatever that is worth.

[jerrym3]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

I have Firestone INDY 500 raised white letters on my 94 TBird LX.

Love them.

Can't make a decision on ww for the retro, and one of the very popular ww tire providers (name witheld) isn't responding to my emails lately.

When I first contacted them on Feb 11, they offered Mich HXMXM4 at X dollars. On March 16, they quoted a $49 increase per tire. They also suggested Falken 912's.

(Wish my monthly SS check jumped that much. Oh yeah, no increase in two years. Guess there's no sign of inflation.)

I really wanted Vogues, but the new Vogue tire in the 235/55/17 size has a ww that's only 6/10 of an inch.

Too narrow, IMHO.

In a ww tire (non Vogue), I would want 1.5 inches.

(PS: Heard from vendor X today. Falkens went up $10 per tire.)

[04birdman]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

shopping for tires for a couple of rigs...called my tire guy( used this guy for 20 yrs, but ALWAYS shop around) but he did tell me tire prices are goin up almost daily......oil cost etc? and if i need tires to buy them now, they aint gettin cheaper

[BIRD 42]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Jerry

I also had the Goodyear Response Edge tires on our bird when I bought it 2 1/2 years ago. They lasted about 35,000 - replaced with Bridgestone Turanza Serenities. Changed to the 235/55R17 over the 225/50R17s of Goodyear.

Better handling and cannot believe how much quieter the Bridgestone's are over the Goodyear's. Think you will notice the sound difference as well going away from the Response Edge.. I really did not realize the Goodyear's were so noisy until I made the change. About $150 each at Firestone. No complaint with Goodyear handling but happy with Bridgestone.

[eboose7]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Did you achieve your goal?

Gene, as to your question: yes, I achieved my goal. I just turned 64 last month, so performance is not as important to me as ride comfort. I don't foresee driving my car anywhere near its limits. The Michelins deliver good handling characteristics with limited tread noise. As someone else pointed out, the Goodyear tires had a higher amount of tread and impact noise. Moreover, my car looks like it did when it was new. I couldn't be happier with my choice.

[Leroy]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

I'll be getting my TBird out of hybernation in the next few weeks and after a bath and a oil change my next thing is new rubber. I've got 18K miles on the original tires, they look great but it's the age thing that's bugging me. I'm planing on putting a set of Red-Lines on my car and I'm going with 255/17 size but I haven't decided on Coker or Diamondback. Does anyone out there know of any other company that sells Red-Line size I want. Also as soon as I get them on the car I'm going to have a Red-line stripe painted from the front fender louvers and fallow the body line back to just before the tail-light and the same shade of red as the tire stripe and the same width. But right now I'm still recovering from my bilateral knee surgery I had done March 14th at Rush University Hosp. in Chicago. I expect to be in Rehab about one more week? Leroy

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[Ediron]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Leroy your knee should be on the mend for the new season of driving.Hope all go's well.

[Leroy]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

They're both on the mend, I did both of them.
Leroy

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[jerzeebird]

Re: Back to OEM Michelins

Leroy,

We would all love to see a pix of your car once you get the red lines on and the stripe painted. Best of luck with those knees!