Quote:
Originally Posted by azloafer
Some posts said that the Michelin Tires at Costco are not the same as from a Michelin Tire Dealer. Any truth to that? I know first hand that some Michelin tires on Ebay are not the same. I was ready to buy one for a spare and it had another model name in addition to the XRV name. That model is not on other Michelins. I don't recall the model name right now, but I posted a photo of it and no one on the forum could ever explain what the model name meant. Made for a certain lower price? Joe
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Hi Joe
I retired from Michelin Dec 91, prior to that I spent 17 years in quality control. I know that doesn't make me an authority on Michelin.
Part of that time Michelin made tires for Sears, those brand name tires were no different than the ones with the Michelin name on them. The Sears tires sold for less than the Michelin named tires.
Unless there was a big turn around in Michelin policy in the past 19 years a Michelin Tire is just that, there were no compromises. There were two classifications of tires off the testing lines, the tires within the tightest specifications went to original equipment (car manufacturers for new cars) the rest that tested within acceptable but specs went to the replacement market. Any that didn't meet the specs were scrapped and cut up
Truck tires were built to specific parameters and will have an identifying thread pattern. In my time there,
quality was the word, they did not build tires for the cheap market. The markup on these tires is something else, we were told the company profit margin per tire was only a few cents on each as competition keeps the price down.
Cheers
Willey
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