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Michelin Crossclimate

15K views 78 replies 19 participants last post by  GotTreg? 
#1 ·
New Michelin Crossclimate 245/45/20 for my T-rex I love the aggressive tread and very grippy. I did think of going to 18 inch vredestein, but decided against it.
 
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#3 ·
Excellent choice. That was actually going to be my next tire of choice but I'm going with a much-needed AT. Great purchase - I think you'll be exceptionally happy with them. What types of terrain do you endure?
 
#4 ·
Excellent choice. That was actually going to be my next tire of choice but I'm going with a much-needed AT. Great purchase - I think you'll be exceptionally happy with them. What types of terrain do you endure?
Basically it my "glamping" vehicle. But it sees fair amount of trips to Tahoe and Yosemite all year round. So basically no offloading. But plenty of tarmac, moderate snow and gravel. Next month will be heading to Mt Zion and Grand canyon.
 
#5 ·
I have a feeling these tires will be great for you. Please keep us posted on them in the future too!
 
#8 ·
Unique, but sharp looking tires. Notwithstanding the Crossclimate branding, I doubt they will be much good in Tahoe snow. Dedicated winter tire for snow; however, I anticipate these 4 season tires are better in snow than all seasons.

Nice ride.
You are right nothing beats dedicated snow tires. Will keep the forum updated how these perform later this year.
 
#17 ·
I've seen that. He's an interesting guy to follow and has sound reasoning.
 
#18 ·
The big reason I run a dedicated winter setup is because of tire wear. Big performance drop-off of tires in the snow and slush once they get below 5 or 6 mm. While a tire with that depth would have a lot of 3 season life left, they become useless in the snow. I've been running the same summer/winter setup for 75,000 miles and have 20,000 miles left in the set. If I was running 1 set I would have had to replace them 30 or 40,000 miles ago due to winter traction.
 
#22 ·
Its just how I like to run my tires. The Verde+ I have on now are shot, this will be their last summer. The conti wintercontacts have 7mm, this winter coming up will be their last serviceable winter, however when 2022 rolls around I will run the conti's into the fall and replace them with new snow tires then. So in spring of 2023 I will replace the Verde, provided I keep the car that long. That summer/winter setup will have seen 120,000+ miles by then but I will have never put at tire on the road at the wear bar or a tire under 5mm depth in the winter.
 
#26 ·
My wrg3-suv were shot in like ~12k miles. I dragged them out to I think 30k or 40k miles but some parts were BALD on those things. Even towards the end of their life they were still KILLER handling street tires and rain tires, but snow traction had gotten extremely poor. Keep us posted on the crossclimates
 
#27 · (Edited)
My SportWagen mk7.5 4Mo 6sp rides on DWS06. A coworker had gotten those fancy CrossClimate shoes installed on his Mk7 Jetta DGS.
We'd devised a little subjective test to resolve our argument which tire is better for traversing PNW's ever-changing road conditions
This subjective road test was performed by using on-off highway ramps and empty (late at night) stretches of various roads. Please note, the drizzle was steady the entire length of testing.
After we'd done few laps, so to speak, we discovered DWS could hold higher speed traversing S-bends of on-off-ramps than Jetta. His Jetta had almost lost it trying to follow my SW around a curve at an ambitious speed.
I am fully aware 4Mo helps distribute power to all 4 corners and does it very efficiently. However, the 4Mo system cannot correct oversteer/understeer caused by loss of grip in most situations, specifically when weight transfer happens quickly going around a bend. I can attest to the 4Mo system is useless in rapid weight transfer (tested on The Ridge track). The 4Mo had a clear advantage of traversing curves under power as it helped reducing understeer and push the vehicle rather than pull it around the curve. Nonetheless, Jetta's new tires struggled through corners at speed.
Also, my coworker mentioned his Jetta wearing CrossClimate tires felt nervous on slick (rain) tarmac changing lanes or in a straight line at speeds when hitting standing water.
My SW 4Mo had nary a complaint skimming over a greasy tarmac. And unlike Jetta equipped with CrossClimate shoes stopped a few feet shorter, given the same conditions we tested both types of tires in.

The kicker to our subjective test was the tires my SW 4Mo wore had about 15K miles on them, whereas his tires were a few hundred miles past the initial break-in.

Conti is very ambitious giving DWS06 a 45K warranty. I didn't see that happen with my SW 4Mo. DiscountTires is replacing all 4 tires on my SW due to failure to reach the full 45K mileage warranty. (At the time of this writing, my tires are at 3-4/32 and 30K miles.)

I am not bashing the CrossClimate tire. It is a cool-looking tire. I'd assume it performs well in various conditions. It is just not as good as DWS06 in my subjective view.

Cheers...
 
#28 ·
Interesting subjective review. I wonder how both vehicles would handle the snow
 
#30 ·
I suspect that you're right. It sounds like the DSW 06 and cross climate are basically what the wrg3-suv is, but longer lasting
 
#34 ·
The crossclimates should be near silent.
 
#35 ·
Awesome, thanks for the feedback. I've never regretted buying Michelins, but it's nice to hear the feedback from others. They're cheaper than my next choice Pirellis, too.

Weirdly, this Touareg came to me with three run-flat Michelins on it, and one 6-year-old Continental that was put on in some rural area because of availability. So they all need to go.
 
#36 ·
Absolutely cannot mix-match tires (or tread depths...) at any point. I'd stop driving it until they're replaced.
 
#38 ·
They dont come in any reasonably close sizing to stock, so from what I've seen not many have. They're great tires - I would have like to run them.
 
#39 ·
I've have the Nokian WR G4 SUV for my winter tires. I've really liked them so far. This includes out of state trips in winter where the temps can be in the 70s. This would normally really wear down dedicated soft winter tires, but with the WRs they don't care when the weather gets hot. Nice and quiet, low noise, good handing, good in rain.

 
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#40 ·
I ran the wrg3-suv tires. They were hands down the best all-around tire I've ever driven with one huge, massive, sickening caveat: they were shot after 1 year. They were just wrecked. Worn completely unevenly, chopped, bald in some spots, a LOT of tread in other spots etc. They made the Touareg handle like a sports car in the summer, they handled like a sports car in snow/ice in the winter, they looked great, never once hydroplaned, had incredible braking capacity.. great tires. I hope the wrg4 suv last longer. And yes, I rotate with every oil change.
 
#42 ·
The Michelin are low rolling resistance I think, that would make sense
 
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