Michelin Defender vs FS Destination LE3...are the Michelins really worth the extra cheese?

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Dec 27, 2021
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Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster. Lot's of great info on this site!

Looking to replace the factory all-terrains on my 22 Maverick with a quality all-season highway tire. I have pretty much narrowed it down to the Michelin Defender LTX or the Firestone Destination LE3. The Michelins are going to run $187 more total OTD as compared to the Firestones. I believe both of these to be good tires. My question is more of whether or not the Michelins are worth the premium over the Firestones. The Firestones are currently rated higher than the Michelins on Tire Rack...#1 vs #2 with the Firestone being scored higher than the Michelin in 6 out of 7 categories.

Of course, dry and wet traction are important but aside from that, ride comfort and noise level are most important to me.

Thanks in advance.
 
I put Michelin LTX Defender's on my (then) 2003 Dodge Dakota 2wd pickup at 50K miles. At 122K miles I sold it. They went another 25K miles before the guy put new tires on. So that set went 97K miles. If I would've kept it, another set of Michelin's would be on it. Great in snow and very good stable feeling in the wet.
 
I had LTX and they were good in the wet, but I thought the praises heaped on them for their snow abilities was oversold. And the rotted after a couple years… what good is long tread life if they crack so easily?

OTOH I want to say the siping on LE is not nearly as deep. If I could keep the tires out of the sun, for not much more money I would be tempted by LTX.
 
I have bought Michelins for the past 12 years. This year I bought a set of Kumho Crugen HT51 for $370 less than Michelins.
I liked them and then bought a second set for the other vehicle. I would compare them more to the original Michelin LTX MS and less like the Defender. I actually liked the LTX better that the Defenders.

I had a set of Firestone Destination LE2 several years ago and they were nice but I did not get the mileage I thought I should.
 
I have Michelin's LTX M/S2 on my first gen Honda pilot. I believe it's the predecessor to the Defender LTX.

A couple things I noticed:
1- Almost instant cracking on the side walls of the tire. All of them. I've been told not to worry about it. But I worry about it.
2-Road noise is noticeable. Not horrible, but I wish it were less.
3-After 20K miles, they still look new in terms of tread wear. They are rated for 70k, and seem like they will go that long, or longer.
 
I don't know anything about the Firestone Destination LE3 tires, however I do know Michelin tires
I'm currently on my 5th set of Michelin Defender LTX/MS tires. My 2011 Ford Expedition EL has 325k miles. I run them for 75k miles and sell the take-offs on Craigslist for $275-$300 with 6/32nds of tread left. On my last Expedition I ran a set of the (pre defender) LTX/MS to 130k miles. These are great highway tires. I've never had any dry rotting issues. I've been running Michelin tires for the last 30+ yrs with great success.
Good Luck in your decision!
 
My Ridgeline came with Firestone LE2's, the predecessor to the LE3. They've been really good tires. The only bad thing I can say about them is they aren't going to last as long as my Michelins did on previous cars. I would guess they will be need replacing by 50K. However, even after 40K they still have good wet traction, they have been quiet tires with good ride and handling, and I have had no problems with cupping or uneven wear. I'm probably going to stay with the Firestone's when it is time to replace tires since I don't drive enough miles to make the 70K lifespan tires worthwhile.
 
I’ve had 2 sets of the LE2s, if that says anything. Both were also retired early before their treadwear was done, because they started to lose wet grip about halfway through. The LE3 could be an excellent buy - the main design change is deeper siping to preserve wet traction.

I’ve bought two used cars that had Michelin LTX. Both had a lot of road noise and we changed tires quickly. In both cases, they probably easily had 1/3 tread remaining, but the noise wasn’t great.

larger trucks with well-insulated cabs seem to do well with LTX as they age, and folks usually do get good mileage out of them.
 
Check out the December edition of CR where they tested both tires. My experience is they have Good Wet and Dry traction and are good on the hwy. they are quiet and just plain work and last. Yes I’ve had some sidewall cracks after several years, and don’t have any thoughts about them being an all terrain tire. I think they maintain their braking and handling performance when others wear down at a faster rate. This applies to the LTX MS to the MS2 and now the Defender LTX MS or what ever it’s now called.
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I already have an appointment to have the Firestones installed and I believe I’ll just stick with it and give them a shot. The only real complaint I’ve read about the Michelins is noise and that’s a big factor for me. The biggest complaint I’ve heard regarding the Firestones is reduced wet traction as they wear but hopefully the deeper siping will remedy that.

I’ll try to update with my thoughts on them.

Also, for those couple that asked for it, I’ll make a separate post regarding my impressions of the Maverick. Long story short, I love it.
 
My experience on the Michelin LTX on a past vehicle and now my Pilot is that they are very quiet, smooth and minimal weights for balance adding to their long term mileage. They are good wet and dry, I don't use for snow but many love them in that also. Mine are MUCH quieter than the stock Bridgestone Dueler HP Sport A/S the Pilot came with.

The Destination LE2 came stock on newer Ridgelines. You could check Ridgeline owners club for reviews also.

Michelin Defender LTX, Pirelli Scorpion Verde AS Plus (now AS plus 3) were also always noted for extremely quiet.
 
Hey again BITOG peeps. I’m sorry to zoom in, start a thread, and disappear. I’ve had a lot going on and wanted to get some things sorted out before I posted again. A lot has happened.

So I went ahead and had the Firestones installed. I was underwhelmed at first sight. I knew the highway tires wouldn’t have the same aggressive appearance as the Falkens but I went with the same size and the Firestones looked tiny. Fast forward a couple weeks of driving on them. The Firestones were definitely quieter in low speed maneuvers, especially turning, where the Falkens would growl. But at speed, there wasn’t really much difference. I also noted no difference in ride quality from the Falkens. I don’t think this is as much of a knock against the Firestones as it is a pat on the back for the Falkens. But I was hoping for a little more. Between the size/appearance and lack of ride and noise improvement, I began to wish I’d gone with the Michelins in one size larger than stock. Figured I was just stuck but then I ran across Firestone’s 90 day buy and try guarantee. It basically says that if you’re unhappy with a set of qualifying Firestone tires for any reason within 90 days, you can return them for a full refund. This is where it gets hairy. My Ford dealer knew very little about this warranty. They originally told me that I would have to pay for the Michelins up front, then wait until Firestone refunded the money to them at which point they would forward the refund to me. This didn’t seem right to me. I contacted Firestone multiple times trying to get some answers. They were always friendly but I got passed around a lot and got the impression that they didn’t really want to talk to me. They wanted me to communicate with my dealer and have the dealer communicate with them. The issue was that I didn’t like the answers I was getting from the dealer…and it turns out that I was right. This came to a head when I got Firestone on the phone while standing in front of the Ford service guy. Ford service guy said “We’ve been doing it this way for 17 years” to which Firestone lady said “Well, you’re doing it wrong.” Firestone said that the customer gets credit for the returned tires immediately and when the refund comes later, it belongs to the installer. Win for me. The only downside to all this is that Firestone only refunds the cost of the tires. They do not refund what you paid for install. So on top of paying the difference for the Michelins, I’m paying for install twice. This is not stated anywhere from Firestone. Customers who opt to use the 90 day guarantee will find this out the hard way.

So I’m sitting at the dealership waiting on them to get the paperwork straightened out as we speak. I’ll update with my impressions of the Michelins as compared to the Firestones. I’ve seen the truck and can already see that it looks better. Not sure how all this leaves me feeling about Firestone. They eventually came through I guess but it wasn’t a consumer friendly process.

Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps someone.
 
My Dad just replaced his 5-6 year old Firestone Destination LE2 tires yesterday. They had 60-70K miles on them and were getting very squirrelly in the rain. Not to mention the fact that there was a crack around each tire in the outermost tread groove. So yeah, they were rotting. Other than that he loved the tires.

He ended up with a set of General Grabber HTS60 simply because his crossover is 12 years old and doesn't get driven as much as it used to. He wanted a "known" brand name tire but didn't want to invest a small fortune. The Generals were $200 less than a set of the new LE3s. He has already done some highway driving and light snow driving and is extremely pleased with the Generals.

All of those "test drive" programs have some gotchas. General has a 45-day satisfaction guarantee. They cover mounting and balancing, but only allow you to exchange for another General brand tire. If you do one exchange, then that is the end and you cannot exchange again if you don't like the replacements. Cooper Tire is the same way...exchange during the first 45 days for another Cooper brand tire only.

Firestone is being pretty generous with their program, which kind of makes up for the mounting and balancing not being covered. I could see Firestone covering mounting and balancing if the customer exchanges for another Bridgestone/Firestone product. But if exchanging for a competitor's product (and a different size as well) I totally get not covering the mounting and balancing.

Michelin has a 60 day guarantee, but does not cover valve stems under their program.
 
My parent’s Lexus RX got a fatal nail on one of their tires. Since my dad’s driving for Uber, I was debating Yokohama instead of Michelin - I don’t use Chinese tires(which would make sense for Uber drivers). But after a chat with @The Critic and getting America’s Tire to match a Costco promo, there’s a set of Defender LTXs on it now.

Lexus called for a V-rated tire, for a SUV that is limited to 112mph, it doesn’t make sense. The stock Bridgestone Ecopias were V-rated but skittish(I wouldn’t install these on even a Prius or a Fit). The new Michelins firmed up the RX’s composure. 70K treadwear expectation, hopefully they hold up to Uber and the occasional Tahoe trip.
B4099848-C135-4A4F-B276-44A93817AB01.jpeg
 
I used to go through tires on my Suburban like changing underwear. My tire guy suggested the then new Defenders. I went with em and immediately noticed the truck felt better, was quieter and steered nicer. I got 90,000 miles out of that first set. Last May I got new ones.
My dad and my brother run them on their Tahoes also. We all like em.
 
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