New Latitude Tours on our MDX

[Hokiefyd]

gofast182 was making me jealous, shopping for new tires, so I had to go out and buy some myself.

No, actually, my wife reported that the TPMS light came on yesterday. I said it was probably just from the colder temperatures (it was in the 60s on Monday afternoon and it was 12 on Tuesday morning). She said they all looked fine. When I got home, I took the one low tire off the car (it had only 22 psi) and found a nail in the shoulder tread block. Not repairable. All tires had 3-4/32" of tread, so I was planning a purchase soon anyway. BJs has Michelins for $70 off for another week or so, so I took it there this morning.

$707 out the door, including all taxes and fees and instant savings, and we're riding on a cushion of 12.5/32" of tread. These Latitude Tours are THICK in this size! Super quiet on the road, too. It doesn't sound like an Acura anymore! There's just a slight amount of "mush" when you start to turn the wheel and then they GRAB. Probably the mold release still wearing off and the tire breaking in. Will post more after we have some miles on them.

All four were made in the USA and have a date code of 3313, so they were made the week of August 12, 2013.

 

[JHZR2]

Awesome! Sounds like a great price too!

 

[MaxPilot]

Those tires came on our Cadillac SRX. They do seem nice and have a 55,000 mile rating.

 

[gofast182]

Haha glad you're satisfied! Are they HP's like those on my MDX?

 

[rjundi]

Enjoy, I liked the Mich Latitude HP on my 07 MDX except replacement price. ($1200)

 

[Hokiefyd]

No, these are the "regular" versions. Michelin has separated its Latitude line into the Latitude Tour and the Latitude Tour HP, and the tread pattern is generally consistent within each of the lines. The Tour has a *somewhat* more aggressive pattern with a squared shoulder and also generally has a deeper initial tread depth (12.5/32" in most sizes). The Tour HP generally as a smoother tread pattern and a more rounded shoulder profile.

This harmonization has happened over time. The Latitude Tours on our CR-V have the "older" pattern, which is a smoother pattern and rounded shoulder. This is what the Tour HP seems to have gone to. The new Tours on our MDX have the more squared, deeper, tread pattern. I will take pictures of both tonight to demonstrate.

I personally prefer the smoother tread pattern with the more rounded shoulder design. That generally means more progressive handling and grip at the limit and I've found that straight and smooth water channels also typically correlate with the quieter-riding tires. That said, I'm highly impressed with these so far.

They replaced the Michelin Cross Terrain, a tire of which I was never particularly fond, though it was the OEM tire on the MDX and did perform fine. Interestingly enough, the Latitude Tours on our CR-V also replaced a set of Cross Terrains that the previous owner of that car installed, and I'd classify those Cross Terrains as somewhere between marginal and poor. They happened to be OEM (in that size) on the Ford Escape and they just weren't a good match for the CR-V's chassis. I found them rather slippery and also rough-riding. The Latitude Tours have far exceeded the Cross Terrains on our Honda, and appear to have done so so far on the Acura as well.

I have 30k miles on the Latitude Tours on our Honda, and they're still sitting pretty with about 7/32" of tread (10/32" new). I should get a very honest 60k out of them...maybe 70k.

Again, pictures of both to follow this evening.

 

[gofast182]

Some quick and dirty research tells me the HP is for "high performance" and the changes have to do with speed rating and stability at speed, perhaps by slightly sacrificing snow traction.

 

[Corvette Owner]

These tires ride nice. I have them on my Enclave and my daughter has them on her Equinox LTZ.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Here are some photos. First, tread...

Michelin Latitude Tour in 225/65R17 102T:

Michelin Latitude Tour in P235/65R17 103T:

You can see how the second photo (the new ones just installed on our Acura) shows a more aggressive tread with squared shoulders. If you look close, you can also see that the main water evacuation channels don't have completely straight edges...the tread blocks kind of stagger in and out along the sides of those channels. Compare with the top photo (the older tires installed on our Honda). The older ones have completely straight channels and a more rounded shoulder profile. This tread pattern (on the older ones) is nearly identical to the current Latitude Tour HP.

Now, side profile...

Michelin Latitude Tour in 225/65R17 102T:

Michelin Latitude Tour in P235/65R17 103T:

Observe the much "blockier" shoulder profile in the second picture compared with the much softer shoulder profile in the first picture.

As an aside, I almost always get 100x the UTQG treadwear number in miles. It's not designed to be that way, but that's been my experience. The ones on our Honda have a rating of 600, and that correlates with their wear pattern so far. They're wearing at the rate of about 1/32" for every 9,000 miles. I should get an honest 60,000 miles out of them (treadwear warranty is 65k). The new tires bought today have a treadwear rating of 720, with the same warranty of 65k miles. I doubt I'll quite get 72k miles out of them, but I hope for at least 60k, as I expect to see with the Honda.

 

[Rand]

That might just be a difference between sizes.

To farther prove your theory correct you need to find a new one in the same size.

is it possible one of them is an oem fitment?

Very interesting observations, I don't see it as being conclusive.

 

[kkreit01]

I wish I had a closeup of the old Latitude on my Jeep (as discussed on other thread). They looked more rounded as well.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Rand
To farther prove your theory correct you need to find a new one in the same size.


More evidence is that Michelin has discontinued the Latitude Tour in the 225/65R17 102T size that's on my CR-V...I can't buy my tires anymore. It has been replaced with...yes...the Latitude Tour HP in 225/65R17 102H size. They still make a P225/65R17 100T; that was an OEM tire on the Chevy Equinox and twins. It has the older rounded profile, and will likely stay that way because it was an OEM tire.

Michelin's website shows the difference well, and both images below are from their website.

Latitude Tour

Latitude Tour HP

I'm not saying that all Latitude Tours have the blockier tread...it just seems that that's the direction in which Michelin is moving. As they phase various sizes out of the tire line and other sizes into the tire line, they seem to be giving the Latitude Tour the slightly more aggressive tread and the Latitude Tour HP the slightly more road-oriented tread.

Despite the differences in shoulder profile, you can certainly see the family resemblance in the two tread patterns.

 

[CapriRacer]

Be very careful here.

It is common for OE tires to only be available as long as the OEM buys them. As soon as GM, Ford, Toyota, etc. discontinues buying them, the tire gets discontinued - and replaced by something more in line with what the tire manufacturer would have done to begin with.

Don't be looking at trends that include OE tires. Too many dead end streets there.

 

[SilverGGA]

I also have the Latitude Tour in 245/65R17 for my 2011 Pilot. I made sure that size had 12.5/32 tread depth on Michelin's site before buying. Too many OE applications for this model. Currently have ~13k on them and still have ~10.5-11/32 left. I like them a lot!

 

[stranger706]

Here's mine! I have the squared-off style Latitudes. 235/70R16 on 2012 Escape with 33,000 miles. Got tons of tread left.

 

[kkreit01]

Mine were rounded, and I hated them.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Update on the tires: we've been through 8 tires and can't find straight ones.

Here's the back story:

A new installer at BJs installed the tires. He really didn't know what he was doing. I saw him pinch one of the tires against the wheel on the mounting machine...he couldn't get it on the wheel! His manager had to help him. Car drove fine...but just a small vibration. I figured I'd have them to rebalance them...tech probably didn't do it right. And he didn't; they said they all had way too much weight. After that, it drive better, and some of the vibration was gone. There was still a pronounced vibe between 62 and 68 mph...but it would kind of come and go. So they rebalanced again. That didn't fix it either.

So they installed a new set yesterday. Nice and fresh; build date was 0114 (first week of 2014). Got it on the road and there was a moderate steering wheel shake/shimmy. Great. Brought it right back and they had them on the balancer machine again. Manager took me out to the shop and showed me the lateral runout on the two front tires. They moved left and right a good 1/2" as the tire spun. He said something was definitely wrong with those. What the heck?!

So I had them to order another set of tires, but not Latitude Tours. We're going to try the Primacy MXV4 this time. The squared-off Latitudes rode just a little too "trucky" for me on this car. The best tires it's ever had were four Michelin Energy MXV4+ many years ago. So it does GREAT on true car tires. So we're trying the Primacys. OEM on the Honda Odyssey. Treadwear rating is 500, so not as high as the Latitudes, but still higher than the Cross Terrains that recently came off (420). Will report back.

Cheers to BJs for working the issues on this. They've been mostly pretty helpful, and tire department manager has been great.

Jeers to Michelin apparently. Without a road force balancer machine, there's no way to know what's going on with the tires. But the Acura was perfect before this with the Cross Terrains, so I'm sure it's the tires. The tire manager admitted he was originally skeptical, said that he's never had to warranty a set of Latitude Tours, let alone two sets. But he said the runout on the second set was horrible, so he fully believes that the tires are at fault.

 

[Sayjac]

Wow, reading this board one would think Michelin's are pretty much infallible. Apparently not. Sounds like a mess. Good for BJ's for working with you.

As for the Primacy MXV4's, been very satisfied with them on a 3.0L Accord. Hopefully they will work out for you.

 

[Hokiefyd]

To be sure, no brand or company makes a perfect product. That's the nature of mass production. Fortunately, both BJs and Michelin have been good about taking care of the issue. I am disconcerted that there are so many apparent problems with the tires, though. I still believe installation issues led to the problems with the first set...or at least I believe that the potential is high that installation issues led to those problems.

But the second set is very curious. Runout was terrible on those. One tire looked to have good radial runout but very poor lateral runout. The other front tire looked to have small radial runout problems and small lateral runout problems...it appeared that the tire was "egg-shaped" on the wheel. The rear tires were better, but still had visible lateral runout that I've never seen on a tire before. We put those on the front and the steering wheel shimmy is gone...but the shakes have moved to the rear now.

I hope and pray that the Primacys are better.

 

[CharBaby]

Yea, I am having quite an issue with my Cooper CS4's that I bought from DTD last Memorial Day Sale. They've been wobbling all over the place with multipal rebalances on my 17" Aluminum Wheels(purchaced new w/the Eagle LS's) for the summer. The original G/Y Eagle LS's were never this bad on the same wheels and my 16" OE Steelies w/Pirelli P4's(used for the off seasons) are perfect.

The wheels have never been damaged(purchace new in '04) and only see summer duty. I will have everything Road Forced Balanced prior to my summer reinstall and see if this corrects the balance issue.

It's rare but, the wheels(17" RAGE Motif) may have never been true when new as the Eagle LS's that I had installed caused some mild viberation & radial pull (even after several rebalancings) as well but, not to the extent of the CS4's. The Viberation(s) are right at the sweet spot of my driving on the highway.

City driving is fine and no radial pull w/CS4's. We'll see this summer after the RFB if it's the wheels, tires or both!

Again, these wheels were purchaced new and never been damaged.