Hello Everyone,

 

I have a 2014 Forester and have been happy with my tire choice lately, but I only got 26,000 miles out of the current set of Continental True Contacts.  The tire shop recommended an all weather tire, specifically the Michellin Climate Cross 2.  They said they see on average 60,000 miles out of a set which is fine.  My concern is the softer tread compound not handling dirt roads and/or light offroading very well.  I swear  I read somewhere that they chunk easily on anything but pavement.  Anyone have any experience with these or other tires in the same class?

Someone recommended the Cooper Enduramax on another site.  Looks to be a good alternative.  Tough casing, designed for gravel roads and light offroading with an all season tread and 60,000 mile warranty.  Anyone have any firsthand accounts in the snow?

Severe weather rated all season tires. There are a lot of these out on the market in the last 5 years or so, and people seem to really like them. I work at a Subaru dealership in the Minneapolis, MN area. We're no strangers to snow and ice, but also not really enough to justify a second set of tires for most people, and most of our customers do not have a place to store an extra set of tires anyway. I've had many customers rave about how much they like them. I used to work at a dealership in Duluth, MN, where the weather was more harsh, and snowfall more abundant. We still sold a lot of them, but also a lot more snow tires.

I first started seeing them with the Nokian WRG series, but now there are Michelin Cross Climates, Firestone WeatherGrips, Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady, and more. I put a set  (not name brand) on our Kia Rio beater, as it only gets driven a few thousand miles a year. I was impressed with how they did last winter. No, not quite snow tire good, but better than any all season I've used before.

They don't generally have much softer tread compound than an All Season Touring tire, so I wouldn't expect them to get damaged by rocks too badly, but I have zero actual experience.

In theory, they are not as quiet as a touring tire, but generally tolerable with modern car sound insulation.

What tire were you using?  If the ones you’re looking at are all significant upgrades then it’s likely you’ll be happy with all of them and the choice probably doesn’t matter much. If they’re downgrades (seems unlikely) then maybe it’ll be trickier  

haven’t looked closely at Coopers models but they are enormously popular around here - good performers for winter without high price tags.

Michelin CC2 have thousands of reviews online and are top of class at tire rack with 4.8 star reviews. Normally reviews are suspect but there’s enough out there they might mean something. Lol. They’re pricey but Michelin doesn’t make an average tire. They’re top shelf products across the board. Others can easily provide the performance you want though. Disclosure they hire a lot from Georgia Tech, the college I went to. 

On 8/27/2024 at 11:03 AM, Numbchux said:

Severe weather rated all season tires. There are a lot of these out on the market in the last 5 years or so, and people seem to really like them. I work at a Subaru dealership in the Minneapolis, MN area. We're no strangers to snow and ice, but also not really enough to justify a second set of tires for most people, and most of our customers do not have a place to store an extra set of tires anyway. I've had many customers rave about how much they like them. I used to work at a dealership in Duluth, MN, where the weather was more harsh, and snowfall more abundant. We still sold a lot of them, but also a lot more snow tires.

I first started seeing them with the Nokian WRG series, but now there are Michelin Cross Climates, Firestone WeatherGrips, Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady, and more. I put a set  (not name brand) on our Kia Rio beater, as it only gets driven a few thousand miles a year. I was impressed with how they did last winter. No, not quite snow tire good, but better than any all season I've used before.

They don't generally have much softer tread compound than an All Season Touring tire, so I wouldn't expect them to get damaged by rocks too badly, but I have zero actual experience.

In theory, they are not as quiet as a touring tire, but generally tolerable with modern car sound insulation.

I read a few reviews of people stating they were somewhat unstable at speeds over 80mph.This makes sense given the lack of a center rib, but it's hard to say how accurate it is.

On 8/28/2024 at 5:28 AM, idosubaru said:

What tire were you using?  If the ones you’re looking at are all significant upgrades then it’s likely you’ll be happy with all of them and the choice probably doesn’t matter much. If they’re downgrades (seems unlikely) then maybe it’ll be trickier  

haven’t looked closely at Coopers models but they are enormously popular around here - good performers for winter without high price tags.

Michelin CC2 have thousands of reviews online and are top of class at tire rack with 4.8 star reviews. Normally reviews are suspect but there’s enough out there they might mean something. Lol. They’re pricey but Michelin doesn’t make an average tire. They’re top shelf products across the board. Others can easily provide the performance you want though. Disclosure they hire a lot from Georgia Tech, the college I went to. 

I was previously running the Continental True Contact Tour AS.  It was my 3rd set.

Michelin is certainly well known for making a quality tire.  They seem to be geared towards relaxed drivers with safety in mind first.  I saw a lot of reviews stating the CC2 understeers a lot, which I;m not a huge fan of.  The car is already way too biased to understeer.  Road tests also show problems with the tire changing direction in emergency maneuvers.  The first turn is fine, but the second is very slow to respond.

I ended up going with the Continental CrossContact LX25.  The snow traction is a little less, but the Continental Warranty Department said they have only one complaint on the tire and that it should hold up relatively well on gravel roads.  The LX25 is an improvement over the TrueContact with a new rendition of the tread compound, and added features to enhance snow traction.  It also outperformed the original Cross Climate in snow traction so I'm happy with that as an all season.  We'll see how things go.  With my mileage warranty and some sweet talking with the manager, I was out the door for just under $700.

Michelin was hesitant to say the CC2 could be used on gravel roads, but said it should do okay with light  and infrequent use.

 

If you're not familiar with the Continental, here is a link for reference: https://continentaltire.com/tires/crosscontact-lx25