The tires on my 2009 TCH (Michelin Energy) finally wore out at 68,000 miles. They were so nice, and lasted so long, that I had them replaced with the exact same kind. The only difference is that I had them sipe the treads to hopefully improve winter traction.

On a related note, a few months back I was having some work done on my truck, and in the waiting room they had some Bridgestone tires. I was very surprised at the softness of the rubber on them. It felt like an art gum eraser. I almost suspect if my fingernails were long enough that I could have gouged out a chunk. It's no wonder people don't get much life out of them.

Anyway, I can certainly recommend the Michelins.

 

"sipe the treads"?

 

+1 - What is this?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siping_(rubber)

 

Just another "snake oil" formulation to be added to K&N and CAI.

Long, LONG ago tread depth was significantly greater than the tread pattern, especially for heavy duty truck tires, so once the tread pattern was worn down siping was used to regain some level of wet roadbed traction.

The tire companies have now found a way to make use of those OLD otherwise siping tools so they have come out of storage.

 

Sounds like siping is controversial. Since these are exactly the same tires otherwise, it will be interesting to note the difference, if any. Hopefully it will snow this coming winter (it didn't last winter).

 

If you need better winter traction, get snow tires. I don't think you could do much to LRR tires to improve their performance in snow.

I have Bridgestone Turanzas and Blizzak snow tires. The snow tire rubber is much softer. Any chance you were feeling up a Bridgestone snow tire? The rapid wear of the Turanzas must be due to some other fault.

 

Where ever it is the OP lives they did not get any snow last year.

Why buy snow tires if you are unlikely to actually need them.

I also have the Michelin Energy tires and I live in a very definite snow area (Calgary) so far winter traction has not been an issue in the three winters so far.

However I understand that with only a little more than 30,000 miles the winter traction goes away quite rapidly.

I will more than likely replace the tires this fall with Nokian WRG2s which also happen to be LRR.

 

Not that low. They're a good winter tire though, especially if your winters are a mixed bag.

 

Very much a mixed bag. We have Nokians on our Corolla and we are very pleased with them.