10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 44,509 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
I was driving along when my tire blew out. The car spun into traffic and hit a wall and guard rail but did not hit any cars. My whole front end was smashed in and long the one side of the car scrapped up. The air bags did not deploy!!! information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
- Tulsa, OK, USA
Tires from walmart store#1541, with less then 10,000, rotated & balanced, at 45-55 mph tires wobble & shake. They rebalanced them today X2 but still not correct at 50-60 mph they still wobble. I just couldn't go back a third time. The store manager just said fix them to his staff and walked away.
- Loxahatchee, FL, USA
Over the past 20 years, I have owned 6 cars (5 Cadillac and 1 Mercury) equipped with Michelin tires. Of these 24 tires, I experienced tread separation failure on 18 of the tires and 1 sidewall failure at 13000 miles. Two tires, I removed at 25000 miles to avoid problems as I was planning a long trip. Three of the tires are still on one car with about 13000 miles on those tires. The standard size for the Cadillac is 215/65-16. Michelin only recommends that I speak with their dealer. The dealer said he could not adjust for the tires. Needless to say I did not replace the failed tires with Michelin tires. I experienced an unreasonable tread separation failure rate with Michelin tires (time will tell for the remaining 3 tires). This indicates a systemic problem with the Michelin design/manufacturing. I did a little research on the subject of tread separation failures and the resulting problems and found that there are some deaths attributable to tread separation failures. Because of this and the extremely high failure rate, I feel that the Michelin radial tires present a serious safety hazard. I recommend the NHTSA investigate this problem. Note: I read that tires manufactured in europe do not have this problem due to a different design/manufacturing process. If this is so, the us should mandate the european design for us manufactured tires. I have specialized education in the automotive industry through the General Motors institute and 6 years experience manufacturing automobiles. The approximate incident date is for the latest incident on the 13000 mile tire. Before that, I experienced 2 tire failures around the first of June.
- Greenville, TX, USA
In Feb., 2007, my mother-in-law bought a set (4) of Michelin symmetry tires for her Mercury marquis. Within two months, one had a sidewall blow out. The dealer told her that she must have hit something, so she bought a replacement tire. Last week, May 30, 2008, while driving from myrtle beach to rock hill, SC, another tire had a sidewall blowout. After waiting almost 2 hours in 90 degree heat, aaa arrived and changed the tire. She drove to two tire stores looking for a replacement. After purchasing one at the local Ford dealer, she started home again. Within 50 miles, another tire had a sidewall blowout. This time while waiting for aaa, a schp officer stopped and at least provided some water. She drove home on the temporary replacement tire. Today we are going back to the dealer that installed the original tires. I suspect that her options will be to either purchase another Michelin symmetry, or an entire replacement set. On her limited income, she'll probably just but the Michelin. Her daughter and I are concerned with her driving on long trips with these tires. I have found 23 pages of complaints on Michelin tires on the consumeraffairs.com website.
- Rock Hill, SC, USA
- Kingman, AZ, USA