Michelin Agilis CrossClimate

This is an initial review after just two weeks.

First impressions are very positive of the Agilis CrossClimate. I purchased 4 for my van after having pervious good experience with the summer version of the Agilis and the normal CrossClimate’s fitted to a family member’s car.

Although we have yet to have snow or heavy rain, the wet and dry handling at low temperatures have been impressive (driven them at around -2). I have much more confidence in these than the previous midrange tires I had installed on my van. Only a day or two after purchasing I had to preform an emergency stop (all be it at lower speeds) and the tires stopped me dead! From that moment on I have had a lot more confidence driving the van again.

They do make more noise than my previous tires. They can also feel a bit ‘floaty’ when changing lanes at speed, however they never feel like they are losing grip. Perhaps this will calm down as they wear. On that note, they all came with 9mm of tread depth. Michelin claim it should be 9.9mm. So my measure may be slightly out or their manufacturing tolerances allow this. One handy feature is a % wear indicator. There are 4 levels, 100%, 75%, 50% and 25%. As each level wears away you can quickly see how much tread you have left, without having to measure, which is handy.

I’ll report back in about 6 months with initial wear, as well as how they handle in milder and warmer weather. Hopefully also by then we’ll have had some snow and I can test them on that.

I fitted a set of Agilis CrossClimates to our motorhome for a trip to the North Cape in October/November. The base vehicle is a Mk8 Ford Transit and, fully loaded, the weight is around 3.6 - 3.7 tons. The chosen route was up the east coast of Sweden, then through the north west corner of Finland to the top of Norway. The return was down the west coast of Norway. Research suggested some snow was probable, with lots of single figure sub-zero temperatures and we should be away from the area before the real Arctic winter conditions set in.
The CrossClimates replaced a set of Goodyear summer tires, which were the factory original fit. Initially they felt what I can only describe as a bit "floaty" at higher speeds (60mph), though this wasn't noticeable at lower speeds (say 40mph). I think they still do feel like that, but I've got used to it.
The snow started just north of Pitea; within 30 miles we were on hard packed snow and that was it for the rest of the way up. One day in Finland we covered around 230 miles on packed snow, with -6C being the maximum temperature. During the trip overall, we drove around 2000 miles on damp or wet roads at, or just above, freezing. We drove perhaps 1500 miles in conditions that were as bad as anything we are ever likely to see during a really severe UK winter; slush, snow, ice, temperatures down to -11C. The tires were absolutely superb: they hauled us up 3rd gear hills, they steered around hairpin bends, they retarded our speed down "use low gear" hills. They never gave us a single scary moment, they rarely struggled for grip and it was readily restored with just a little bit less power. The worst we got was momentary significant understeer on a bend going up a mid-gear hill on a snowy & icy road. There was good feedback through the steering when the tires were unhappy. The grip on ice exceeded my expectations; we stopped in a sloping car park that was so icy we could hardly stand. We got straight back into the motorhome and were able to drive away with only momentary wheel spin as we started to move.
As for more normal wet & dry conditions, we haven't had to test the limits of grip, but they never give any hint of a lack of grip. The level of comfort is good, similar to the previous summer tires. There is a noticeable sound from the tires on some road surfaces that we didn't get with the previous tires; not loud, not unpleasant, just noticeable. After the 5500 miles of the trip, I was unable to measure any difference in tread depth with my basic tread depth gauge.
Overall, I was really impressed with the winter performance of these all-season tires. They made the trip possible, they were safe, they took away the anxiety of driving in conditions that I haven't encountered in decades.