Michelin CrossClimate+ Reviews - Page 7

I am a retired Fleet Engineer and am used to steer and drive axle tires on the coaches in my fleet. I like a directional block tread on the drive wheels. These 94V extra load tires were fitted to the rear drive axle in Jan 2018 and have so far covered 12,285 miles. Initially the rate of wear seamed alarmingly poor, having lost 1 mm. of tread in the first 2,000 miles. This has now slowed, thank goodness, and the tires are now @ 5 mm. after 13 months & about 12,000 miles on the road. The original depth of 7 mm. is much less than other manufacturers who start with 9 mm. of tread on their all season tires.

I tow a 1,450 kg. caravan in the UK from April to October with a 76 mile round trip to the dealer for annual service in winter. I have used tires from Michelin (Energy as OE), Goodyear (Eagle Vector 2) & Pirelli (All Season 2) on the rear previously. I switched to 'all season' as the original Michelin Energies were hopeless for towing over grass.

Snow in my home area on the northwest coast of England is not a problem; one inch is classed as bad around here. My main concern is general traction which is why I tried Cross Climate + summer tires this time around. Wet grip and off road traction is good on these Cross Climates and they have not got me stuck so far. Pulling away uphill on the road with the van on the hook does not bring on wheel spin. It will depend on how long they last if I 'stick to Michelin' or go back to Goodyear 'all season' next time around.

Incidentally my front tires are 202/55R16 91V Vredestein Quatrac 5's which have an asymetric tread pattern more suitable for the steer axle. These are giving excellent results and have done 23,000 miles so far with tread depth now also at 5 mm. (original depth 9 mm.). Much better than both Michelin Energy & Primacy HP's fitted previously. I will definately be buying them again.

Fitted Michelin CrossClimates on my previous 4x4 and now CC+'s on my Discovery Sport MY2017 2Liter 180 HSE Dynamic. I have owned and driven a range of big 4x4s in most parts of the world for over 40 years.
The CCs and now the better CC+ version may be more expensive but you get the value back with every day of use.
My personal opinion, - I haven't driven with them in soft sand but they should be at least as good as most other tires in that situation. I can however unreservedly recommend them both for Winter and Summer use on roads and fields, in wet and in snow.
Based on my previous CC's they last a long time (for me) and seem to cope with just about anything. For example, good handling through last summer's (2018) hot weather, at least as good as the OEM tires (I recon slightly quieter). Then running through an average of 25 Cms depth of powder snow and frequent drifts with packed hard ice underneath in the Alps last week (Winter 2019) - no chains required. (And, no I don't work for Michelin or any other automotive manufacturer!) I haven't tried every multi-season tire out there, (now I don't need to) but I have tried; BF Goodrich, Wranglers, Coopers, Bridgestone, Dunlop, Pirelli, Firestone, Nexus, and a few others in the past and on different 4x4s. Tire compounds are constantly evolving so I guess there will be better compounds and treads coming out and the CCs will probably get enhanced as well. I'll be sticking to them for a while longer and again, this is my personal opinion, hopefully my experiences with the CCs will help some of you with what is always a challenging choice.

I bought these tires almost 2 years ago for our Audi A3 8V 2.0 TDI Quattro

As we are living in Switzerland and having 3 cars you can imagine i was not happy to store 12 tires every season.

In 2016 when they came out and when i saw the reviewvideo with the red A3 on this website i was very excited to buy these for our A3. As i loved the rims i bought these tires for the size 225/40/18

What can i say i am in general extremely happy with the tires, but living in Switzerland between the mountains it came a bit, cheecky but that's actually not the problem of the tire but my problem, i mean these tires are made for “mild” climate areas and it is actually a summer tire with “safe winter reserve” these tires are brilliant as lomg as you not oft in snowy areas.

In the snow they are safe as long as you watch your speed.

In the dry they are really really good

In the wet they are “average”

But these tires are actually perfect for people who are not like to change tires or to safe some space in the garage ;)

The wear is brilliant too, but to be honest I just orderd a pair of Continental TS860 on 16 inch steel for the winter, cause 225 wide Crossclimates are not great for Switzerland but thats my problem not these tires.

Conclusion: great tires with very good wear and winter safety in “flat countries”

I bought the CrossClimate Plus as a winter only tire having spent last winter scrabbling around on the standard fitment Michelin Pilot Supersport summer tires. I'll obviously be switching back to the Supersports for the summer so don't take this as a true "All Season" review but my reasons for going Crossclimates for winter over a full winter tire is a) living down south so we don't see a lot of snow, and b) having had them previously Ive got a real aversion to the way winter tires have a soft vague feeling in all conditions due to the flexibility of the blocks. Weather down here in Southern England over the past month has ranged from mild days in the low teens centigrade both wet and dry right down to -3c on a couple of mornings plus one particular night when it rained then cleared leaving greasy damp roads barely above freezing. No snow to test them in yet but I think I've now driven in the majority of normal southern winter weather and in all conditions they've been excellent so far.

They obviously don't have the carcass or block stiffness of the Supersport so the tire does feel a little softer generally, but a bit of additional comfort (plus less road noise) isnt a bad thing in winter and thankfully there's certainly none of the vagueness or floaty block feeling I was desperate to avoid from previous expreriences on full winter tires. They grip well when cornering and traction is excellent despite chosing a square setup with the same size tires both ends so a narrower 225/40-18 on the rear of a 340bhp car. Things like pulling sharply out of damp or wet junctions is no longer the nervous will it grip or will it spin up event that it used to be on the Supersports, plus the annoying suspension knock/thump from cold rubber tire blocks skipping over tarmac when reversing with some steering lock on has gone completely which is a bonus. I actually think when compared against the Supersport the usual 7c crossover rule of thumb does a slight disservice to the CrossClimate as they seem to grip better in every condition below about 10c and by the time it gets towards zero they're in another league. Standing water performance also seems fine despite what some of the reviews suggest, they might not be as good as some but I've driven some very wet roads recently through standing water at reasonable speeds and they've always felt secure (better than the Supersport anyway!). To sum up, obviously we need some snow before I'll be 100% certain I made the right winter tire choice but so far I'm very impressed.