Tire Rack Consumer Review of the Michelin Latitude Tour

Initial Review, 63,000 Miles on Tires
March 27, 2014

P255/65R16 106T Latitude Tour on an ML320 first series SUV. The tires are holding up well with just over 63k miles over 64 months. The first 18 months (14k mi) were in New England and the tires performed well through two northern winters. Snow traction was excellent as was wet traction. The last 48k miles have been in south Florida, mostly highway miles. Treadwear is excellent with about 4 to 5/32 of depth across the widths of each tire. (Tire rotation schedule and alignment issues with the car are main culprits for the uneven tire wear). Wet weather driving at highway speed in Florida has been great with zero hydroplaning (on 255s) along with confident braking. Dry weather driving is relatively quiet as is expected from all season tires. Mileage for the ML320 at highway driving is consistently 20mpg which I attribute 1-2 miles on the tire model. The previous tires were also Michelins but were H rated, lower tread life tires. I was initially concerned with "T" (118mph) speed rating, "B" temp rating, and 106 load index (2,094lb) for Florida drivers tend to consistently speed beyond the 70 MPH law. The ML is a heavy SUV with gross weight of 6000lbs. Front and Rear GAWR are 2550 & 3550 lbs respectively. A typical workday round trip is 140 miles highway driving 3-4 times a week. Additionally, was also concerned about the Florida heat and sun as the vehicle was not parked under cover for most of the last three years. As such, there is cracking all along the circumference of the tire walls (dry rot cracking, maybe). At this point, I am pleased with the performance and longevity of these Latitude Tours and may likely keep them on until the warranty period end (or another 2k miles). As a side note, I would purchase these again for a vehicle that I expected to keep a long time. These tires were a great investment. By the way, I love Tire Rack and will continue to purchase from them. Just replaced these with Conti CrossContact LX20 due to cost and remaining life of the Benz.