Actually, although the Kumhos are cheaper than the Michelins, the principal reason I chose them is because they were reviewed to be superior in snow - and superior in that regard than the rest of the all-season designs. In addition, purchasers preferred them to the MXV4's in all the reviews I read, as far as I could tell. In this regard my experience with the Michelins is unimpressive. Here our excursions in the winter require driving steep, icy mountain roads with no room for sloppiness, and deep snow on the roadways.

Having owned MXVs or MXV4s on almost every vehicle I have owned since the late '70s, I am very familiar with them. I have directly compared them to Pirelli, Yokohama, Bridgestone, Remington, and now Kumhos. They are great tires, but in whole have not in my experience lasted any longer nor had any fewer balance/alignment problems than these others (Pirelli being the bad apple, so far).

As far as the current situation, the Kumho's definitely are outperforming the Michelins in all respects, pleasantly, and I am not prepared to attribute that to anything more than that they are new and a lower profile. However, tire vibration problem I also had with the Michelins, until I swapped those front/rear.

Perhaps it is different in FL, but most of the Michelins sold in SoCal seem to be made in Brazil or France, which also seems to have more to do with quality than manufacturing method. I have rejected Michelins in favor of other brands in the past because of poor quality appearance on casual inspection. I used to buy exclusively Michelin due to presumed higher quality. Now I expect them to prove themselves against the competition.

Steve