Greetings,

I am researching tires for a vehicle and see that the country of origin for the Michelin Latitude Tour version that I want (they have more than one version of Latitude Tour, different load rating, etc.) is listed as CN and FR.

China and France.

TireRack indicates they will not accept orders that request a particular country of origin. So I can't buy these tires from them, they'll surely send Chinese Michelins.

It looks like I will have to deal with one of the larger chains that has the tires in stock, so that I can verify "Made in France" on the tires. One has to hope that the "Made in France" label is accurate - I wouldn't put it past them to ship in a container from China with the wrong country of origin label "by accident."

I may want to deal with a smaller outfit (had good luck with Costco/BJs in the past on price and performance) that has to order the tires. Usually they want payment up front.

Any suggestions on how to avoid Chinese Michelins when the tires have to be ordered? Or do I just have to deal with a place that keeps them in stock and ask to look them over first?

This vehicle is a 2008 Honda CRV, and I'll take suggestions for other tires. I came here because this is the best place for help and I anticipate the same situation becoming more common with the tire models that Michelin puts out that fit our Mercedes cars.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

While I can understand your concern based on recent news reports of chinese manufactured tires being dumped into the market but, those reports do not tell the full story. Michelin, Goodyear, Bridgestone, and almost all other tire manufacturers have production plants all over the world. I would not worry about high end manufacturers products, like Michelin, from their China facilities as the same quality control and processes are in place at all of their factories

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Please, call me to place orders or for more info
use my name for on-line orders

Exactly. And if there would be an issue, you can bet the tire maker would stand behind the warranty.

On a side note, my spare was made in West Germany!

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1991 560 SEL / 185k miles
1992 750il / 17k miles - project car

Don't buy Michelins. Problem solved. I don't know why people still stick to this brand. Every set of Falkens I've owned so far were made in Japan or Thailand.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

'got me running to look at my Primacy MXV4 s [COSTCO,Charleston]
Sidewall proudly proclaims "Made in USA"
(Is there a town or prefecture in the PRC that's been renamed "USA" ???)

The X radials on the Non-Mercedes have no origin I.D. markings. [Also COSTCO]

The PRC is at least 30 years away from the Q.C. necessary for Michelins.
[First they've gotta have a Successful Tianamen II AND run all the Communist
Oligarchs off.]

(BUT if Michelin is manufacturing in the PRC that means the Commies have
ALL their Technological Secrets.(From which to reverse engineer "FAKE" Michelins.)



If someone WERE selling PRC produced Michelins do you really think they'd tell you,up front?

There IS NOTHING you need so badly that you have to accept PRC Made
Goods.

(You can call the COSTCO and they'll put aside a set of FR Michelins until
you get over there.)

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

You could buy Nokian tires.... They're made in Finland...

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All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to stand by and do nothing.

Too many people tip toe through life, never attempting or doing anything great, hoping to make it safely to death... Bob Proctor

'95 S320 LWB
'87 300SDL
'04 E500 wagon 4matic

Took home a 2012 Cadillac CTS last week on Michelins.
FWIW
Engine = Canada
Transmission = France
US manufactured components = 70%
Don't know about the tires. Is the country of manufacture stamped on the tire?

Not that I'm am particularly concerned, even if they are Chinese.

My experince with Chinese tires is they are badly out of balance.Also won't stay balanced,and if you had them trued on a machine,you would have slick places with no tread.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

My MXV4's were made in Canada. I don't care what anyone says about the quality control in China. I won't knowingly put any parts on my Mercedes that were manufactured in China. And you sure don't have to settle for Chinese manufactured tires if you don't want to. As a matter of fact, tires are obviously the last thing you want to take a chance on.

It turns out that the official Michelin web site conveniently avoids providing information on country of origin for all their tires. The place where I found the country of origin for Michelin tires was the tirerack.com website. When you select a particular tire, choose "Specs" under the "Additional Tire Information" area of the tire description. That brings up a table of specifications - and the last column is "Country of Origin".

I recommend you go pull this information for tires that might interest you and archive it immediately. I can't find this information on the manufacturer's web site or any of the other common online tire distributors. My expectation is this information may shortly become unavailable as more Chinese Michelins come ashore. For the Latitude Tour I'm interested in, only my size and load rating is sourced in China (and France). 225-65/17 102T.

While I would expect Michelin to stand behind their warranty on tires wherever they are manufactured, you have to be alive to file a claim.

I'll let someone else prove that Chinese Michelins are just as good as Michelins sourced from other countries - with their family. For my family car hauling precious cargo, I don't want Chinese-made Michelin tires at this time. It's a matter of risk calculation, and I'd rather pay a little more (if necessary) to have tires sourced from somewhere other than China. Yes, I can deal with the risk of the soles of my cheap Chinese boat shoes coming off prematurely, but I can't accept any (unnecessary) risk of the tread separating off my tire(s) while my family is running down the interstate at 70mph.

I made a run through the BJ's Club tire department yesterday evening. Of course they don't stock the tire size I want, but the other Michelins were clearly marked with "Made in XXX" and most of them were USA. Some Canada. You should be able to find this information on any of your tires. I tend to expect it is a legal requirement for tires to label the country of origin.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

Its just not China for me,Brazil,Canada,and U.S are fine by me.Malaysia tires tend to be out of balance too.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Yeah, Chinese made tires - I don't think so!

So, ......... you're basically saying, ...... you know better than Michelin's tire engineers and their quality control?

For the record, i've had crappy tire that were made right here in the good ole USA.

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'O=00=O'
bmw 2002.
long live the legend

No, I don't think I know more about tires than Michelin's tire engineers. The tires coming in from China may be perfectly fine. But their reliability and safety record in terms of the Michelin product is unproven to me. And I'll let someone else prove with their lives that the tires are OK.

The overall track record of Chinese manufactured products leaves something to be desired - and in this case - something to be proven. You have to play the odds they way you see them.

Anyone with any sense knows not to buy Firestone tires and Excide batteries. The odds are not with you.

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

I'm going to have to be vigilant when purchasing Michelins now, it seems.

This reminds me of VWs built in Mex vs ones built in Germany (and now presumably ZA and BR), about a decade ago. I had 2 VWs, one a Jetta (hecho en Mexico) and a Golf (DE). The paint on the Jetta was terrible; orange peel, looked like the clearcoat was put on by a drunk. Then on the Golf, best, clearest paint job. Looked the equivalent of similar-era Mercedes cars. But remember, the Golf and Jetta, at least then. were "the same car."

Don't tell me there arent production variances from factory to factory

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former: 83 300D, 97 C230, 93 400E

current: 08 C300 Luxury , 92 500SL