I had to leave our X at the dealership for some warranty items; delaminating front grill chrome, rear brake light full of water. Since they had to keep the car for parts I took a tech version home. Our X has Michelins, the tech has Contis, perfect for a comparison since everything else is the same. In general the contis are similar NVHwise to the Michelins, however, there is a noticeable performance difference. During hard cornering, the Contis howl like an injured wolf. During exactly the same maneuvers the Michelins provide excellent grip with no obvious signs of distress.
I have been very impressed overall with this latest iteration of the Michelin latitude, they offer similar performance to the summer only versions I had on our previous MDX which had a very short life and were horribly noisy when worn.
Advantage Michelin.
I don't know if the Michelin tire is available on the tech version but I would certainly tell the dealer I wanted the Michelins over the Conti if available as a no cost swap.

 

If given the choice I would pick Michelline too but for normal driving we don't have anything to complain about the Conti tires. Which is better for winter/snow driving?

 

Our Tech/Ent MDX came with the Michelin tires.

 

Don't know. Since I live in the snowbelt I use snow tires anyway. In my neck of the woods snow tires are a necessity at least for me. SHAWD works wonders to get you going but it doesn't do anything for turning or stopping.

 

I've driven some 30 MN winters with just FWD and all season so I think we can survive with SH-AWD and all season. This is first time we've had AWD so somewhat looking forward to it. I do have nice set of winter tires for my RWD IS350 F-Sport that I use during the winter. But I do understand what you are saying about the ability to stop.

 

What type of winter tires do you use for the MDX?

 

Latitude x ice on 18 rims.

 

30 min winters and you haven't figured out that snow tires stop in less than half the distance than all season tires? I figured that one out after my first Minnesota winter. Do you drive at more than 15 mph? . They also make it possible to go up hills more than a five percent incline without 4wd though I know in Minnesota there aren't many of those AWD doesn't have anything to do with stopping nor handling in snow and even less on ice that is entirely dependent on tire grip. Now I understand why 80% of Minnesotans visits at least one ditch every winter! Uf da I grew up in the Caribbean and figured that out right away after I slid 3/4 of a mile down an icy hill ABSing the entire way.

 

I have a MDX Adv with Michellin tires. I have used both Michellin tires and conti tires on my CRV Ex-L and I found Michellin tires are great both in winter and for noise in summer. My conti tires never had side wall problem, one set of Michellin did get side wall problem and I was covered on warranty but had to pay something to get the other 3 tires replaced because in AWD all tires must have same warranty. I would still buy the Michellin tires as replacement for my MDX when the time comes. Well worth price.

 

Hey guys, what models of Michelin and which Continental are you talking about ?

Michelin and Continental both make multiple models of SUV tires, and some of them are good, but the rest not so much.

So it is important to specific the particular tire models, rather than generalizing with the particular tire brand.

 

How do they decide on Michelin or Conti? AWD vs FWD, respectively?

 

LOL. Yeah but roads we drive on are usually cleared within a day of any storm. You may have some snow/ice on the side road but you just have to drive cautiously. Usually this means leaving enough distance with front car and moving with traffic.

While I've seen plenty of trucks & suvs in the ditch we have never ended up in a ditch (or be stuck) even with all season on FWD.

 

I know that uppers Minnesotans and Wisconsinites eschew such "unnecessary things" as snow tires, winter coats, dentists etch, till they try them Its like lutefisk, you eat it till you fond out it really tastes horrible

 

Surprisingly on tire rack Conti is ranked little higher overall.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...nology+Package

 

True, were only discussing the MDX OEM tires.

 

^^^^^

What Continental model is it as used OEM on the 3G MDX ?

Mine OEM is the 19" Michelin "Lattitude Tour HP", and I suspect (correct me if I was wrong) the 18" OEM Michelin is the lower performing "Lattitude Tour" tires.

 

Don't really know

 

Mine came with Continental CrossContact LX Sport 245/55/19.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSe...&filterType=oe

 

Any idea which model trims come with which tire as OEM ?

 

Very easy.

Base FWD/AWD = 18" Michelin
Technology FWD/AWD = 19" Continental
Technology/Entertainment FWD/AWD = 19" Michelin
Advance/Entertainment FWD/AWD = 19" Michelin

The Technology is by far the volume model of the MDX line, sometimes meaning it's a different volume level for items such as tires. Honda/Acura normally use 2 models of tire per car model.

Clients have been equally happy with both tires in our experience. Very little difference.

 

I have a base MDX. It comes with 18" Michelin Lattitude HP GreenX. I like the tire very much. This is probably one of the rare cases where I like OEM tires lol.

Can't speak for the Continentals but they seem to get comparable reviews at cheaper price.

 

No real complaint on Conti so far. Based on tire rack user surveys Conti are rated higher for winter driving conditions.

 

conti's are a better tire for this application