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The Michelin Defender LTX M/S and Michelin Premier LTX are two all-season tires that are a favorite choice for many. Whether you’re looking to buy new tires for your van, crossover, SUV, or pickup, they are among the best options available today. We’ll take a look at how the two compare head-to-head.
| Defender LTX M/S | Premier LTX | |
|---|---|---|
| Would You Recommend | 8.4 | 4.9 |
| Dirt | 8.6 | |
| Sand | 8.1 | |
| Mud | 7.6 | |
| Rock | 8.1 | |
| Hydroplaning Resistance | 9.2 | 8.6 |
| Wet Traction | 9.2 | 8.7 |
| Cornering Stability | 9.1 | 8.8 |
| Dry Traction | 9.4 | 9.1 |
| Steering Response | 9.1 | 8.8 |
| Light Snow Traction | 8.9 | 7.8 |
| Deep Snow Traction | 8.2 | 7.0 |
| Ice Traction | 7.7 | 6.6 |
| Ride Quality | 9.2 | 8.7 |
| Noise | 9.0 | 8.5 |
| Treadwear | 8.8 | 4.9 |
Michelin Defender LTX M/S
The Defender LTX M/S is made with a strong tread compound that is designed to deliver excellent traction, acceleration, and braking on dry pavements. Its 3-D sipes and symmetric tread pattern ensure the tire performs above average. Performance on wet traction is also quite good.
The tire’s four circumferential grooves enhance braking and safety while reducing the chances of hydroplaning. Stability and handling are above average, especially when it comes to hauling heavy loads or pulling larger trailers.
Acceleration and braking are also predictable and rank quite high in performance when compared to tires in the same class. Like any other Michelin tire, the Defender LTX M/S is comfortable and quiet. Its low road noise and smooth ride cover all types of surfaces except for grooved and rougher pavements.
Michelin Premier LTX
The Premier LTX uses a sunflower oil and silica compound to deliver exceptional traction on dry road surfaces. It fares better than the Defender LTX but the difference is almost negligible.
Michelin used the EverGrip technology to make rain grooves larger and added emerging grooves on the tire’s shoulders. This helps to maintain traction on wet surfaces even when the tire wears out. Unfortunately, the Premier LTX doesn’t fare well when it comes to winter traction. Its performance on ice and snow is below average.
However, it still provides excellent acceleration and braking as well as steering response. It holds better rolling resistance, meaning you may get better fuel economy when compared to the Defender LTX.
Founder at Tiresout. Used to be working as an engineer at Bridgestone Tires Akron Technical Center. The responsibilities included but were not limited to technical computing, indoor & outdoor testing of new tires.
After 71,000 miles over 3.5 years, still have 3/32’nds left. 95% highway miles. My daily commute is 177 miles, and ranges from 84 miles interstate, about 10 miles city, and the remainder on 2 lane roads and about 10 miles of the rest in the twisties down to the lake.
They are heavy tires, and the truck is heavy as well. I’ve had great success towing upto 6k lbs or so. Tires track well, they don’t follow every crack in the road.
Cost isn’t the cheapest, but these are truck tires, and you get what you pay for.
Will I buy them again? I’ve been very happy with these, but after 3.5 years I will research some newer entries to see if the bar is even higher now.
I’ve put 65k miles on these tire now, they still have 8/32nd tread left on them. I drive 85 miles round trip to and back 5 days a week 70-80mph in Minnesota weather, never have these tire let me down. winter or summer these tires perform with excellence in every category, absolutely zero road noise, smooth ride, and i get excellent fuel milage. I will be buying two more sets, one for my truck and the other for my wife’s car. I had many different brands of tires over my lifetime, but none that perform like these tires.
Aside from the treadwear, these are very good tires. In my opinion, the treadwear is abysmal. No all-season tire should wear out with less than 25000 miles on it.
The ride is great and dry traction is fantastic. Wet traction is great too, until you get down to around 4/32, then it is not so great, but this could be expected. Snow performance is good, not great, but I don’t expect greatness in this category from an all-season. They are quiet too, but there are better tires out there for the price.
The treadwear on this tire was absolutely terrible. Not only will we not be buying these tires again, but we’re going to pass on all future Michelin purchases. We currently have 5/32 left on all four tires, one of which attracted a pair of tweezers in the sidewall. We take some long trips from time to time on the highway and maintain the “pace of traffic” on the highway, so 60-80mph like most SUVs in our region. Looking at the Michelin warranty of 70k miles for these tires, they will void the warranty if not rotated between 6-8k miles throughout the warranty. Only buy these tires if you enjoy spending +$1,100 a year on tires.