Wow, they weren’t kidding about the “anything repeated on the interweb” troupe.

*I* worked in the tire manufacturing industry, albeit VERY briefly (less than a year). Just throwing that out there, in case anyone wants to question my “authority.”

And to be honest, I worked in marketing, so anything I say, take with a grain of salt. You can never believe them marketing guys anyway.

Automotive manufactures don’t make tires. Rubber companies do. I know, shocking ain’t it? So car makers are in no position to say, buy a million tires and SHAVE them down so you’re forced to need to buy new tires sooner.

What they ARE in position of doing, is ask tire manufacturers to make tires specific to their needs using either a different compound formulation, tread design, sidewalk construction, or a variety of other specs to meet their vehicle needs. Especially if you’re ordering millions of tires at a time. So occasionally you’ll see “OE” spec tires, like BMW specific tires from Continental with a “star” stamped on the sidewall, or “N” spec tires from Michelin for Porsche. Or the ZP Cup 2 or PSS tires specifically made in Corvette sizes.

However tire manufactures can’t possibly keep both the “OE” spec tires and the tires they manufacture and sell to the public the same part numbers and sell them as same tires, because the manufacturing and logistic nightmare it would present. Imagine Michelin’s distribution center asking a new batch of 285/30/R19 Cup 2s if they’re going to Tire Rack or Bowling Green every day, or the confusion at the auto manufacturing plant if the tires they received are for the cars or they’re aftermarket.

So these tires are clearly marked and have different part numbers, but same brand/make/model name. But the auto manufacturers can specify a softer compound, stiffer sidewall, or *gasp* shallower tread depth for performance reasons (less tread depth on summer tires leads to better handling characteristics, for example).

But you won’t get a generic ContiExtraSportyContact tire that’s installed on, say, a Malibu, and what’s sold from Tire Rack/Discount Tires/Tire Zone/whatever, to be different. They’re identical.

So you say, “um Hack, I HAVE a Chevy Malibu Classic Ltd Special Edition and the OE tire DEFINITELY did not last as long as my second set of the same ContiExtraSportyComfortContacts I got from Tires R Us.” And there’s a good reason for that.

Tires are consumables, and they are subject to deterioration the second they roll off the shelves. Imagine the car plants ordering the tires to arrive JIT for your Malibu Classic LTD Special Ed to roll off the plant. Those tires likely have been sitting at Continental’s plant for 3-6 month. Then the Malibu’s built in Mexico City, 3 months in transport hell, gets to your local dealership, then sits under the sun for another 6 months (don’t tell me you special ordered your Malibu?!) before it caught your eyes, after it’s been test driven like the village bicycle during that 6 months sitting on a lot.

That means it’s been subjected to HUNDREDS of heat cycles from sitting under the sun, maybe 30 days of freezing temps, and half a dozen test drives when the sales drone tells the customer to “floor it! See what this 4 cylinder beast can do!” Actually the test drives don’t do anything to the tires, but the extended heat and cold cycles do something to the tires. The molecular bonds in the tires (silica, rubber, graphite compounds etc) bond, release, rebond repeatedly over time and dramatically shortens the life of the tire.

Then when you wore through the tire that came with the car in 18 months (when it’s been out of the tire manufacturer’s warehouse for nearly 3 years, subjected to nearly a thousand heat and cold cycles) and bought a second set of ContiExtraSportyComfortContact from your local tire store, because it’s such a popular tire it’s constantly in supply-chain from Continental, so you get a set that’s maybe only 3-4 months from inception, and stored in climate controlled warehouses all this time. And shockingly these aftermarket tires lasted you 3.5 years instead of your OE tires on the Malibu Classic LTD Special edition only lasting 2?!

Its gotta be because the OE Tires have the treads shaved off from the factory, right?

Not going to get a Michelin rep to post on this Thread so you are 100% sure it’s the truth! Probably would not believe one if they did! However my first new car in 1967 had Uniroyal “Tiger Paws.” Terrible tire no doubt spec’d by GM for low cost! Went through Pirelli, that were great in the rain to plus-1 14 inch Continental 714’s on wider wheels. They were great in wet and dry. So good when I bought a new 260Z had them installed on it on custom wheels. The OEM 260 Z tires were cheap as well. When the Continental tires wore out bought Michelin XWXs.

My next new car was a 1984 Dodge Colt Turbo (during the Carter years when I could not go from CT to LaGuardia and back on a full tank in my modified CJ-5 and we could only buy gas every other day!). Bought Plus 1 wheels and Pirelli P7s. Great tire in the warmer weather.

Yep, even my 1st Vette an 1988 had inferior tires to what I bought when I wore the first set out at ~10,000 miles. BUT, IMO, (opinion is all you'll get from posters,) the C7 Michelin are the best performance tire I have ever had on a new car and assuming you don’t need all-season tires the best you can buy. Here is some evidence the OEM tread is the same as I can buy from whoever. I paid Discount Tire for tire insurance and they measured the tread depth even though the Grand Sport only had 400 miles. It matched the OEM spec. Folks are also quoting over 20,000 mile tire life- by far better than I have gotten on my prior 3 Vettes until my 2014 C7.


That said, Michelin took the Vette buisnees from Goodyear, who had it for years. With the same width tire as on my C6 Z51 my 2014 Z51 achieved significantly higher max lateral “g” force. Yep, the stiffer chassis is a factor but GM tested all tires and doubt the Michelin were not the clear winner as GM stated they were.

For the high priced C7 tires doubt GM would accept an inferior OEM tire than Michelin sells over the counter for a few more dollars profit.

Might shave some cost from the interior as they did with the superior 3LT Kalahari (and other colors) I had in my 3LT 2014 to the current “patch work quilt” 3LT they have now - BUT not tires, IMO.

PS: I don't by that Michelin has another set of molds to made OEM wires with a few thousands less tread. I missed the tour our ASME Section had to Michelin in SC where they make the Vette tire, but looks like we'll be touring the new Continental tire plant in Sumpter SC where they make the low profile run flats on my wife's BMW. I'll ask the engineers who usually conduct our tours!