Michelin Fresh Baked Sunflower Oil Tires Do Stop Quicker

The new MICHELIN® PRIMACY™ MXM4® Tires do have increased stopping distance, fuel-efficiency and a 55,000 mile warranty for all seasons. The proof is in the test.

Donning safety glasses and steel-oed boots about two sizes too big, I had a rare opportunity to participate in a tire manufacturing plant tour at the Michelin Lexington, South Carolina, location. I watched the entire process of how they bake up MICHELIN® PRIMACY™ MXM4® tires. It was a fascinating (and, well, stinky)  learning experience. The smell of curing tires is pretty rank, but well worth the education on how tires are built from scratch. I felt like I was back in school on a field trip.

At the Michelin Lauren Proving Grounds I also did my own testing of the MICHELIN® PRIMACY™ MXM4® tires and they did stop at a whopping 23 feet sooner in my wet road braking test against a major brand competitors tire*. Now let’s think about this…for safety reasons alone would you not want this tire on your luxury ride? In further wet driving on a tortuous test course with Michelin test driver and my instructor Sarah Robinson, who I podcasted last June on AskPatty.com, the competitor’s tires fishtailed and slipped around on the wet track and made me very nervous while the Michelin MXM4’s stuck to that wet road like glue. Sarah made me push both tests hard and it really made a huge difference for me, I was surprised at just how much safer I felt on the Michelin tires. I would be afraid to not have the better Michelin MXM4 tires on my luxury car on wet roads!

By utilizing the technologically advanced Helio Compound™, made with the oil from specific types of sunflowers, the Michelin Primacy™ MXM4® tire increases traction at low temperatures for braking and handling in wet conditions and has better overall performance in the snow.
Meeting Sarah in person and the opportunity to test drive under her instruction was a blast for me, she really knows her stuff. As the first female test driver at Michelin North America, Sarah K. Robinson is paving a new road for women in the automotive world. Robinson’s current responsibilities as a subjective test driver for Michelin include evaluating tire performance in both objective (e.g., wet braking) and subjective tests (e.g., wet and dry handling, noise) then delivering her results to Michelin’s designers and engineers to ensure the best possible tire is brought to market. She also develops and coordinates all visitor demonstrations, product launches and promotional activities occurring at Michelin’s test track, Laurens Proving Grounds (LPG) in Greenville, South Carolina.
A diverse workforce is a more competitive workforce, and Michelin employs many women in a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Michelin has dedicated itself to satisfying its customers. In fact, Michelin believes that the customer is the source and goal of everything that it does. Respect for customers, shareholders, people, the environment, and facts are the cornerstone of Michelin’s values.

The Michelin Primacy™ MXM4® will eventually replace the highly successful Michelin Pilot® MXM4® tire that has been extremely successful with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), having 425 model-year fitments over the last 10 years.  

Currently, the all-new Michelin Primacy™ MXM4® tire has seven original equipment fitments on the road:

•    2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Sedan
•    2010 Mercedes-Benz E550 Sedan
•    2010 Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe
•    2010 Mercedes-Benz E550 Coupe
•    2011 Infiniti M37
•    2011 Infiniti M56
•    2009 Buick Lacrosse

Available to consumers in North America July 1, 2010, the Michelin Primacy™ MXM4® tire will offer 13 replacement market sizes with rim diameters ranging from 16- to 19-inch.  You can find an AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly® Michelin tire dealer near you here. For more information on specific sizing, please visit www.michelinman.com.

Watch the video here:

For fun I am also including some summer road trip resources for you from the new Michelin Travel & Lifestyle division is the Michelin travel collection, a leading source of maps and guides designed to inspire consumers to experience new destinations, explore and eat with confidence. This collection includes the famed, century-old Michelin Guide to restaurants and hotels worldwide, which sets an international standard for excellence in dining and accommodations. The Michelin Green Guide, which features detailed touring content that is unrivaled in its breadth and depth of information, is also part of the collection along with the Michelin ‘Must Sees’ Guide for weekend trips to major destinations. Michelin’s maps and atlases offer unique usability and feature the expertise of Michelin’s in-house cartography team. 

The Michelin Travel Collection

This trusted collection of travel resources includes: 

•    The Michelin Guide to hotels and restaurants
•    The Michelin Green Guide
•    The Michelin “Must Sees” Guide
•    Road atlases
•    Maps

The travel collection also features ViaMichelin.com, a top European web site for mapping and travel planning. Michelin maps and guides are sold in most independent and chain bookstores nationwide as well as most online book and map retailers. The Michelin Guide collection in North America currently includes the Michelin Guide New York City and the Michelin Guide San Francisco, Bay Area & Wine Country.

This entry was posted on 22. June 2010 at 07:12 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.