Skoda
(235/50 R19 W) on
mostly country roads
for 2,000
average miles
I put Michelin Crossclimate tyres on my new Skoda Kodiaq 4 x 4. They performed as well as the reviews BUT I have one observation that I feel you and your readers should be made aware of. If the car is parked on my (or other) gravel driveways the gravel will stick to the tyres. And I mean stick! The longer the car is parked the more the gravel becomes stuck. The gravel stays on the tyres as I reverse up the driveway and is then deposited on the roadway. The gravel is so well stuck that the car feels like it is going over bumps as the tyres rotate. The problem is bad enough for me to now go to the trouble of prising off the gravel each time I use the car! The tyres have done this since new (now covered around 2000 miles and around 6 months old) and the problem is present irrespective of weather conditions - it makes no difference if it's freezing cold, hot, wet or dry.
The problem isn't related to the gravel type in our driveway, it's a standard chipping used by the developer on our and neighbouring properties. My neighbours do not have the gravel sticking to their tyres - needless to say, they don't have Crossclimate tyres. Our other car (Suzuki S Cross All Grip) has Vector 4Season tyres on it and from brand new the gravel has never stuck to them. I also have a motorbike (BMW 1250GS) and it's soft compound tyres do not pick up the gravel either. I can drive the full length of our driveway to put the motorbike in the garage and not have a single piece of gravel in the garage.
So the Crossclimates are a tyre with excellent performance but also with a considerable flaw should one regularly park on gravel.