Are Hankook Tires Better Than Michelin? What Consumer Reports Data Says

While the cultural knowledge of tires can easily be adopted by big-name brands like Michelin, Goodyear, and Bridgestone, there are a number of underrated tire brands that can confidently stand toe-to-toe with them. Among them is Hankook, a South Korean tire manufacturer. According to Consumer Reports, this company ranks higher than both Goodyear and Bridgestone in its overall tire brand ranking, with Hankook tying for fifth place with fellow Korean tire maker Kumho. However, the publication ranks Michelin at the very top. That must mean that you should take a Michelin tire over a Hankook any day, right? Well, not exactly. When you look into how Consumer Reports experts judge these tires, there are plenty of ways that Hankook tires outperform Michelins.

Let's look at the two companies' top-rated all-season tires, the Hankook Kinergy XP and Michelin Defender 2. Both tires received the exact same overall satisfaction score, and they match up equally across every testing area except for two: wet braking and handling. The difference there is that Consumer Reports found that the Hankook tire actually rates higher than the Michelin in those instances. The Michelin does have the upper hand in tread life, though. The two tested all-terrain truck tires — the Hankook Dynapro AT2 Xtreme and Michelin LTX A/T2 — are similarly neck-and-neck, with the Hankook performing better in dry braking, ice braking, and noise. Hankook tires also have one of the best warranties on the market. Despite these expert findings, Consumer Reports consistently rates Hankook tires lower, largely because of its satisfaction scores from actual owners.

There are numerous Hankook tires that Consumer Reports experts have found to be high-quality. Six of the eight Hankook tires tested have even earned a CR Recommended badge of approval. While the experts are quite happy with what this company does, the owners surveyed by Consumer Reports tell a different story. With one exception, the owner satisfaction scores for the Hankook tires tested are either middling or downright bad. Even when the experts found two comparable tires between Hankook and Michelin, the Hankook tire is more than likely going to have a satisfaction score so much lower that if it were the only number you looked at, you would wonder why anyone would ever purchase one of these tires.

These owner satisfaction scores are not the most indicative of these tires' quality, though. Rather than being based on all the same factors the experts test, they are based on the owners answering "Definitely yes" to whether they would purchase these tires again, taking into account factors such as performance, price, and more. While it's great if a tire can get a high score for this — which the Michelin tires universally do — it takes a question that is non-binary and makes it binary. Someone who had a good experience with these tires but may want to try another brand is placed in the same bucket as someone who hated their Hankook tires, and Consumer Reports does not have a way to navigate through this nuance. While Hankook owner satisfaction scores are quite low, they aren't the be-all and end-all for these tires.