The Best Michelin Tires For Comfort, According To Consumer Reports

If there is one tire company that most see as standing above the rest, it is Michelin. The French tire company has been around since the late 19th century, and it has managed to keep its commitment to quality for a long, long time, even topping SlashGear's own list of the best major tire brands. Michelin similarly earns first place on Consumer Reports' list of the best tire brands, with four of the six tire categories in its "Best Car Tires of 2026" list topped by a Michelin tire.

Based on Consumer Reports' testing, Michelin tires perform well in a variety of different circumstances. Snow traction is a particular high point for nearly every tire model tested. One place where Michelin tires do not consistently hit high marks is in ride comfort. That is not to say Michelin tires are uncomfortable, but simply that they are only average in that regard, which is maybe something you wouldn't expect from the top-ranked tire brand.

Of the eight Michelin tires tested by Consumer Reports, only two received above-average marks for comfort. The first is the Michelin CrossClimate 2, a favorite Michelin tire for many. These are all-season SUV tires, and it is the rare tire to receive above-average ratings in all of Consumer Reports' metrics, from hydroplaning to rolling resistance. The other is the Michelin Primacy Tour A/S, which is a general all-season tire.

Consumer Reports tests the ride comfort of all tires on a 30-mile loop that features just about every kind of normal road condition one may encounter, from bumps and ruts to highway driving. While Michelin tires deliver fairly average comfort overall, one might reasonably think that some other brands' tires are more comfortable, even though they may have shortcomings elsewhere that result in them finishing below Michelin in Consumer Reports' overall ranking. Well, it turns out that exceptional ride comfort is particularly rare.

If you look at the test results from the other five brands that make up Consumer Reports' top six — Continental, Vredestein, General, Kumho, and Hankook — you will find that all have similarly average comfort ratings. Not a single tire from these top six companies earned a top score for ride comfort from Consumer Reports.

Some of them, particularly the general all-season tires, managed above-average scores, but none were rated as excellent. There were even a couple of tires, like the Hankook Dynapro AT2 XTreme and the General G-Max AS-07, that earned below-average scores, while one, the Kumho Road Venture AT52, even received the lowest possible score from Consumer Reports. So, if you were hoping that other top brands would be able to deliver on the excellent comfort that Michelin couldn't in Consumer Reports' testing, you'd be out of luck.