Why A Michelin Tire Option In 1998?

[J3Studio]

In the 1998 Riviera brochure, one of the options listed is:

 

    Tires — P225/60R16 Michelin steel-belted radial ply all-season blackwall

 

Does anybody have any insights on why Buick would have offered this (I believe) one-year-only option?

[J3Studio]

1 hour ago, NC1968Riviera said:

Bueller? Bueller?

[crickets chirping]

 

I tend to ask the unknowable—and, perhaps, the interesting only to me.

Edited August 2, 2019 by J3Studio (see edit history)

[1965rivgs]

  Michelin offered and had a reputation for high mileage tires which is not what new cars are generally delivered with. I would guess the marketing literature called them "premium" tires. I dont like high mileage tires because they are too hard and slippery in wet conditions. I`m also not interested in keeping a set of tires on a car for 60 or 70,000 miles...but if one was resigned to trade off a car at the 50,000 mile mark such a tire option might be a financial incentive

Tom Mooney

[J3Studio]

16 minutes ago, 1965rivgs said:

Michelin offered and had a reputation for high mileage tires which is not what new cars are generally delivered with. I would guess the marketing literature called them "premium" tires. I don't like high mileage tires because they are too hard and slippery in wet conditions. I`m also not interested in keeping a set of tires on a car for 60 or 70,000 miles...but if one was resigned to trade off a car at the 50,000 mile mark such a tire option might be a financial incentive

 

Thank you for the context. Seems somewhat strange that it was a one-year-only option. My opinions of Michelin are colored by their more recent market positioning in sports cars.

Edited August 2, 2019 by J3Studio (see edit history)

[telriv]

What I've noticed on Michelin tires is that they do VERY GOOD when new. As they get older they seem to harden & become slippery when wet.

[Barney Eaton]

 Seems somewhat strange that it was a one-year-only option

 

Maybe it did not sell........that is a major reason car manufactures stop offering an option.

[psychostang]

Sometimes its just an agreement so that Michelin can get a new tire to market.  The first 4 years of the LIncoln MarkVIII, it only had Goodyear GA tires that were made specifically for that car.  In 97/98 they offered the Michelin MXV4.

[J3Studio]

6 hours ago, psychostang said:

Sometimes its just an agreement so that Michelin can get a new tire to market.  The first 4 years of the LIncoln Mark VIII, it only had Goodyear GA tires that were made specifically for that car.  In 97/98 they offered the Michelin MXV4.

 

That must be it—Michelin was making a (another?) push into American luxury cars. I just checked, and the 1998 Eldorado also offered Michelins.

[1965rivgs]

Premium model = premium tire...Buick also did it with the Royal Seal tires and even farther back the triple whites

Tom Mooney

[1967 - 1997 Riviera]

My 1999 Silver Arrow came from the factory with Michelin tires. So I'm not so sure that they were a 1998 model year option only, unless they were just using-up leftover 1998 Michelin tires for the last, 1999 model year.

 

They were very good tires and I think the wear rating on the sidewall was the same as the Goodyear Eagle LS tires that were factory installed on my 1997.