[obermd]

I'll be up front - I've never had a set of Michelin tires I liked. I was hoping GM had found some Michelins that were worth the rubber used to make them.

I just drove across I-70 from Denver to Columbus and these are very possibly the loudest tires I've ever had on my car. I've driven this route on Pirelli, Bridgestone, and Goodyear tires and the Michelins on my Volt are the absolute loudest tires I've heard. In some places they sounded like the tread was separating, in others they howled to a point it hurt the ears. These tires (and the Volt) only have 2,500 miles or so on them.

Other than this I love this car - it's quiet (when the tires aren't screaming), has a reasonable amount of power, and is comfortable to drive long distances.

Needless to say I'll be back here asking what tires people have been putting on their Volts when the OEM tires are ready to be replaced.

 

[v8318cid]

I can only imagine that there are substantial differences in the road surfaces where you are compared to here. I've put about 2100 miles on my '17 and have never experienced any issues with tire-related road noise. If I am not mistaken, even the first gen '13 I had performed similarly on Michelin tires as well. I'm more bothered by the incessant howling made by the pedestrian alert system than the tires. Maybe its just me though. Does the route you take tend to use more concrete roadways, as opposed to blacktop/asphalt, by chance? There isn't much of that here so that might explain my experience.

 

[trm2]

Are they the loudest tires or is it just that you don't have engine noise to drown out the tire noise?

 

[Dutch]

There are sound meter apps for smartphones... okay not the most technically accurate things ever but I'd be really interested to see what kind of DB ratings the OP is getting.

 

[jupitermoon]

I don't think it's the tires...I think it's the Volt itself. For an "EV" it's not a particularly quiet car. There is a noticeable chamber/boom effect inside the vehicle even on very smooth surfaces. Our i3 is remarkably quieter on the very same roads/surfaces.

 

[Dutch]

The two things that most reduced cabin noise in my '13 were a home-brewed rear deck (go ahead, buy a VoltShelf) and switching tires.

Oh and having the rear deck also did wonders for both heating and cooling the car (reduced cubic footage to heat/cool)

 

[MP81]

Can't say I've noticed my tires being loud at all - in fact, I don't think I've ever noticed them making any noise whatsoever.

 

[obermd]

I had a 2012 Cruze Eco Manual before the Volt. The Volt is a little quieter than the Cruze but the Cruze was quiet enough that the tire/road noise was the main sound you heard on the Interstate. When we were on asphalt the main sound was the 1.5 ICE engine. On concrete the tires were as I described in the opening post.

 

[MP81]

My Direzza ZIIs sound like all-terrain tires on the freeway, and sound "sticky" on asphalt at ~45-55 mph.

I'd say the Fuel Maxes are louder on our CTD than the Energy Savers are on the Volt.

 

[caronjeff]

I'm running Michelin Primacy MXV4's in 94V on my 2011 and consider them to be very quiet.

 

[obermd]

OK - so I'm resurrecting this thread. It was raining this morning and my Volt hydroplaned. I've never had a car hydroplane before. If I lived where it rained a lot I would already be talking to Discount Tire about dumping these road hazards. Even the FuelMax Assurance didn't hydroplane at the same speed in the same conditions.

I know I'm in the minority here but Michelins plain suck. I've driven on six different models of Michelins over the years - three of them were OEM and three were not. I haven't been happy with any of them.

 

[Mister Dave]

You might find this to be helpful: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=189

 

[Coppersnowboarder]

I bought Michelin X-Ice last year and intend to keep them on year-round in Colorado. No problems. No noise. Excellent traction. Good fuel economy. Driving at excessive speed may reduce fuel economy and affect rumble. I have also run with Michelin Defender All-Season tires with good results. I always liked Goodyear Eagle All-Season as well. If you buy an all-season tire, remember that you cannot come over the passes in a snowstorm without a set of traction devices in your Volt.

 

[obermd]

You might find this to be helpful: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=189

I'm a big fan of Tire Rack. One of the things I did when I picked up my Volt was measure the tread depth - it was about 8/32" and not the standard 10-12 32nds of an inch. This gave me a warning that I might not even get through the first winter with them - I replace my tires whenever they're less than 5/32" come September/October.

 

[obermd]

I bought Michelin X-Ice last year and intend to keep them on year-round in Colorado. No problems. No noise. Excellent traction. Good fuel economy. Driving at excessive speed may reduce fuel economy and affect rumble. I have also run with Michelin Defender All-Season tires with good results. I always liked Goodyear Eagle All-Season as well. If you buy an all-season tire, remember that you cannot come over the passes in a snowstorm without a set of traction devices in your Volt.

Thanks for the heads up with the Volt and the Colorado Chain Law. Since I stopped skiing (I-70) I haven't had much reason to hit the high country in the winter. What I'm debating is if I want to take my Volt off-roading. I took a Fiero GT and Cruze ECO MT off-roading but the Volt actually sits about an inch lower than either of those. I also had spare tires in both of those.

 

[Mister Dave]

I'm a big fan of Tire Rack.

Me too. I get a lot of good advice/information on their site, and the prices are good too.

 

[JRRF]

It's hard to compare anything to a Cruze. That's just a very loud car (tires, engine, wind, etc.)

I wouldn't blame the Michelins so fast. Michelin makes some of the best tires in the world, including specialty tires for some of the highest and fastest performance cars. In general, low rolling resistance tires make very little noise since they don't "stick" to the road that much. There can be some noise from the way the air flows through the tire grooves, but you usually see that from manufacturers who don't have the R&D budget Michelin does.

 

[JRRF]

OK - so I'm resurrecting this thread. It was raining this morning and my Volt hydroplaned. I've never had a car hydroplane before. If I lived where it rained a lot I would already be talking to Discount Tire about dumping these road hazards. Even the FuelMax Assurance didn't hydroplane at the same speed in the same conditions.

I know I'm in the minority here but Michelins plain suck. I've driven on six different models of Michelins over the years - three of them were OEM and three were not. I haven't been happy with any of them.

Any car can hydroplane, and it doesn't take much to make it happen. But there are many factors that affect this in addition to the tires -- weather, speed, road surface, water depth, etc. The Volt is not a particularly heavy car, and it's running on energy saving tires that are not designed to "stick" to the road too much. That alone will be a big factor in whether or not you hydroplane. If you drive the Volt the way you drive an SUV with serious rubber, you are likely to hydroplane.

In addition, when it has only rained a little bit, and it's not rained a lot in a long time, that initial rain floats all the oils in the road to the surface. Before enough rain has had a chance to wash all that oil away the road is incredibly slippery. You can easily hydroplane on a surface you may think is barely wet.

 

[JRRF]

if you want to experience a loud tire, ride in an Impala LTZ with the OEM 20 inch Bridgestone Potenzas. The Impala is a fairly quiet highway cruiser, but those low profile tires shine right through it.

 

[Insight Refugee]

Any car can hydroplane, and it doesn't take much to make it happen. But there are many factors that affect this in addition to the tires -- weather, speed, road surface, water depth, etc. The Volt is not a particularly heavy car, and it's running on energy saving tires that are not designed to "stick" to the road too much. That alone will be a big factor in whether or not you hydroplane. If you drive the Volt the way you drive an SUV with serious rubber, you are likely to hydroplane.

In addition, when it has only rained a little bit, and it's not rained a lot in a long time, that initial rain floats all the oils in the road to the surface. Before enough rain has had a chance to wash all that oil away the road is incredibly slippery. You can easily hydroplane on a surface you may think is barely wet.

Hmmm ... I've had my Volt in some heavy Florida downpours without a hint of hydroplaning. And while it isn't a heavy car in an absolute sense, it is heavy for it size/wheelbase.

I wonder if obermd had a case of ABS cutting out the regenerative braking? That kind of feels like hydroplaning. The old Insight was very prone to drop the regen in very wet weather ... very alarming. I have only had that issue with the Volt one time when I hit an unexpected rise while braking.

I will say that the OEM tires seem loud, but that may be due to the general quiet of the car.