Is there a relationship between mileage warranty vs UTQG tread wear ?

Mileage warranty vs UTQG tread wear: So after downloading all the UTQG from all the premium tire manufacturers as mentioned over in this post, I started to dig deeper into the data and see how exactly the tire manufacturers label their UTQG values. Then it hit me, since UTQG tread wear can be taken as an expected mileage especially when it comes to the same brand, it should be somehow correlated to the mileage warranty that the tire producers give. The more mileage the tires can achieve the higher the theoretical UTQG wear values. I use theoretical as it is not compulsory to put your maximum achievable value and there is no marketing incentive like the EU label with regards to UTQG rating

As UTQG wear comparison is only effective if its the same tire manufacturer, so naturally I choose the best brand in the business Michelin. So what I did below is to pour down all the information I collected with regards to mileage warranty. If you are not from the US, you might think this is strange. Why do tire manufacturers provide a mileage warranty for tires? Surprisingly as it sounds, this was started by one manufacturer as a competitive advantage but soon it became a fear of missing out (FOMO) and in quick succession everyone has it.

The table below shows the UTQG wear rating and the mileage guarantee from their respective product page.

Brand	Tireline	Size	Tread Wear	Warranty (miles)	Traction	Temperature
Michelin	Defender T + H	All	820	80000	A	B
Michelin	X Tour A/S T + H	All	820	80000	A	B
Michelin	Defender LTX M/S	All except H rated	800	70000	A	A
Michelin	X LT A/S	All except H rated	800	70000	A	A
Michelin	LTX M/S2	All	720	70000	A	A
Michelin	Premier A/S	All	640	60000	A	A
Michelin	CrossClimate2	All	640	60000	B	A
Michelin	Premier LTX	All except	620	60000	A	A
Michelin	Cross Climate +	All	600	50000	A	A
Michelin	Cross Climate SUV	All	580	50000	A	A
Michelin	Primacy A/S	All except	540	55000	A	A
Michelin	Primacy Tour A/S	All except	540	55000	A	A
Michelin	Pilot Sport All Season 4	All	540	45000	AA	A
Michelin	LTX A/T2	All except	500	60000	A	B
Michelin	Primacy MXM4	All except	500	55000	A	A
Michelin	Primacy MXV4	All except	500	55000	A	A
Michelin	Energy Saver A/S	All except	480	65000	A	B
Michelin	Energy MXV4 S8	All	440	50000	A	A
Michelin	Latitude Tour HP	All except	440	55000	A	A
Michelin	Pilot Sport 4	All except	320	20000	AA	A
Michelin	Pilot Sport 4 S	All	300	30000	AA	A
Michelin	Pilot Super Sport	All	300	30000	AA	A
Michelin	Pilot Exalto PE2	All	240	25000	A	A
Michelin	Primacy 3	All	240	35000	A	A
Michelin	Pilot Sport 4 SUV	All except	220	20000	A	A
Michelin	4x4 Diamaris	All	220	25000	AA	A
Michelin	Latitude Sport	All	220	20000	AA	A
Michelin	Latitude Sport 3	All except	220	20000	AA	A

If you expand the entries, you will realize that some products over generations get better in wear. For example Cross Climate + has a UTQG tread wear rating of 600 while the Cross Climate 2 has a UTQG tread wear rating of 640. Same goes for Pilot Sport A/S 3 with a UTQG tread wear rating of 500 while the next generation Pilot Sport A/S 4 has 540. This is a signal that Michelin’s products are getting better in wear which is consistent in their marketing notes.

Now for the final question, is there a correlation between mileage warranty vs UTQG tread wear rating? The only way to really evaluate this is to plot the graph of mileage warranty vs UTQG tread wear rating as shown below:

To our surprise, it does fit quite fairly well. In a nutshell you can say there is a positive relation between these 2 variables and if you have a higher UTQG tread wear rating, you can expect a higher mileage warranty.

Mileage warranty, is it good?

So everyone is offering the mileage warranty but is it really in your interest or it is just a marketing gimmick? From what we have read & checked, the mileage warranty is pretty useless and here are some of the reasons why.

• You need to somehow not lose your original receipt
• You need to rotate your tires as specified in the fine print
• There should not be any irregular or uneven wear.
• It needs to happen before 5 years
• If you get it so far which is very unlikely, they will only provide you a partial credit to buy the same tire at the original price. Due to the competitive nature of selling tires, your credit is mostly just to offset the discount you could potentially get at your typical tire store.

So logically speaking, try not to be swayed by the prospective of getting a mileage warranty claim as the chances of this happening would be very slim.

Summary

We have shown that there is a correlative nature between the UTQG tread wear rating and the mileage warranty that is offered for Michelin’s products. While mileage warranty sounds very assuring, it is in fact useless and not worth being considered in your purchasing decision.