Monday, June 23, 2008

Product rejections

A lot of people do product endorsements. Well, here are a couple of product rejections; one dead serious, and another tongue in cheek.

Dead serious; the low end "Yard Machines" lawnmower I bought from Home Depot stopped working after about 2-3 hours of use. Home Depot was good about taking it back, but do think twice about buying this made in China piece of....junk.

On the light side; if you enjoy shopping for tires and waiting for the technicians to get them installed, I do not recommend the Michelin LTX M/S for your pickup/Suburban, nor do I recommend the Destiny for minivans. I have 60,000 miles on the former with plenty of tread left, and 105,000 on the latter (despite tread warranty of only 80,000 miles).

Please; if you enjoy getting new tires, don't get Michelins. They'll keep you waiting, and you may even have the difficulty of deciding whether it's worth it to get tires that may well last longer than your car does.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's really good to know about Michelins, especially coming from someone from a northern clime. We burn through tires like crazy on our minivans, and I suspect we need to make this another "cheap vs. frugal" consideration.

Bike Bubba said...

Price comparison; about $450 for the Destiny vs. about $250-$300 for the least expensive, and as you hint, works great on snow and ice, too. (not a "Blizzak," but certainly not racing slicks, either)

Anonymous said...

Though it's good to hear that it "goes" on snow, I was thinking more of standing up to the ancillaries of the northern climate -- frequent freeze-thaw, potholes, pavement cracks, ice ruts, etc. (Though, I suppose, in Minnesota, freeze-thaw isn't as much of an issue as in northern PA. When y'all freeze, y'all STAY frozen. Then comes the Fourth of July. ;-))

Thanks for the info.

Bike Bubba said...

We've got our share of ruts & pavement cracks too....though less than places in the "Deep South" like Chicago, where they manage to get potholes when pouring concrete directly on limestone bedrock. Don't know how they manage to do that, but they do. I suspect it has something to do with the pattern of corruption that allows people to believe that it's appropriate to pour concrete at about half the thickness we use here in Minnesota, despite having some of the most heavily traveled roads in the world & those freeze thaw cycles.