Tires MICHELIN or Pirelli

The Cross Climate 2 is pretty much God tier in its class.   Do it.

The cross climates, although probably a bit more expensive, will wipe the floor with either of those 2 tires from les schwab performance wise. Significantly better in rain and snow, and will probably last much longer as well.

For me its the performance on wet conditions (rains a lot here) and the longevity. I usually get about 5-6 years off a set of defenders on both my GLK 350 and my Suburban.

Just replaced the old ones on my mk7 with the same, I’ve always preferred Michelin Pilot Sport, old ones were 3’s new ones 4’s, bit different tread design but still a quiet highway cruise.

Winter setup is Michelin x-ice.

I replaced toyos at the same mileage with the same Pirellis. Huge difference in handling, I was shitting diamonds with Toyos on wet roads in heavy rain. They hydroplaned like crazy. I have put 65k on Pirellis by now and still have some life in them, probably another 10k. Great tires. And they were less noisy than toyos at least in the beginning.

I also bought the Pirelli Scorpions. Well done, great tires, so much better than the stock Toyos.

Have the same Pirelli's

They are exponentially better than those stock Toyo tires

Ours wore out at 21k miles, handled okay in about 1-2 ft of snow and are awfully slick in rain. We put on Michelin cross climate 2s and have been on those for the last 4k miles and they have been great

Had the legendary Michelin CrossClimate 2 on my HiHy. They sucked in the heavy, wet snow that I drive in, especially when it's 4" deep or more... the tires just spin (Nokian WR's do better in this regard). Need to put into Trail mode to get unstuck. They are suited for after the plows come through.