Has anyone had a bad experience with auto tires made in China?

It would seem your new Michelins may have also been made in China.

So I don’t think you can judge the quality of a tire strictly on where it was made. If you’re unhappy with them, that makes sense, if you want to “buy American”, that makes sense, but now China makes a lot of high quality products to go with the “fast and cheap” products they’re traditionally known for so it doesn’t make sense to get rid of them just because they were made there.

As for the actual question, the only tires I’ve ever been disappointed in are the ones I kept on my car too long. So, for me at least, I’d go with the ones on the car until they wore and then replace them with your brand of choice.

Items made in China can be poorly made, and by the same token they can be well made. I would suggest looking up reviews on your specific tires to see what your luck is.

In general new cars come with middle of the road at best tires anyways (regardless of their manufacture location). Unless they have rave reviews I would probably change them out by 15k miles or so (sooner if they really suck).

Original equipment tires are no different that the ones you go to the Tire store to buy.
There is tread life rating and unless there is alignment issues or you drive like a maniac, you should get pretty close to that rating.
I got 120,000 miles out of a pair of Michelin MX’s that were made god knows where.
As the above have stated, it is not about where it is made as most companies have established facilities to do all or part of the manufacturing. It’s about the quality of the design and product.
As much as we don’t like the concept, we are in a world economy and corporations have been offshoring for decades.
Keep a close eye on them and make certain your spare is ready for action.

I base my opinion of a product more on the reputation of the manufacturer than on it’s country of origin. Many of the worst products I’ve had of various types were made here in the US, so going by where it is made can actually be dangerous, depending on what we are talking about.

That said, I have yet to hear of a high-quality tire maker from China; the best tires seem to be mostly from Japan (Sumitomo(Dunlop), Falken, Toyo, Yokohama. Bridgestone…) while most American tires are actually rather mid-range.

On the third hand, where a company is based has no bearing on where their product is made, thus rendering it moot.

I haven’t heard anything bad about Chinese tires, but I haven’t heard anything good about them either. As for personal experience, it doesn’t matter how good something is; if I know there is better out there for a reasonable price then I will go for it. Accordingly, I have generally had Japanese or German tires on my rides.