> >
 So far, both Sears and
> Costco, and
> > another smaller "non-official" tire dealer here have told me
> that Michelin
> > (Michelin Canada, I presume) won't sell them non-mainstream
> tires like the
> > MXT, the idea apparently being that the "official" Michelin
> dealers should
> > have some advantage over other retailers.

If you have question about Michelin tires and their Sears (or Cosco or
whatever else) counterparts, you might want to send an email to their
customer service department (they have a form available on
http://www.michelin.com/us/eng/mail.htm just for this purpose, they even
mention here that they "may need to initiate a real-time conversation" ).
I've done this twice and both times I received a phone call the same day
from a knowledgeable rep.  One of the times was related to a question I had
about the Michelin dealer version and their equivalent other market version.
It turns out they were the exact same tire with just a different name that
was targeted for a slightly different market (price sensitive buyer vs.
dealer only buyer vs. loyal Sears customer).  From my experience, Michelin
stands by their product so if you really do have some questions about their
tires, you might want to go to the source and ask them yourself.

Steve

89 westy