Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Michelin shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Michelin offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Michelin at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Michelin? Wrong! If the Michelin is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Michelin then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Michelin? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Michelin and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Michelin wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Michelin then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Michelin site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Michelin, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Michelin, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

This page is about Michelin tyres, maps and tourist guides. For Michelin Stars and restaurants, see Michelin Guide.

{{Infobox_Company |company_name = Michelin, S.A. | company_logo = ] | company_type = Public (Euronext: [http://www.euronext.com/trader/summarizedmarket/0,5372,1732_6834,00.html?quotes=stock&selectedMep=1&shareprice=MICHELIN&isinCode=FR0000121261&idInstrument=20987 ML) | foundation = | location_city = [Clermont-Ferrand | location_country = [France | key_people = [Michel Rollier (General Manager) | industry = Manufacturing and publishing | products = Tyres, travel assistance services | revenue = Euro15.59 billion ([) | num_employees = 127,000 (2005) | homepage = http://www.michelin.com -->Michelin (full name: Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) () based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne (région) région of France, is primarily a tire manufacturer. However, it is also famous for its Michelin Guide and Green Michelin Guides, for the Michelin stars the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, for its road maps, and for its historic emblem, the Michelin Man.

The tyre manufacturing subsidiary is officially called Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, "Michelin tyre manufacturing company of France". Michelin's North American headquarters are located in Greenville, South Carolina. The company-wide headquarters are located in Clermont-Ferrand, 424 km south of Paris, France.

Tyres History Two brothers, Edouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim. It took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred meters, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre and along with his brother, worked on creating their own, one which did not need to be glued to the rim..Michelin was incorporated on May 28 1888. In 1891, they took out their first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre.

Michelin has made a number of innovations to tyres, including in 1946 the radial tire (then known as the "X" tyre).http://www.senat.fr/basile/visio.do?id=a/commission/fin/Fin991120.html&idtable=a/commission/fin/Fin991120.html#toc18 This tyre was developed with the front wheel drive Citroen Traction Avant and Citroen 2cv in mind. Michelin had bought the then bankrupt Citroen in the 1930s. This tyre is still available for the 2cv.

In 1988, Michelin acquired the tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American Goodrich Corporation founded in 1870. Two years later, they bought out Uniroyal Inc., founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company, Uniroyal Australia had already been purchased by Bridgestone in 1980.

Michelin is currently the world's second largest tyre manufacturer after Bridgestone, although it was in first position in 2005.http://gestdoc.webmichelin.com/repository/backoffice/DocumentRepositoryServlet?codeDocument=292&codeRepository=MICHCORP&codeRubrique=CORP

Formula One Michelin first competed in the 1977 Formula One season when Renault F1 started development of their turbocharger car in the series. Michelin introduced radial tyre technology to Formula One and won the List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions with Brabham before withdrawing in 1984.

The company returned to Formula One in 2001 Formula One season. In that first year they supplied Williams F1, Jaguar Racing, Benetton Formula (renamed Renault F1 in 2002), Prost (racing team) and Minardi. Toyota F1 joined F1 in 2002 with Michelin tyres and Team McLaren also signed up with the company. Michelin's tyres were initially uncompetitive but in the 2005 Formula One season were totally dominant. This was partly because the new regulations stated that tyres must last the whole race distance (and qualifying) and partly because only one top team (Ferrari) was running Bridgestones and so had to do much of the development work. Michelin in contrast had much more testing and race data provided by the larger number of teams running their tyres.

Following the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where because of safety concerns Michelin would not allow the teams it supplies to race, Michelin's share price fell by 2.5% (though it recovered later the same day). On June 28, Michelin announced that it would offer compensation to all race fans who had bought tickets for the Grand Prix. The company committed to refunding the price of all tickets for the race. Additionally, they announced that they would provide 20,000 complimentary tickets for the 2006 race to spectators who had attended the 2005 event.

Michelin have had a difficult relationship with the sport's governing body (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) since around 2003 and this escalated to apparent disdain between the two parties during the 2005 Formula One season. The most high profile disagreement was at the United States Grand Prix and the acrimony afterwards. Michelin criticised the FIA's intention to move to a single source (i.e. one brand) tyre from 2008 and threatened to withdraw from the sport. In a public rebuke FIA President Max Mosley wrote "There are simple arguments for a single tyre and if boss Édouard Michelin (born 1963) is not aware of this he shows an almost comical lack of knowledge of modern Formula One." Another bone of contention has been the reintroduction of tyre changes during pit-stops from 2006. Michelin criticised the move claiming "this event illustrates F1's problems of incoherent decision-making and lack of transparency."

In [December 2005, and as a result of the difficult relationship with the sport's governing body, Michelin announced they would not extend their involvement in Formula One beyond the 2006 season.http://newsonf1.net/2005/news/12/dec14m.htm Bridgestone has since then been the sole supplier of tyres to Formula One.

The last race won on Michelin Tyres in Formula One was the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso benefitting after the Scuderia Ferrari engine of Michael Schumacher failed during the race. This gave Michelin a second consecutive List of Formula One World Constructors' Champions win with the 2005 Formula One season and 2006 Formula One season after Bridgestone's seven-year winning streak and brought to a total of four the number of wins for Michelin since this event's inception back in the 1958 Formula One season; Michelin's other wins were in the 1979 Formula One season and 1984 Formula One season seasons.

Recent Developments Pax System, Tweel, X One

Other products Tour guides Michelin has long published two guidebook series, the Red Guides to hotels and restaurants and the Green Guides for tourism. It now publishes several additional guides as well as digital map and guide products. The city maps in both the Red and the Green guides are of high quality, and are linked to the smaller-scale road maps.

Maps Michelin publishes various series of road maps, mostly of France but also on European countries, Africa, Thailand and the United States.

Online Mapping ViaMichelin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Michelin Group and was started in 2001 to represent Michelin’s digital mapping services. ViaMichelin currently generates 400 million maps and routes per month on its main website.http://www.viamichelin.com

ViaMichelin provides mapping and travel solutions for internet, mobile and satellite navigation products with street level coverage of Europe, USA, Australia and parts of Asia and South America.

Bibendum The company's symbol is Bibendum, (aka "Bib the Michelin Man"),http://www.michelin.com/corporate/front/templates/affich.jsp?codeRubrique=99&lang=EN introduced in 1898 by French artist O'Galop (pseudonym of Marius Rossillon), and one of the world's oldest trademarks. André Michelin apparently commissioned the creation of this jolly, rotund figure after his brother, Édouard , observed that a display of stacked tyres resembled a human form. Today, Bibendum is one of the world's most recognized trademarks, representing Michelin in over 150 countries.

The 1898 poster showed him offering the toast Nunc est bibendum ("Cheers!" or "Now is the time to drink" in Latin) to his scrawny competitors with a glass full of road hazards, with the title and the tag C'est à dire: À votre santé. Le pneu Michelin boit l'obstacle ("That is to say, to your health: The Michelin tyre drinks up obstacles"). It is unclear when the word "Bibendum" came to be the name of the character himself. At the latest, it was in 1908, when Michelin commissioned Curnonsky to write a newspaper column signed "Bibendum".

The name of the plump tyre-man has entered the language to describe the appearance of someone obese or wearing comically bulky clothing: "How can I wrap up warm without looking like a Michelin Man?".

In Spain, michelín Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. has acquired the meaning of the "tyres" or folds of fatty skin around the waist.

His shape has changed over the years. O'Galop's logo was based on bicycle tyres, and wore glasses and smoked a cigar. By the 1980s Bibendum was being shown as a running Bib, and in 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version became the company's new logo; his vision had improved, and he had long since given up smoking. The slimming of the logo reflected both lower-profile, smaller tyres on sport compact automobiles and a more athletic, slimmer, and trimmer Bib.

Bibendum made a brief guest appearance in the Asterix series as the chariot-wheel dealer in certain translations, including the English one, of Asterix in Switzerland. (The original French version used the Gaulish warrior mascot of French service-station company Antar.) The image also plays a key role in William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition (novel). Michelin sued the performance artist Momus (artist) for releasing a song about the trademarked Michelin Man.

French reggae band Tryo have sang about Bibendum on their album Grain de Sable. 'Monseiur Bibendum, il est vraiment enorme / Monseiur Bibendum, le bonheur en personne' - 'Mr Bibendum, he is trudy enormous, Mr Bibendum; happiness in person.

Michelin Challenge Bibendum The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is an annual major sustainable mobility event.

Management From 1999 the company was headed by CEO Édouard Michelin (born 1963). On May 26, 2006, Édouard drowned while fishing near the island of Île de Sein, off the coast of Brittany.http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/05/26/afx2776441.html

The death of Édouard Michelin brought a non-member of the Michelin family, Michel Rollier, to the head of the company.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114866900467864406.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

Trivia

References External links

Data

This page is about Michelin tyres, maps and tourist guides. For Michelin Stars and restaurants, see Michelin Guide.

{{Infobox_Company |company_name = Michelin, S.A. | company_logo = ] | company_type = Public (Euronext: [http://www.euronext.com/trader/summarizedmarket/0,5372,1732_6834,00.html?quotes=stock&selectedMep=1&shareprice=MICHELIN&isinCode=FR0000121261&idInstrument=20987 ML) | foundation = | location_city = [Clermont-Ferrand | location_country = [France | key_people = [Michel Rollier (General Manager) | industry = Manufacturing and publishing | products = Tyres, travel assistance services | revenue = Euro15.59 billion ([) | num_employees = 127,000 (2005) | homepage = http://www.michelin.com -->Michelin (full name: Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin) () based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne (région) région of France, is primarily a tire manufacturer. However, it is also famous for its Michelin Guide and Green Michelin Guides, for the Michelin stars the Red Guide awards to restaurants for their cooking, for its road maps, and for its historic emblem, the Michelin Man.

The tyre manufacturing subsidiary is officially called Manufacture Française des Pneumatiques Michelin, "Michelin tyre manufacturing company of France". Michelin's North American headquarters are located in Greenville, South Carolina. The company-wide headquarters are located in Clermont-Ferrand, 424 km south of Paris, France.

Tyres History Two brothers, Edouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim. It took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred meters, the tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre and along with his brother, worked on creating their own, one which did not need to be glued to the rim..Michelin was incorporated on May 28 1888. In 1891, they took out their first patent for a removable pneumatic tyre.

Michelin has made a number of innovations to tyres, including in 1946 the radial tire (then known as the "X" tyre).http://www.senat.fr/basile/visio.do?id=a/commission/fin/Fin991120.html&idtable=a/commission/fin/Fin991120.html#toc18 This tyre was developed with the front wheel drive Citroen Traction Avant and Citroen 2cv in mind. Michelin had bought the then bankrupt Citroen in the 1930s. This tyre is still available for the 2cv.

In 1988, Michelin acquired the tyre and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American Goodrich Corporation founded in 1870. Two years later, they bought out Uniroyal Inc., founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company, Uniroyal Australia had already been purchased by Bridgestone in 1980.

Michelin is currently the world's second largest tyre manufacturer after Bridgestone, although it was in first position in 2005.http://gestdoc.webmichelin.com/repository/backoffice/DocumentRepositoryServlet?codeDocument=292&codeRepository=MICHCORP&codeRubrique=CORP

Formula One Michelin first competed in the 1977 Formula One season when Renault F1 started development of their turbocharger car in the series. Michelin introduced radial tyre technology to Formula One and won the List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions with Brabham before withdrawing in 1984.

The company returned to Formula One in 2001 Formula One season. In that first year they supplied Williams F1, Jaguar Racing, Benetton Formula (renamed Renault F1 in 2002), Prost (racing team) and Minardi. Toyota F1 joined F1 in 2002 with Michelin tyres and Team McLaren also signed up with the company. Michelin's tyres were initially uncompetitive but in the 2005 Formula One season were totally dominant. This was partly because the new regulations stated that tyres must last the whole race distance (and qualifying) and partly because only one top team (Ferrari) was running Bridgestones and so had to do much of the development work. Michelin in contrast had much more testing and race data provided by the larger number of teams running their tyres.

Following the 2005 United States Grand Prix, where because of safety concerns Michelin would not allow the teams it supplies to race, Michelin's share price fell by 2.5% (though it recovered later the same day). On June 28, Michelin announced that it would offer compensation to all race fans who had bought tickets for the Grand Prix. The company committed to refunding the price of all tickets for the race. Additionally, they announced that they would provide 20,000 complimentary tickets for the 2006 race to spectators who had attended the 2005 event.

Michelin have had a difficult relationship with the sport's governing body (the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) since around 2003 and this escalated to apparent disdain between the two parties during the 2005 Formula One season. The most high profile disagreement was at the United States Grand Prix and the acrimony afterwards. Michelin criticised the FIA's intention to move to a single source (i.e. one brand) tyre from 2008 and threatened to withdraw from the sport. In a public rebuke FIA President Max Mosley wrote "There are simple arguments for a single tyre and if boss Édouard Michelin (born 1963) is not aware of this he shows an almost comical lack of knowledge of modern Formula One." Another bone of contention has been the reintroduction of tyre changes during pit-stops from 2006. Michelin criticised the move claiming "this event illustrates F1's problems of incoherent decision-making and lack of transparency."

In [December 2005, and as a result of the difficult relationship with the sport's governing body, Michelin announced they would not extend their involvement in Formula One beyond the 2006 season.http://newsonf1.net/2005/news/12/dec14m.htm Bridgestone has since then been the sole supplier of tyres to Formula One.

The last race won on Michelin Tyres in Formula One was the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso benefitting after the Scuderia Ferrari engine of Michael Schumacher failed during the race. This gave Michelin a second consecutive List of Formula One World Constructors' Champions win with the 2005 Formula One season and 2006 Formula One season after Bridgestone's seven-year winning streak and brought to a total of four the number of wins for Michelin since this event's inception back in the 1958 Formula One season; Michelin's other wins were in the 1979 Formula One season and 1984 Formula One season seasons.

Recent Developments Pax System, Tweel, X One

Other products Tour guides Michelin has long published two guidebook series, the Red Guides to hotels and restaurants and the Green Guides for tourism. It now publishes several additional guides as well as digital map and guide products. The city maps in both the Red and the Green guides are of high quality, and are linked to the smaller-scale road maps.

Maps Michelin publishes various series of road maps, mostly of France but also on European countries, Africa, Thailand and the United States.

Online Mapping ViaMichelin is a wholly owned subsidiary of Michelin Group and was started in 2001 to represent Michelin’s digital mapping services. ViaMichelin currently generates 400 million maps and routes per month on its main website.http://www.viamichelin.com

ViaMichelin provides mapping and travel solutions for internet, mobile and satellite navigation products with street level coverage of Europe, USA, Australia and parts of Asia and South America.

Bibendum The company's symbol is Bibendum, (aka "Bib the Michelin Man"),http://www.michelin.com/corporate/front/templates/affich.jsp?codeRubrique=99&lang=EN introduced in 1898 by French artist O'Galop (pseudonym of Marius Rossillon), and one of the world's oldest trademarks. André Michelin apparently commissioned the creation of this jolly, rotund figure after his brother, Édouard , observed that a display of stacked tyres resembled a human form. Today, Bibendum is one of the world's most recognized trademarks, representing Michelin in over 150 countries.

The 1898 poster showed him offering the toast Nunc est bibendum ("Cheers!" or "Now is the time to drink" in Latin) to his scrawny competitors with a glass full of road hazards, with the title and the tag C'est à dire: À votre santé. Le pneu Michelin boit l'obstacle ("That is to say, to your health: The Michelin tyre drinks up obstacles"). It is unclear when the word "Bibendum" came to be the name of the character himself. At the latest, it was in 1908, when Michelin commissioned Curnonsky to write a newspaper column signed "Bibendum".

The name of the plump tyre-man has entered the language to describe the appearance of someone obese or wearing comically bulky clothing: "How can I wrap up warm without looking like a Michelin Man?".

In Spain, michelín Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. has acquired the meaning of the "tyres" or folds of fatty skin around the waist.

His shape has changed over the years. O'Galop's logo was based on bicycle tyres, and wore glasses and smoked a cigar. By the 1980s Bibendum was being shown as a running Bib, and in 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version became the company's new logo; his vision had improved, and he had long since given up smoking. The slimming of the logo reflected both lower-profile, smaller tyres on sport compact automobiles and a more athletic, slimmer, and trimmer Bib.

Bibendum made a brief guest appearance in the Asterix series as the chariot-wheel dealer in certain translations, including the English one, of Asterix in Switzerland. (The original French version used the Gaulish warrior mascot of French service-station company Antar.) The image also plays a key role in William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition (novel). Michelin sued the performance artist Momus (artist) for releasing a song about the trademarked Michelin Man.

French reggae band Tryo have sang about Bibendum on their album Grain de Sable. 'Monseiur Bibendum, il est vraiment enorme / Monseiur Bibendum, le bonheur en personne' - 'Mr Bibendum, he is trudy enormous, Mr Bibendum; happiness in person.

Michelin Challenge Bibendum The Michelin Challenge Bibendum is an annual major sustainable mobility event.

Management From 1999 the company was headed by CEO Édouard Michelin (born 1963). On May 26, 2006, Édouard drowned while fishing near the island of Île de Sein, off the coast of Brittany.http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/05/26/afx2776441.html

The death of Édouard Michelin brought a non-member of the Michelin family, Michel Rollier, to the head of the company.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114866900467864406.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

Trivia

References External links

Data



 

Michelin



 
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