plat27265

Awesome! Thanks snagitseven!

Inyoury

+1

I put 6000 miles on mine and they feel as good as new. I had a chance to drive in about 7" of snow a couple of weeks and I was very impressed. I also hit some black ice about a week ago going around a bend at around 25 mph. I slid a little but not as much as the Ford F150 behind me who crashed into the gard rail. I'm just glad I was going up hill and not down.

I have the 20" wheels with sport suspension and I also felt it quieter and softer than my previous 18" with P-zero summers.

tenspeed

They sound like a very good all season tire. How's the tread life?

snagitseven

Since they just came out this summer, it's too soon to tell. If they are as good as my old DWS (I traded my A4 with 40K miles on them and still had usable tread), I expect usable tread life should be between 40k-50K miles. Of course, like any A/S tire, as they wear down, snow traction starts to diminish before the dry road ability.

tenspeed

Thank you. That would last me for years. I'm looking for A/S tires for the 20" OEM wheels and I have snows for the cold months.

edit: As i was checking out vendors, I found the following about the "DWS" molded into the tread.

"In addition, it featured “Tuned Performance Indicators” — the letters D, W and S — built into the tread. When the “S” wore down, for example, the tire was no longer optimized for snow performance. When all three indicators disappeared, the tire had reached the end of its legal tread depth and needed to be replaced."

I found that they are selling a set of 265/35ZR20 tires for around $1225. TireRack offers free road hazard, discounttiredirect.com offers free shipping and the best deal (for me) was tirebuyer.com who offered free shipping to a local installation shop and a $20 instant discount.

Inyoury

Another thing I like about the DWS06 is that the tire sticks out a little past the rims, it protected my tires from curb rash the other day when parallel parking.

plat27265

+1. Glad to know that the rim protectors sticks out past the rims.

cram51

snagitseven,

Thanks for your detailed review! I just picked up (finally! - it's a long story) our A6 w 20" wheels and immediately noticed the OEM Potenza tires are a bit harsh on the comfort scale. I'll be ordering the DWS 06 thanks to you...unless there is another tire out there you all recommend if your preference is prioritized in this order - comfort, handling, tread life. It sounds like DWS is the way to go, I just wanted to make sure. I still would like an all-weather tire though. I look forward to the better ride!

Cheers!

snagitseven

The DWS 06 is a UHP (ultra high performance) classified tire so it will not have the "softest" ride available for an A/S tire nor will it have the handling capability of a performance summer tire. There are other choices out there to consider if ride comfort is your highest priority. That said, compared to other UHP A/S tires I've owned over the years, it it the best compromise between handling, noise level, tread life, bad weather perfromance and ride comfort I've had to date. The key word here is compromise - no one tire can have it all.

cram51

What tires are you referring to for ride comfort? I notice that the 20" wheel size limits the choices. Thanks for the help!