ponderosa

Are the 2016 A6 with Pirelli P7, All Season or All Season Plus

KnappAttack

Ive have the new DSW 06's on my A8, I would never put them in a high performance class of tire, they belong in the touring department. I run a 275/40/20 XL with a Y rating on my 8 with the air pressure jack up and they are very mushy at speeds over 85 MPH. Not very responsive and very floaty and vague feeling. Below 85 they are fine but no way a performance tire by any means. Overall I'm not too impressed and will not go back to the DWS 06 because of their poor drive feel. Perhaps it would be a different story with the lighter A6, I don't know. So that category does not mean too much, take it with a grain of salt.

I have new Michelin Premiers on the wife's A6 and am very impressed with them, and I think they are just a touring tire also.

Sportstick

Opinions certainly may vary:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=201

but there certainly may be hyperbole in naming tire segments. Perhaps they ran out of names meaning "better than ordinary"!

Among higher performance tires, there are:

Extreme Performance Summer
Max Performance Summer
Ultra High Performance Summer
Ultra High Performance All Season

So, with the compromise of coping with a wider range of temperatures, UHPAS are the "dumb kid in the smart class". Personally, I agree with Tire Rack that, in that segment, the Michelin AS3 are superior and as close as one can get to a PSS which can run below 45 degrees F, but I value handling over ride.

The bottom line, however, is that whatever you may feel about DWS06, they are not comparable to Grand Touring/Touring tires, such as the Pirellis mentioned above. Those may top their segment, but the segments are different and those are even softer.

snagitseven

I agree with your assessment. In the class, the newly designed DWS 06 overall rating is very close to the Michelin A/S3 with perhaps more focus on light snow traction and ride over a bit of handling. Interesting that they didn't feel any Goodyears were worth including in this UHP A/S comparison.

I have the 19" sport suspension and after three years of the crappy New England roads, I felt it was time to ease up on my gonads and give up a small amount of handling performance for a more comfortable ride. The UHP A/S DWS 06 is a great compromise for me. Still lots of fun, poise and confidence on the twisties and soon, a very good light snow performance in the class.

Maverick61

LOL, ok you believe the category hype.
Fact is in real world driving you will notice little if any difference in a UHP vs Grand Touring All Season tire. Because they are all season, there are compromises.

Now if you were making an argument about a summer UHP than you would have a point. Or if you were running your car on a track or living in Germany driving the autobahn. But real world driving in the US, the difference is minuscule.

I have owned UHP and Grand Touring All Season tires. I drive fast, corner hard on twisties, etc and there is little if any noticeable difference in performance in my daily driving

dwboston

I have the Michelin Premiers as well on my A6. They are great tires, much improved over the lousy stock Continentals.

snagitseven

Maverick, isn't that a generalization? You (more than) once called me out in the past for disparaging Pirelli tires as a whole based on my previously owned examples. You pointed out that since I had not tried the P7 it was wrong to paint the entire brand negatively. Fair enough and we agreed to discontinue the ping pong posts on that subject.

So, I have to ask, if you've not owned, say for example, the new DWS 06 UHP A/S, is it equally unfair to dismiss the category classifications as a whole since you have not actually driven that particular model or others in the class?

I will agree wholeheartedly that there is crossover in total performance and other characteristics between the classes as well as some marketing tossed in. I also agree that A/S tires in general are a compromise as dictated by their purposing.

At the same time, one would have to think there must be some credence to TireRack, other retailers, reviewers and the manufacturers for differentiating the classes by some measurement of design and performance, It can't all be just "category hype" marketing.
Civilly speaking, of course.

scalco23

Initial feedback on these DWS06s is that they're very hard riding. Only have about 200 miles on them but hope they soften/loosen up some at least.

snagitseven

Check your tire pressures. Mine are set just above the manual's recommendation (36F, 35R) and they are very comfortable even with my sport suspension and especially compared to my previous Pirelli P-Zero summers and Bridgestone RE970 A/S. Don't go by the door label - that's for MAX load of 5 passengers and a full luggage in the trunk.

scalco23

Ok. I went by door label with 38F and 41R. Whoops.