bud4ya

can you guys provide me some feedback on a good all season tire. I have been looking around and what I came up with is the Conti Contact Extreme DSW. On the car now I have a set of aftermarkey 17's rims (234/45/17). I also have the 16 inch sport rims that came with the car. They have worn out winter tires.

I was going to buy 16" winter tires and put them on the 16's and run just summers on the 17's like I have now. But after some thought I was thinking of going with just a good all seasn since the car is a 2001.

If I go snow tires and summer tires I will be int it for probably a grand. If I go with just all season I could get out of it for $500. I guess I culd sell the 16" rims too.

So thoughts on a very gd all season that handles well in the summer but also has great winter traction? Will the Conti fit this bill? Frm what I read they are load.

Open to all thoughts

oilstain

In general, tires are all about compromise. Stick vs treadlife, contact patch vs water shedding, ect.

There is no magic bullet. By going to an all season tire you save money, but you lose out on both ends of the spectrum of performance. Summer grip will never be as good as with summer tires, winter grip will never be as good as winter tires.

Anyone who tells you different is trying to sell you something (or has been sold something)

Can you get a set of all seasons that you are happy with? I don't know, it's a matter of personal taste.

If you want people to take guesses as to whether it will work for you, please provide what extremes you will drive in (how much snow in winter, and how sportingly do you drive in summer)

jcman

There are good reviews and results on Tire Rack's website for a 17" all season for reference, keep in mind that tire compounds on winter tires are more pliable in cold temps for grip and will wear fast in temps above 50 degrees like a pencil eraser, summer compounds are hard for high temp road surfaces and the wear ratings go with the price, all season tires that have a good wear rating and tread design are up to the performance you need like wet grip, quiet and dry grip and then ice/snow. You see it's all a trade off with all seasons at one point and then there is the factory oem type to consider of Michelin that last for at least 45k if your not scrubbing the hell out of them in the wild turns off the main roads.

RMsALFA

I don't think you'll be sorry with that choice.

I still do the swap thing twice a year and wonder why. Probably because I have two sets of decent rubber still. The DSW are probably a little loud but I'm sure they are MUCH quieter then the set of half worn Dunlop SP9090's I run in the summer - those things make a real racket !

NJA642

I went from swapping Continental Summers (sportcontact?) with Dunlop M3 winters each spring/fall to the all season extremecontact DSW earlier this year when both my summers & winters were out of life & I didn't want to buy 8 new tires for a 10-y/o car.

No complaints so far... they are 'slightly' noiser & less grippy than the dedicated summer tires, comparable to other high quality all seasons. They did well in the wierd october storm we just got (16" total, drove around in ~6-8"). Not quite as good as the dedicated winter tires, but I felt confident; level of traction was very predictable and very good for an all-season. Haven't had them on ice yet. Treadwear rating was very high if I recall, something like 3x the sportcontacts I had before.

I'm happy w/ the decision.

Just Me

bingo. Full marks here.