I recently traded in my 08xS for an 09 G37S sedan and I will be switching over to Blizzaks in the winter. Driving a RWD in the snow is do-able with the right tires. Europeans have been doing this for decades. Problem is most people never switch their all-season tires for winter tires. I'm guilty of this also.

I drove my 08xS and my previous 02 WRX Wagon with all seasons. An AWD with all season tires will perform better than a RWD with all seasons. But a RWD with dedicated snows will close the gap and perform well.

Check out the Tirerack's test and videos for winter tires.
http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...let?perfType=W
Also snowcrossmxz I had a brain freeze and did not realize you used the Sumitomo's I posted in my earlier thread. Keep this thread open with info on the Continentals.

 

yup my point exactly,
but it will never close the gap completely. and if you put snows on an awd, well now you would have a tank in the snow.
i have the w300's from hankook, and they are AWESOME in the snow.


for the conti's i have ~200 miles on them. sofar every thing is good.
im going to hold off till i have +600 on them before i do a nice write up.

 

Review time:

So when I started this thread, I was going to compare the New Conti extremecontact dws to the stock Potenza RE050A.

My logic for that was because I figured every one would have driven on the potenzas as they are the stock tire for the S.

Well, in reality, its an unfair comparison because the Potenza are a ***** to the wall max performance tire, and the DWS are not. (This should be done with the DW, not DWS)

The DWS are an ultra high performance all season. A completely different class of tire.

But for the sake of giving some one out there some review on this tire ill continue.

So I got the 235/50r18 for the front and 255/45r18 for the back. It’s a nice fitment.

The tires are a little bit taller then the stockers because of the increase in with by 10 MM. this helps fill out the wheel well ever so slightly.

Next thing I noticed is the rear tires seem to fit the rim MUCH better then the stockers. They don’t have that stretched look.

I didn’t notice too much of a difference with the front tires being 10mm wider.

I'm running 36 PSI in them.

Dry:
Very good traction, their dry grip is not as good as the potenzas or the HTRz’s.
I chalk this up to the all season compound. But they still have very good traction.
They also screech like an regular all season when they brake loose. When they do slip, its easy to bring them back from the edge. With both the htr and Potenza, when they slipped, they went for a ride and took a bit to get them back to gripping.
The DWS are more forgiving at the edge.

I had one drag way run, and the 60 foot time was 2.001
This is good for the all seasons compared to the 1.9 of the summers.

I also have not noticed my slip light yelling at me any more then it usually does
(normal is once a drive usually)

Wet:
It has not rained at all.
It rained for 2 weeks straight before I had them mounted. Now there is no rain…..
Going to have to wait for this part 


Handling:
This is where you know u have an all season tire. The crisp steering response is not there with these tires like it was with both sets of summer tires.
There is a little more body motion in the corners. The motion is felt smoothly tho.
Its not like the tires work well, then the side wall gives out like a light switch.

It’s a very progressive feeling. The sidewalls give incrementally, which I like a lot.
It doesn’t feel like the tire is going to peal off the rim in a hard corner, but you can feel that they have rolled over a bit.


Noise and comfort:

Noise was lower then the summers, DB was ~72-76 at 40mph.
So they are a good quiet tire.

They are comfy too, they take bumps a lot better then both sets of summers.



I was messing around with the PSI on them and did a test run at 42 psi.
This increased handling, there was less body motion and side wall role, the progressive feeling was still there, there was just an over all less feeling of it.

Noise and traction stayed the same.

The ride was stiffer as you would expect.

It brought the over all feeling closer to the summer tires ride, but not =.



So over all I am very happy with them.
You get less performance at the edge and more comfort in daily driving.
That’s what conti seems to be all about lately.

I'm really looking forward to getting 40k+ miles out of them as well

 

Can someone with the lease return knowledge or experience chime in .... For a leased G35 is there a problem with turning the car in with these optional sized tires on stock rims? I mean will they charge you for new tires because OEM tire size was not on the car even though the tread was good? I am having second thoughts about moving to a non OEM sized tire for this reason.

I would appreciate any input.

Thanks

 

that depends on the dealer, call them and ask.

i do know that some other people on here have been told that the tires have to be in stock sizes, but they don't have to be the exact oem tire.

call them and ask, and if it is just stock size, i know where u can get the stock size tire for around $90.00 a pop.

 

please tell me where I can get the stocks for 90! are they brand new?

 

for less then 100 each

rear tires
https://www.discounttirezone.com/NAN..._438-3613.html


front tires
http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.p...ort=P&dsco=135


i didn't look at shipping tho.

but that still cheap

 

thanks man!

 

NP!

is this for a lease return?
, if it is let us know if they dealer accepts this

 

well return is not due for another 1.5 years... and I was considering putting on non standard tires with better tread life so I do not have to replace tires once more before return. But my online research is indicating that you cannot return it with NON standard tire size... they have to be stock size but can be any brand.

 

just keep the old worn out stock rubber stacked up in the garage somewhere. when it's time to return the car off lease, have the old tires remounted. problem solved.

amp

 

this will work, BUT ur old OEM tires can't be really worn out, or the dealer will charge you for their replacement, and im not sure what they consider is an acceptable wear level. 4/32 or 5/32 maybe.

 

the august 09 issue of car and driver has a good tire comparison. one of the strongest tires suprised me - Hankook v12 EVO's. all the tires were tested on autocross, skidpad and braking and sound level. all the tests were done on dry and wet pavement. among the suprises was a lower final result for the michelin pilot ps2's and 2nd place going to the Hankooks.