.
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Just had the DWS installed yesterday after replacing Goodyear Eagle F1's All Season after 50k miles which were badly worn out due to a bad alignment I had. The DWS are a little too soft for my taste but so far I'm happy with them. Let see how they'll serve me this coming winter.

PS. Have to go back to the place as my car still pulls a little to the right. Hoping just minor alignment adjustment.

 

Sorry to have to disappoint you, but I too had the Goodyear Eagle F1 All Seasons before the Continental DWS's and have found the DWS's snow traction to be no where as good as the Goodyear's.

As the production cycle of both of these tires progressed, the manufacturers obviously let quality slip. If I were buying new tires today, it would be either the new Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S Asymetrics or the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's

 

hhmmm..now you got me thinking. I wonder how exactly Continentals "60 day trail" would work if I I am not satisfied with it.

 

These tires are fucking loud too. I have them on my stockies and my 19" Nitto Motivo's are quieter.

 

What dies the new report say about UHP summer tires?

 

^^^Looks like only the G-Max was on the list.

Plus it was for all season.

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=124


Until you post up a real test of the tires a dot or empty circle is not going to sway opinions. Are there any numbers available on the tests they performed to come to those conclusions?

 

Not to dismiss Consumer Reports at all, but some of their conclusions in this one are puzzling. i.e. the winter traction on the DWS. Certainly it does not rise to the level of a dedicated winter tire (no all season does), but it does quite well for an all season.

 

I'm curious about this too, so I do wonder if it's just that quality has indeed decreased over time like DMZ stated.

I'm in northern Utah and with the amount of snow and horrible winter weather we get, my DWS tires are miraculous by virtue of the fact that I've never once gotten stuck. The roads here are so terrible that not even chains prevent people from slipping or sliding at times, and without anything added on my DWS have kept me safe.

Then again, I bought mine a year and a half ago so perhaps the quality was better.

 

In many sizes Conti changed from a standard load to extra load and some from W speed rated to Y. Other than that, i have not been made aware of any tread compound changes (which would be the most likely culprit for a decrease in traction since the pattern is the same).

 

That link you posted are Tire Rack's tests from over 2 years ago which featured some tires that have been out of production for well over a year now like the Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S's and the Bridgestone 960's. Here's the CURRENT one:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=177

BOTH Consumer Reports AND Tire Rack are in complete agreement with each other that the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's are now the de-facto standard for Ultra High Performance All Season tires.

An '06 TL owner's review from Tire Rack of these new Michelins:
This tire for the price just blew me AWAY.Ive owned corvettes, Nissan Z cars, and british MGBs and triumphs TR3s , and if I had these tires on those cars, I probably would still be driving them to this day due to handling, smoothness, quietness , and grip. these tires are the Bomb. Its a joy to get in and drive my TL every day, I have a special route I take in the mountains , and I drive hard for about 300 miles, and have never had the confidence in a tire until I put these on. I feel like I'm on a rail. Kudos to Michelin. Thanks for the fun
Fun FUN.

When the Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S's first got tested by Tire Rack right after they came out, Tire Rack gave them pristine reviews. During the 2nd or 3rd go around 1 - 2 years later, they referred to them as 'A Tire That's Lost Its Luster'

See what I'm getting at?
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.

 

That has more to do with the competition upping their game than the tire getting worse.


This is a great assessment of the A/S3, it is in fact a fantastic tire. Excellent steering response and dry grip. Wet traction is also very good. It has set a new standard. None of this however is to say that the DWS isn't still a good tire. The biggest demerits for the DWS are softer sidewalls with less steering response and a susceptibility to pothole damage.

 

I put on the Michelin A/S 3's about 10 days ago, best tire I've ever had. Last tires were Goodyear's and only lasted about 23k miles so hoping these will last a bit longer.

 

Killer tire, I am sure you will be pleased!

 

I don't see a date on that article. I'm assuming you're going off the fact that the Bridgestones and Goodyear's are no longer in production. If that is the case then Kudo's I didn't realize that.

Nevertheless it doesn't change the fact that the DWS still has the same numbers and still performs the same. Nothing's changed, the competitions gotten better. Which is great but I don't understand why that makes continental no longer recommended. It still excels in ride comfort when compared to Michelin.

Also lets not forget a set of 4 tires in the size 235/35/r17 in the Continentals ($556) cost 132 dollars less than the Michelin($688).

Is it worth that bit of performance? Depends on the driver but that's subjective. Personally I'd rather not spend that much and I like the comfort of DWS.

Is there anything else that proves that it isn't a good tire. I'm assuming that was the initial point of this thread. Is there something else that makes it unsafe?

 

I have been very happy with my DWS tires. I could not afford snow tires last year so I hoped and prayed that I had made the right decision on my all season choice. I put over 6,000 miles on my tires just during November, December, and January. I never once got stuck nor did I feel like I was ever losing control of my car. I also live in a ski resort town in Idaho.

The only complaint I have with them is the soft sidewalls. Don't let the Consumer Reports decision determine your decision on a good all season with decent snow performance.

I'm curious to see how the A/S 3 will do in winter performance tests.

 

So 2 weeks ago, I just got the DWS installed......

Then today I hit a small pot hole thinking it was nothing, but got me thinking since it sounded weird, like a little louder than usual. Then 1 minute later the TPMS started blinking and it showed the driver side front was losing pressure. I was in a highway currently on the left lane doing about 45mph since the right lane and the middle lane where merging to an exit on the right side and traffic was slowing down due to rush hour. So while crossing 3 lanes to get to the right side and another 2 lanes to get into the side of the service road at 6psi and going down fast with a slight pull, I consider myself very lucky. I was able to pull over to the side of a service road in front of some car shop.

I found the tire was punctured and was not repairable, because there was a gash near the side wall. So I asked the shop to install the same DWS. Now being that the tires are 2 weeks old and around 300 miles on them and from reading around Continentals warranty, the tires are covered for 1 year under the Road Hazard warranty.

My question is what is the process so that I can get reimbursed for the cost of the new tire?

 

The tire shop that replaced it with the same Continental tire should have handled that for you

 

I have Toyo Proxes 4 Plus on my S2000. Unlike CR's findings, it handles and brakes excellent in wet weather. Exactly why I bought them!

In addition, they seem to absorb road imperfections well and are VERY quiet for the performance.

 

I was hoping you weren't going to say that. When I was dealing with them yesterday, I told them I just got the tires installed a couple weeks ago so it should be covered under Continentals Road Hazard, But they kept saying we can try. I kind of knew they were fishy because when they quoted me for a tire, it was $60 higher than the previous place I went to which was MAVIS. But I had no choice since it was an emergency and the place location was very convenient because it was near where my tire lost pressure. Will let you know how it goes again dealing with them.

 

I have a new set of DWS' (second set for me) and the ride is fantastic and very quiet. There's been no change in the tire AFAIK and these will be great in snow just like my last set was.

I pretty much disregard CR for tire reviews anymore. Over the years, I've found their reviews to not be reliable vice my personal experience. Call it what you will, but I'm not impressed with CR when it comes to tire reviews.

If you want to totally disregard 31,000,000 miles of customers' reviews of the DWS for the paultry (by comparison) CR reviews, be my guest.

The DWS has dropped to #2 in the TireRack.com consumer survey results, behind the new Goodyear UHP tire, but the DWS has 31,000,000 miles reported vice the Goodyear's only 173,000. Give it a few months and the DWS will be back to #1 on the survey results...

 

There is a reason your car comes with a spare tire! Actually 60 reasons.

 

Agreed. I find Consumer Reports test results to be very inconsistent in general. It seems like their ratings are all over the place. They constantly test tire A to be better than tire B one year and tire B better than tire A the next. A few years ago they gave the Hankook Optimo H-727 the best snow traction rating of any all season tire they tested. We had tons of people come in and buy them. The first time it snowed a bunch of those people came back and returned them for Goodyear TripleTred's or Michelin Destiny's. The following year the H-727 was way down the list in snow traction, rated below tires that it had bested the previous year.

Not to mention, how the hell did CR come up with snow traction test results in the middle of August? Maybe they have snow making machines at their test facility?

 

I had those same sets of tires and the F1's were hockey pucks in snow. Scary terrible. The DWS were okay at least.

 

Want to bet they put them on some sort of indoor artificial test rig? That would be a very CR thing to do.

 

I don't know, but I do know they would not answer how they arrived at their treadwear test results. They did confirm that they do not run the tires down to the wear bar (or 2/32").