Bis350n

I have put around 6,000 miles on the DWS on my IS350. They are very quiet and very impressive in the snow. I had no trouble making it through 4 inches of snow during a storm. Great investment

BLexodus

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info!

Anyone else have the DWS longer-term (30,000+ miles) and can attest to how they wear?

Thanks.

dmk08

I was going to order these and would be interested to hear how you like them. I was going to order them for my new Rims but two shops recommended I went with the new Michilin Pilot Super Sports instead... so I did. I know they could have just done this because they cost more but I've had PS2's on the car up until now and have loved them. I would have loved to save the $300.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

You can't really compare all-seasons to summer performance tires.

As I said earlier, summer tires will be significantly better than all-seasons in all conditions but snow... (and snow tires will be significantly better than all-seasons in snow).

dmk08

What about the DW? I live in Georgia so I don't have to worry about having an all-season tire. I was going in to buy those and was pretty much talked into the Super Sports.

sjgIS350

Not sure I agree that summer tires are better than all season tires in rain. Dry for sure summer is better than A/S. Unless you drive really hard, likely won't see any difference in day to day driving comparing summer to A/S.

I ordered these tires today..should get by end of week. We shall see how they do. Have to be better than the goodyear F1 a/s. 21K miles and gone...plus noisy as hell

OPTiK

I was looking into getting the DSW's too.. though I was thinking that I can probably get away with a more "summer"-y tire since I have AWD.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Then you're wrong.

acceleration, handling, and most importantly stopping distance, will all be better with summer performance tires than all-seasons in every weather condition above 35-40 degrees

(that is, dry and rain... summers suck in snow/ice/freezing roads)

When Edmunds tested snows vs. summers vs. all seasons they found all seasons coming in second or third place in every single test...(and I believe tire rack has done similar testing with similar results)

The all-seasons did worse than both summer AND winter tires in wet conditions (non-freezing) in handling, acceleration, and braking...

The all-seasons came in second in the dry behind the summers with the winter tires last.

The all-seasons came in second in snow/ice well behind dedicated winter tires.



All-seasons are a compromise that aren't great at anything... it's why I don't ever personally run them on cars I own.

AMONG all-seasons the DWS is a great tire... but compared to a dedicated winter tire all-seaons sucks in the snow (20% shorter stopping distance for snow tires vs. all seasons)... and compared to summer performance tires all-seasons sucks in the wet (20% better acceleration and 40% shorter stopping distance) and they're behind in the dry too (though not as badly... only 10% shorter stopping distance for the summer tires here).




While I agree you might not "care" about the handling and acceleration differences in most non-winter cases, I don't know anyone who doesn't care about shorter stopping distance.



Tires much a much more significant difference than drivetrain... a RWD car on winter tires will drive circles around an AWD car with summer tires in snow (or even an AWD car with all-seasons)


If I lived someplace that saw significant snow I'd be running summers outside of snow season and dedicated winter tires during snow season.

About the only time I can justify someone running all-seasons is either:
They live someplace that RELIABLY gets some snow annually, but only a small random amount for a few days (ie 2-3 days once or twice a winter), and/or temps go below 35 or so more than those few days.... for those folks it'd be dangerous to drive those days on summer tires, but keeping a set of winters just for that is probably a bit much to ask.

or

folks who live someplace they simply CAN NOT have a spare set of wheels/tires (like a college dorm or something)


For folks who never get snow and temps generally stay above freezing- just run summers... You'll get better performance 100% of the time compared to all-seasons.

For folks who get a real snow season and CAN store a set of wheels/tires someplace, get summers for most of the year and run real winter tires the rest... you'll get better performance 100% of the time compared to all seasons.








Haven't tried the DW myself... I'm running the Hankook V12s since they outperform the PS2s for about half the price... the new super-sports supposedly outperform the PS2s as well (by a larger margin) and from the numbers I've seen I'd expect the super sports to offer probably 10% or so better performance than the Hankooks, but at significantly more than 10% higher price.

dmk08

It's interesting to read that. I was going to buy the Hankook V12s at first but both of the places I asked told me it was no where close to the PS2. Butler Tire in Georgia (well respected) and Discount Tire. They both recommended the Conti over the Hankook as well.

flowrider

iTrader: (9)

I don't often agree with Kurtz, but in this instance he's absolutely correct

Lou

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

Well, they're wrong too

Car and Driver did pretty extensive testing of 9 different summer performance tires against the PS2... the Hankook V12 beat the PS2 in most measures, and did so at half the price.

To be specific:

PS2s were 0.1g better wet skidpad and 0.3 sec faster in wet autocross time

Hankooks were 0.1g better on dry skidpad, 0.3 sec faster in dry autocross time, quieter on the noise test. and most important IMHO- 1-2 feet better in both dry AND wet stopping distance

BLexodus

iTrader: (1)

Looks like a lot of people are thinking of getting these... anyone else with actual experience with them? Anyone with 20,000 + miles?

Thanks

dmk08

Yes I've read that article and agree with you. The "feel" is what they told me wouldn't be as good. I believe the article states the same. I really wanted to buy the Hankooks but I chickened out.

Kurtz

iTrader: (1)

It does mention earlier they didn't feel as strong as they were, that they 'felt soft' but I'm more interested in their actual performance, and that's why they were a pretty easy choice for me.





Anyway, attempting to return to topic a bit- regarding the DWS... they do offer a 50k mile tread life warranty, so as long as you're ok with the relevant fine print on it, you're certain to get more tread life out of them than any of the summer performance tires mentioned (but, again, you won't get as good acceleration, handling, or braking in anything other than snow)

my95tsi

iTrader: (2)

Well like i said before i'm on my 2nd set. The first set I had on my 2006 IS350 and I liked them so much I bought them for my 2008 IS350. Summer tires are great but if you live an area with mixed seasons all seasons are the best option next to buying another set of rims. To be honest on the street you're not going to be able to benefit fully from summer tires unless your wanting to take on ramps at 70mph. I ran my first set to just above 40,000 miles and they were almost done. Could take another 3-5k maybe. On my 2nd set I have just over 10,000 on them.