Continental Tire Question

Have made the decision to buy Continental for the 550 because of the great performance on the 330. Only question is max performance summer or extreme performance all season. Anybody out there with experience? Southern Illinois, little snow in winter but not a big deal usually.

If you get any dedicated summer tire and us it in temps below 46 or in snow you are going yo have very poor performance. The tire is not meant to be cool and it was never meant to see snow. It's your car but I would never do it. I picked up my 550 in January and the next day(before I could get the TPMS installed on my dedicated winters) it snowed and I had to drive. It was a white knuckle experience and it was just in town driving. I could barely go and stopping required very long distances. If you don't plan on running summer/winters and you drive all year round, you may want to consider AS tires. This is just my opinion but then again I run summer/winters on every vehicle I own.

Thanks MRV99! Great advice, got mine in November and have no idea why I would drive anything else, enjoy!

I've never owned the summer Continental tires, but I do run a set of ExtremeContact DWS on my 545 as well as our Volvo. The ones on the Volvo are on it year-round and it's decent in the snow here in Denver. I do have a set of Michelin Pilot Alpins on the 545 in the winter because it's rear-wheel drive.

Anyway - in my view, for 99% of us, there is no reason to run Max Performance summer tires on our cars when these all-seasons are as good as they are. I never track my 545, and truth told, most of the time I drive like I want to keep it a while. But I have never, not once, felt like the tire did not provide enough handling, braking, traction, or anything that I needed. It's simply an excellent tire, and why give up on the all-season benefit for performance advantages in a summer tire that you probably will never use?

BTW - love your Titanium Silver M-Sport. I don't see many of those.

Thanks WJ, I would consider myself a non aggressive driver so your point is well made. Will go with all season, thanks again!

When my OEM Contis wore out, I replaced them with Michelin Pilot Super Sports. In my opinion, a far better tire, very quiet, stick like super glue, great in the rain. It seldom gets cold where I live (Southern California), so performance in very low temperatures or icy / snowy conditions wasn't a consideration. I've had them on about 15,000 miles of mainly highway driving, with a bit of enthusiastic mountain road driving every once in a while, with little or no perceptible wear on the tires.

Keith

Welty - sweet car! Just got a set of Michelin Pilots A/S +. 18" though. Very happy with them compared to the Dunlop Sport RFTs.

I bought the Continental DW, and after about 18,000 miles, the wear bars have been reached in the rear. They have been loud for the last 5,000 miles.

I have a set of Winters, and will probably go with Michelin Pilot Sports I believe is the model, when The Spring comes.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Bimmer App

Don't know if this helps, but I've been runnig he Continental DWS on my Scion tC for almost 2 years and I still have the DWS wear indicators. About 22,000 miles. They are very quiet and handle just fine for everyday driving.

I plan on buying them for my 05 545i when the Fusions that were on it wear out. I think Contiental came out with an Extreame DWS recently that are made just for high performance sedans.

I think the price is nice too.

I had dws on my last car which was a 2010 a4. Great tries. Still had wear bars after 27k miles. Will probably get the same when my runflats wear down.

Campfamily, Have Michelin SS on car now, were on when I purchased car. That is what I have been struggling with, I am somewhat non-agressive in driving habits and would be happy to get 25 to 30k out of a set of tires. My big pet peave is the noise, can not stand to drive a car with cupped tires. The Conti's on my wife's 330 have been quiet throughout the first 20k and that is what I was basing my choice on. Sounds like either one would be a great choice. BMWFAN275, thanks for the compliment and thanks to all who replied, it has been great help! Cheers!

Took my DWS off after 30K+ miles. S indicator was gone, W indicator was gone, D was visible. Running snows now Michelin Xi3, deciding what to do in Spring... New Pilot All Seasons for another 30K or DW Summer for 20K? My DWS cupped - may have been alignment issue. Have never heard any complaints about Michelin.

Originally Posted by WeltyRoundel

Campfamily, Have Michelin SS on car now, were on when I purchased car. That is what I have been struggling with, I am somewhat non-agressive in driving habits and would be happy to get 25 to 30k out of a set of tires. My big pet peave is the noise, can not stand to drive a car with cupped tires. The Conti's on my wife's 330 have been quiet throughout the first 20k and that is what I was basing my choice on. Sounds like either one would be a great choice.

Surprised you're having such a bad time with the Michelin's. My driving is mainly highway, and after 15,000 miles, almost no discernable wear. My Contis cupped in the front, which I agree with you, is very annoying to drive. One thing I'm planning to do is rotate my Michelins side to side to try to keep the cupping from occurring (figure the change in rotational direction will even out whatever cupping starts). Frankly, haven't had the time to go outside and do it, probably should have done it a long time ago. I believe the Contis are unidirectional, so you wouldn't be able to do that.

I'm thinking our cars are prone to cupping of the front tires, the same way they tend to wear out the insides of the rear tires early (although, my Conti's wore down very even in the back).

Keith

Campfamily,

Sorry for confusion on Michelins. I am having no trouble with them, they were on the car when I bought it and are probably 70% gone and quiet. Just do not know how many miles are actually on them. Plus a pothole got me last Saturday night and blew out the front right. Thank you Illinois for being broke and mis managed!

Originally Posted by WeltyRoundel

Campfamily,

Sorry for confusion on Michelins. I am having no trouble with them, they were on the car when I bought it and are probably 70% gone and quiet. Just do not know how many miles are actually on them. Plus a pothole got me last Saturday night and blew out the front right. Thank you Illinois for being broke and mis managed!

Having had both the Michelins and the OEM Conti's, I much prefer the Michelins. The Michelins seem to be much more responsive, and are definitely better on wet roads. But, I'm comparing new, unworn tires to tires that were cupped in the front, and very loud, so not really fair.

It's good to hear that your Michelins are still doing good after 70% of the tread is gone; hope I have that same experience!!

Keith

Hope you do as well, Thanks for all the advice!

I have Continental DWS on my 2008 550. I live in Florida (no snow!) but I still purchased the all season because of the treadlife. I don't drive particularly aggressively so the improved treadlife over the DW to me was worth it. However, it's worth noting that the rear tires lasted only for 10k miles before the inside was wearing out. Discount Tire tech said that was not normal for the tires, so I got a brand new pair on the back for free as a warranty claim. Since then, I've driven almost another 10k miles and they look fine...maybe the first set was defective. I'm sure as hell hoping they last a lot longer though!

The DWS is one of the quietest, smoothest tires I've experienced. I recommend them highly and they are also on my dad's Audi Q7 (20"), MB E500 (17"), and brother's Lexus GS350 (18").

Originally Posted by Dishoom

I have Continental DWS on my 2008 550. I live in Florida (no snow!) but I still purchased the all season because of the treadlife. I don't drive particularly aggressively so the improved treadlife over the DW to me was worth it. However, it's worth noting that the rear tires lasted only for 10k miles before the inside was wearing out. Discount Tire tech said that was not normal for the tires, so I got a brand new pair on the back for free as a warranty claim. Since then, I've driven almost another 10k miles and they look fine...maybe the first set was defective. I'm sure as hell hoping they last a lot longer though!

The DWS is one of the quietest, smoothest tires I've experienced. I recommend them highly and they are also on my dad's Audi Q7 (20"), MB E500 (17"), and brother's Lexus GS350 (18").

BMW calls for an aggressive camber setting on the rear tires that results in the insides wearing quickly. That plus any alignment issues you may have can cause the rear tires to wear very quickly indeed. Did you get an alignment around the time you had those replaced?

Had the DW on 08 535i and got 36K (mostly freeway miles) on the rears. Good life left on fronts, but they are cupped and tehrefore loud. Dealer replaced rears with DWS instead of DW (which frustrated me as I was so specific about the distinction) but I have thus far not noticed any perceptable difference. Here in Northern CA we don't really see snow unless we go to it, but that's what the Sienna AWD is for. Have not had it in the rain yet but I presume it will be much better that the white-knuckle experience the DWs could be.

Originally Posted by WJGreer

BMW calls for an aggressive camber setting on the rear tires that results in the insides wearing quickly. That plus any alignment issues you may have can cause the rear tires to wear very quickly indeed. Did you get an alignment around the time you had those replaced?

Yeah, I'm aware of the negative camber on most BMW's. I had an alignment done the day that the tires were initially put on. The tech said he hadn't seen a BMW chew through these so fast. I wonder if the spacers on the rear amplify the camber issue in any way. So far so good with the new set though.

Originally Posted by themust

Had the DW on 08 535i and got 36K (mostly freeway miles) on the rears. Good life left on fronts, but they are cupped and tehrefore loud. Dealer replaced rears with DWS instead of DW (which frustrated me as I was so specific about the distinction) but I have thus far not noticed any perceptable difference. Here in Northern CA we don't really see snow unless we go to it, but that's what the Sienna AWD is for. Have not had it in the rain yet but I presume it will be much better that the white-knuckle experience the DWs could be.

If you don't feel a difference in dry conditions between the DW and DWS, don't sweat it. As far as wet weather, I can attest that the DWS can handle the rain with no problems. I came from an Audi A4 3.0 Quattro, which cut through torrential downpours like butter. When I got the 550i, I was nervous about that much power in RWD with the factory Conti Sport 2's. After I switched to DWS, I got confidence driving in hard rain again!