Winter update:

Now that the first trip to work has been made in the snow, all I can say is this: these WILL be going on my car again when this set wears out. Not one slide, near-miss, or pucker-moment was experienced this morning. We had 2" of snow, but Tennessee is ill-equipped to handle it so the roads are always a mess (secondaries). Also, beneath that there was a thin glaze of ice, so if I had summer tires I would have been screwed.

The DWS performed beautifully this morning. They were super sticky at the Dragon, unshakable in the rain, super quiet on the freeway, and now they've proven to be planted in the snow.

AND, they're 35% cheaper than Michelin and are warrantied for 50K miles?!?!?!?

Love, love, love.

 

Thanks for the update. I'll be looking at a new set of tires soon as the OEM Conti's are just about worn out. I was not the least bit impressed with the OEM tires and Continental was not even under consideration. They wore out quickly, performed horribly on wet pavement, and were extremely noisy. I'm glad to hear about your experience with the Extreme-Contact DWS tires and will seriously consider purchasing them.

 

The trick will be finding them. From what I hear, it's back-order city

 

I just checked tirerack.com and the fronts are available, but not the rears.

 

Thanks for the info and the update. I've had mine on for two weeks now and really like them so far. Much quieter than my old stock Michelins. Haven't had a chance to try them out in any snow but they do handle rain very well. They do feel a little softer which I actually like because it takes the harshness out of small bumps in the road. I'm not worried about their summer performance since I know I'M the week link in the corners!

I apparently got the one of last pair of rears known to exist (?) and a snafu at the dealer ALMOST screwed up the deal. After much profuse sweating on the dealer's part, and a bunch of phone calls later all 4 tires were on my car. No one had any idea when the rears would be available again. I heard the last back order lasted 4 months.

 

Just make sure you order them long before you need them... they were unavailable last month when I needed tires... but so far, the Hankooks are impressive, my car is STUCK to the road in the turns now and handles a lot better overall.


(Oops, talking about the Red Roadster here.)

 

Not to worry. My car is sitting idle again this winter (probably for the last time) and I'm not desperate for tires. Yet. My only concern with the DWS tires is just how long it will take for the "S" to wear off. If I can find them and get them installed this spring, will there be enough "S" left by next November to make a difference. I owned a set of Blizzack's that I ran on my previous car for eight or nine winters, but I'm certain that the special "extra sticky" rubber was worn off after the first couple of years. I wonder if the DWS tires will turn into DW's too quickly.

I have stock suspension and wonder whether or not there is any advantage to my going to 225/40/18 tires on the front as opposed to the 235/40/18's that are recommended by Tire Rack.

 

^^ A valid concern. I can say with certainty that my rears are "DW" only at this point, while the fronts still have a faint "S" showing, indicating enough traction for the slick stuff.

Putting them on before the fall Dragon meet didn't help, nor did three straight months of 90°+ temperatures mixed with high-speed daily commutes to work.

Ignoring the maniacal driving I did on the dragon, the temps, and high-speed runs, I can say it would take your AVERAGE Crossfire 15K miles to wear off the S, thus rendering it a DS tire.

It only took me 10K miles, for what it's worth.

If your car is a daily, you'll be cutting it close. But if you drive it every so often, you should have more than enough healthy tread left when next fall arrives.

 

hey John, not sure when you put these shoes on, but in 10K you're at DW as the S is almost gone, huh? So how will this affect your 50K warranty, and idea? Is there any all season out there that will hold up on the Cross for at least 35K? I have 26K on my OEM's, Conti, and in our first little snow I was losing traction pretty fast. They're down to maybe 4/32 in the rears, so I figured I'd get most of the summer next out of them. On the other hand, I'm generally putting on about 7K max a year due to being able to commute as much as I do on the bike, so if I can get 4 years out of them I guess that's more useful a measurement than mileage alone. the interesting thing is that on my Explorer I had Michelin LTX's and got about 100K out of them which to me was unbelievably good, never saw that before.

 

The warranty works on a pro-rated basis. So, if you eat the tires in 30K, they have some formula in place to help you recoup a small portion of the cost. Either way, they'll be making their money. I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that I will be testing that warranty, especially on the rears.

Keep in mind that their "grading" for their own tires is a bit like Jiffy Lubes recommendation for every driver in America to change their oil religiously every 3,000 miles. As we all know, that's a bit aggressive because most owners manuals recommend 5K. In ours, it's an even larger interval. The recommendation for every 3K is in place for revenue.

Why am I saying all of this? Because I drove my now "DW" tires in the snow a week or so ago, and had zero issues. I'm sure the tires would've been sticky enough to do a 1/4 mile run if they were still at DWS wear-levels.

Now, when I get down to just the "D", then I'll have to get a little lighter on the pedal. The tread pattern simply bites the road, at any depth. I'm still very pleased with them.

 

Ressurecting an old thread, but just giving a current FYI on these tires. I went to Discount Tire this AM, with the intention of getting these Conti's. Their website stated that the rears (255/35/19) probably need to be ordered, and stated usually available within a couple of days. I had researched the best I could about "new" tires before finding this thread, and now more convinced this is the tire I want. Be that as it may, I posted recently, that I was going to get new tires before my CAA trip to Colorado this July, and offered my old Conti tires to the first reply. I got that reply and talked to the member and told him I figured within 2 weeks, and he could p/u my old ones from the shop, when installing the new ones. So far so good! The situation is this. The rears (255/35/19) are again on national back order, and may be months before being available. That's the bad news ..... The good news, is that my existing tires on all four corners have 7/32nds left, and still have enough tread that I can feel safe for the time the tires come in. They tell me that the new tires are 11/32nds, so better then half the tread is left. Hopefully they will come in sooner than expected, but if I have to use them to CAA/RM, I should be OK. Depending on how long I use my existing tires, the member who I talked to about the switch out, may or may not want them. He understands the situation, and we'll deal with it at the time. I just didn't want to discard them.

 

I have the DW's and so far they're leaps and bounds ahead of the OEM.

IBLUBYU, I have a complete set of OEM contis, care to pass along buyer info? I'm looking to sell mine.

 

mjgroves ..... PM sent

 

So, it's almost been a year, and the fronts are down to the DW (no "S" left) and the rears are simply D... I will most likely need to replace these before winter. IIRC I was in the high 30's on mileage at the point of install, and now I'm at 51,xxx. So, not quite the forecast 50,000 miles but they've sure been grippy the whole time.

I'll look at my invoice to determine the exact mileage-to-date, but I can safely say I'll be testing the pro-rated pricing.

Or, since I paid for the road-hazard protection from Discount Tire, I'm tempted to stab them and get them replaced for free.

But I'm a nice guy.

 

JHM2K ......Dont't be too nice a guy, you might have to stand your ground. LOL I questioned Discount Tire in Algonquin (Scott, owner/manager) about the 50000 warranty on these, and was told that when a cars wheels are staggered (18/19) the 50K warranty is not honored because the tires cannot be rotated back to front, only side to side. I read their warranty wording on the back of the estimate/order sheet, and there is no wording stating this. All it says is that tires should be rotated and pressure maintained. If all that they can do is side by side rotation, in my thoughts that should be ample. It will be interesting to see what you find out. Otherwise, I may try to contact Conti corporate, and see what they say. Let us know .......

 

I was told by my Ford dealer that you rotate them as they are for the car you bought them from, and that Conti will honor on a prorated basis the amount of wear remaining. they have to be below safety margins, ie: wore out at what mileage. then reimbursed on a new set at that point of mileage to the warranty.

 

I'm getting a set of these installed on my wifes BWM 328i on Friday.
Her car uses a 225/45/17 on all 4 corners.
Everyone still liking these tires ??

 

after about 5000 miles, still 9/32nds left on tread. No ... repeat... No road noise, and grips well in wet. Haven't driven in snow yet, but from what JHM2K posted much earlier, I have confidence. And with the same sizes on all 4 corners, they are warranted for 50K. Do it ........

 

With the same size on all four corners, you should be golden.

I've never been disappointed in the performance of the tires... Heck, I even used the remaining 4/32" front tires on my track day...

Are they perfect at everything? No. But, they are excellent at a lot of things.

I'm p!ssed at their "warranty" but I've never bought another brand of tires expecting help, so I'm not shocked to be refused help on this set. Just part of the joy of owning a sports car...

 

I have them on my MINI. I got about 34,000 miles of very spirited driving out of the fronts. They're almost bald now. I could have practically doubled my life out of them if I had remembered to rotate them. My rear tires look like they're new. (front wheel drive, of course)