Tire recommendation - Continental ExtremeContact DWS

[labatt]

Just wanted to give my two cents here... I've used a lot of different tires over the years (Michelin, Pirelli, Bridgestone, etc.). We're in the Northeast, and while I do have multiple sets of rims I'm sick of swapping them out year after year... so I wanted a good set of all seasons for both of our X5's ('03 4.4 and '09 4.8 with runflat). I hated the runflat noise on our '09 too.

We get a bunch of snow up here and don't like letting it slow us down. Rain can be hard during the spring/summer. I've never found a set of tires I love.. until now.

I bought a set of Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires for the '09. They are NOT runflat. They are not the cheapest, and definitely not the most expensive. They are a bit different as they have the letters "D" (dry), "W" (wet) and "S" (snow) printed on the tread. The idea is that, over time, the S will wear away and that means snow performance has degraded. Same thing for W and D (last to wear away).

This Winter we've been through a lot of snow. We drove through a blizzard in western NY and through a number of 10"+ snowfalls here in upstate NY. These tires are AMAZING! They stick better than my old set of Blizzak's. You actually have to TRY to get them to break free. Stopping distances are wonderful.

We also brough them through several heavy rainstorms and, once again, tracking was excellent even with significant water on the ground. Where we would have hydroplaned before, these tires just went right through.

Cornering is excellent. Not as good as full performance tires, but much better than my other all season tires I've used in the past.

Anyway.. just thought I'd share. I'm never buying anything different moving forward.