A good summer or all-season tire should handle heavy rain just fine. My Pirelli Scorpion Zeros are good and my old Toyo S/T's were fantastic in the rain. I have never driven a vehicle in the rain with as much confidence as the X5 on those old Toyo's. Among many other reasons, your winter's may have felt better in the rain because they are much skinnier than your summer tires.

Running winter tires in summer creates a dangerous situation as the heat causes them to become even softer than they were designed to be run. This causes longer stopping distances and reduced handling capabilities.

These charts are very helpful. However, would we say that unless you live in a place that has extreme winter condition, all seasons are the way to go? For example, I live in Phoenix and make trips to the mountains in the winter. I am wondering if it makes more sense for me just to get all seasons vs 2 dedicated sets of tires.

Maybe to you it is a perfectly acceptable compromise, but not to me, or tire manufacturers, or BMW, etc.

How long is summer where you live? How long does it stay over about 45 degrees? Half the year or more? If so, then half the year you would be using the wrong tires. By your logic, if I live in an area that only sees freezing temperatures about 3 or 4 months, then summer tires are a perfectly acceptable compromise because temperatures are warm "a lot".

Absolutely. What are the alternatives? A year round Winter tire, no thanks. A year round Summer tire, no way. A good all season tire can handle all weather conditions well. Not great and not as good as a dedicated winter or summer, but good. I know you and I both wished they made the Continental Extreme Contact DWS in our staggered sizes and here is another reason. Watch this video to see how they handle winter conditions.

Video Center

I'd like to thank you fseth. I was looking to purchase the Continental Extreme Contacts DWS size 20" since I don't feel the need to have two sets of rims/tires for summer/winter use since I don't drive my SAV much in the NYC winters and this video just justified me purchasing them. Thanks for the video :thumbup:

FSETH: I think we need send a petition letter to Continental to make the DWS in our size haha!!!! I had watched that tirerack video when I began looking at the DWS.

No more comments, please do not infer things I have not stated, thanks.

You promise this time? :D

No problem. There are a few members who have these and have experience with them in the snow. So far, everything I have come across has been positive. You may be able to search out some of those threads and ask for more feedback. I just got some on my e36. So far so good, but I have very limited mileage and all of it was on dry roads.

AZX54.4, I hear you. Maybe we could get that going. The all season choices are pretty slim for the 4.4 staggered setup.

Fseth: It is so true. We basically have two credible options in my opinion. The pirelli scorpion zeros and the michelin latitude HP's.
I wonder if we put some calls into Continental if we could make something happen?