Continental DWS (245/40/18) All Seasonal Tire Review
Mar 23, 2015, 09:56 PM
#18
I had the DSW's twice on my viii. The first year or two do a fair job in the snow then it tapers off quickly. Best part about the these is they lasted me over 55k miles. Worst part is the sidewalls are very soft making handling quite poor. If you can get a second set of wheels for winter, go with a set of blizzaks, they are miles better than these in the snow.
Mar 24, 2015, 10:13 AM
#20
Evolved Member
iTrader: (31)
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Stavanger
Posts: 1,240
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
For an Evo, I agree that you should have a set of summers and winters up north if you have room to store and can afford it. All seasons kind of suck at both.
Sep 25, 2015, 11:11 AM
#24
Evolving Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Standing at the edge of the gene pool with a flamethrower...
Posts: 166
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sep 28, 2015, 07:48 PM
#26
Newbie
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I had a set of these on my Jetta Wagon - best wet traction I've ever seen from an all season, but I found the sidewalls were really weak. Blew a 1" hole in one tire on a gravel road and popped the cords on another in a pothole a year later.
Useless in snow, just like every all season. Thats what snow tires are for.
Useless in snow, just like every all season. Thats what snow tires are for.
Oct 9, 2015, 05:11 AM
#27
I don't drive my Evo X in the winter much but for those few days of the year when I plan things wrong and get caught out in freak winter weather they seem to handle a light to moderate snow without any major issues. I took the car out once in deep snow and it was survivable but you are indeed best off with dedicated snows for deep snow and icy roads.
Spring and Fall weather with cool / wet roads seem to do well for this tire, no major complaints. I wouldn't call them the best wet weather tire out there but they hold their own. They performed excellent getting me down to Sebring Florida and back to Rochester NY for a NARRA event last November and I didn't have to do any white knuckle driving like in year past when I was attempting to survive on summer tires through snow covered mountain passes.
Summer driving these do seem to have softer sidewalls than I would want, even with the 275/35-18 size I was running. Driving with these on more aggressive shock settings caused a really bouncy ride. One thing that seemed to help was running higher tire pressures in the 35-36 psi range and my coilover suspension dialed back with lower rebound settings seemed to keep the drive quality reasonable.
I did even take these out on a road course just to see how they felt at the limits, let's just say the first major downhill braking zone was breathtaking and not in a good way. The deeper tread pattern gave that disconnected feeling and despite the tires not even reaching the point where they would be squealing, It felt like the car was going to break away and crash at any moment with me nowhere even close to the normal braking pressure I use on intermediate let alone dedicated slick tires. Dry road handling wise they would probably fair better when towards the end of their life cycle with less than 25% tread left on the tires but at that point you are probably not going to find them useful in the rain and definitely not in the snow.
So overall they are a good 3 season tire for light snow and wet weather in Spring/Fall. For summer I'm sticking with dedicated summer tires in the 100-200 treadwear category as budget allows.
Spring and Fall weather with cool / wet roads seem to do well for this tire, no major complaints. I wouldn't call them the best wet weather tire out there but they hold their own. They performed excellent getting me down to Sebring Florida and back to Rochester NY for a NARRA event last November and I didn't have to do any white knuckle driving like in year past when I was attempting to survive on summer tires through snow covered mountain passes.
Summer driving these do seem to have softer sidewalls than I would want, even with the 275/35-18 size I was running. Driving with these on more aggressive shock settings caused a really bouncy ride. One thing that seemed to help was running higher tire pressures in the 35-36 psi range and my coilover suspension dialed back with lower rebound settings seemed to keep the drive quality reasonable.
I did even take these out on a road course just to see how they felt at the limits, let's just say the first major downhill braking zone was breathtaking and not in a good way. The deeper tread pattern gave that disconnected feeling and despite the tires not even reaching the point where they would be squealing, It felt like the car was going to break away and crash at any moment with me nowhere even close to the normal braking pressure I use on intermediate let alone dedicated slick tires. Dry road handling wise they would probably fair better when towards the end of their life cycle with less than 25% tread left on the tires but at that point you are probably not going to find them useful in the rain and definitely not in the snow.
So overall they are a good 3 season tire for light snow and wet weather in Spring/Fall. For summer I'm sticking with dedicated summer tires in the 100-200 treadwear category as budget allows.
Last edited by Hiboost; Oct 9, 2015 at 05:15 AM.
Oct 10, 2015, 05:44 AM
#28
Evolving Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Standing at the edge of the gene pool with a flamethrower...
Posts: 166
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dws 06
Ok so as you guys know Conti issued a new version of the DWS in May 15 called the DWS 06 for its 6th year of production. They're supposed to have 35% stiffer sidewall and perform 8-10% better all around in wet/dry and same in snow.
I went ahead on bought a set last week to replace my Pilot Sport A/S3 and I'll say I like them MUCH better than the A/S3 which were terrible tires IMO, and they do perform a little better than my previous DWS as I recall.
These DWS 06 out perform the A/S3 in every catagory except stiffness and harshness. They are a bit "softer" yet hold their traction longer and dont have the same sideways lateral "skip" on concrete that the A/S3 had.
These are near silent compared to the harsh roar of the A/S3 (which weren't as loud as the F1 Eagle), and soak up expansion joints inlike the A/S3 which had to announce every defect in the road with a boom.
Mine are Y speed rating for 186 mph which is more than enough for an Evo X. You can buy them in W rating which is 168 mph.
These certainly aren't track tires or for auto X but theyre more than good enough for spirited driving while commuting in your large metropolitan city, or for those long trips state to state.
If you want to go to the track, get a good dedicated summer or track tire obviously -
I went ahead on bought a set last week to replace my Pilot Sport A/S3 and I'll say I like them MUCH better than the A/S3 which were terrible tires IMO, and they do perform a little better than my previous DWS as I recall.
These DWS 06 out perform the A/S3 in every catagory except stiffness and harshness. They are a bit "softer" yet hold their traction longer and dont have the same sideways lateral "skip" on concrete that the A/S3 had.
These are near silent compared to the harsh roar of the A/S3 (which weren't as loud as the F1 Eagle), and soak up expansion joints inlike the A/S3 which had to announce every defect in the road with a boom.
Mine are Y speed rating for 186 mph which is more than enough for an Evo X. You can buy them in W rating which is 168 mph.
These certainly aren't track tires or for auto X but theyre more than good enough for spirited driving while commuting in your large metropolitan city, or for those long trips state to state.
If you want to go to the track, get a good dedicated summer or track tire obviously -
