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[Mark963]

Are "Performance" or "Grand Touring" All-Season tires a mistake on a 328xi?

My 328xi never sees a track.

I know that winter tires work better in snow and especially ice, but in my situation, I really need a single set of tires for all seasons. I've been doing that for years and have found certain all seasons that work very well in the snow until the tread gets down to 4-5mm which might only be 20,000 miles.
Since I don't drive all that much, that's a few years.

I was thinking about the DWS 06 Plus. But reading all the Tire Rack and Consumer Reports reviews, tires like the PureContact LS seem to rated quite a bit better on snow while also being rated all-around very good. Are tires like the LS's really only good at highway cruising and not for spirited driving?

Thanks for your opinion.

[ATLIEN]

I grabbed a set of Michelin Pilot Sport AS4s last week. Had the AS3+ and loved them. Gave up little to the PSS at the time. The AS4s are a good compromise and give a slightly quieter ride than the AS3s and get the job done. My AS3s lasted for quite some time and but for a nail in the sidewall could have gone another 5k miles.

[stilesg57]

Had Conti DWS as my “winter/snow” tires for my ZHP when I lived in NC with mild winters that still produced several straight months of sub-40 temps I didn’t want to run max perf summer compound in.

Just got a set of winter wheels for my new-to-me E90 and randomly enough they have a used set of PureContacts on them. I’ll have to try them to be sure but just based off sidewall feel alone I doubt they’re even in the same league as the DWS tires.

[POBEP]

Originally Posted by Mark963

Are "Performance" or "Grand Touring" All-Season tires a mistake on a 328xi?

My 328xi never sees a track.

I know that winter tires work better in snow and especially ice, but in my situation, I really need a single set of tires for all seasons. I've been doing that for years and have found certain all seasons that work very well in the snow until the tread gets down to 4-5mm which might only be 20,000 miles.
Since I don't drive all that much, that's a few years.

I was thinking about the DWS 06 Plus. But reading all the Tire Rack and Consumer Reports reviews, tires like the PureContact LS seem to rated quite a bit better on snow while also being rated all-around very good. Are tires like the LS's really only good at highway cruising and not for spirited driving?

Thanks for your opinion.

My experience does not include track. It does include rough SF city roads, I-80 and US-50/88 in the Sierras weekly.

I went through 2 sets of ContiProContact SSR (RFT, AS) on E91 RWD (~50K each set). This time went with Michelin MXM4 (RFT, AS).

I like MXM4 more than Conti in the AS/RFT category for E91 & F25.

The E70 now fitted with DWS 06 (not DWS O6 Plus). Does decent job, but makes some noise. In a winter the Michelin XIce is incredible on ice - no AS tire can match it.

To sum up, I lean towards
- MXM4 as AS/RFT tire (occasional snow travel)
- PSAS4 as AS tire (occasional snow travel)
- XIce for dedicated winter use
- PSS3 as dedicated summer

[nsjames]

DWS is not great in snow.
had two sets.
live in lake effect snow belt.

[Mark963]

Thanks. The DWS 06 Plus is supposed to be somewhat improved from the DWS 06 in a number of ways including snow/ice and the DWS 06 was an improvement on the DWS. I'm not sure that a "lower performance" tire like the PureContact LS would satisfy in the summer months although they are rated better in winter conditions than any ultra-high performance like the DWS or Pilot Sport 4 A/S. So I'm going to try the DWS 06 Plus and hope for the best this winter.

[nsjames]

both my sets were 06 variants, but not plus.

[streetpro]

I have an experience with Pirelli AllSeason and GoodYear 4Seasons in R18 on Mercedes w205 - Pirelli was more quiet and had more grip on snow and on wet... grip on snow/frozen tarmac was ok...
however, I would still call them a noticeable compromise as the traction on wet surface is significantly lower than what premium summer tires offer...
I could bring the car on the edge of stability/drifting when coming on/off highway ramp... which is somehow amusing and funny but not always :-)

To sum it up> if you have no ambitions to go fast and/or to do some spirited driving, they are a reasonable compromise to save money/space/hassle... in any other case you will feel the down sides immediately once braking/dodging on wet...