Summer tires to All-Seasons

Hey all,

My MS3 currently has BFG sport comp2s on it which came on the car when I bought it. They have been fantastic tires overall and are just hitting the wear bars at about 18k miles of use. I don't really canyon carve as much as I used to so while I really like the grip these tires have I'm considering switching to a high performance all season for the next set. Currently Im leaning towards the Continental DWS 06. There is very little information comparing HP summer to HP all season tires so I really don't have a clue what Im walking in to. Is the traction difference significant? Will I be disappointed with their grip coming from the summer tires? Thanks

I had conti dws previously and went with conti dw this time around. The DW feels like it has more grip (they still occasionally kick up lose gravel, something the dws never did). Other than that, i didn't notice that much of a difference.

All-season tires are a compromised tire that try to do all things, but do not master all and are more for extending tire life. A good summer tire in the Max Performance category will EXCELL at both at dry AND wet performance and do so down to 40F. Id much rather use an exceptional performance orientated summer tire with shorter life than run a more mediocre 'all season performance' tire with a longer life.

If you want top level dry AND wet handling, Max Performance summer tires are the best daily driver tire category. If you don't mind having less than that along with a longer tire life, the performance all seasons could work. If looking at Continentals, I'd recommending trying out the new ExtremeContact Sport...one of the lightest tires made and, if the DW is any indication, also one of the best wet weather tires in existance. I'm running the DW currently and it has been the best daily driver tire I've ever run on a vehicle, would be up to try the Sport next.

Wet grip and handling is on par with its dry grip and handling and does fine at ~40F (ran them on my mom's corolla for a road trip through the mountains of northern Arizona/Southern Utah. No way I was going to run the baloony Michelin all seasons on it if I could help it - swapped my super lightweight FR-S wheel/tire combo onto the Corolla and it had never felt so good to drive a boring automatic appliance through mountain passes and cruise on down the interstate.)

I run the Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires on my CooperS. They have extremely good handling. Will they corner at the same absolute limit as the DW? No, but there isn't a lot of difference. I've got a set of BFG Sport Comps on my Miata. They'll corner harder than the DWS tires,too. BUT, I find the DWS work great in the wet and they're quieter,too. Depends what you want. If ultimate cornering is what you seek, stay away from UHP all season tires. I treat any all-season as a three season tire. I've yet to find one that works worth a damn in snow.

I have a set of the DWS06 Contis on my DD Lancer Ralliart wagon. I'm very happy with them. They stick well, even in our torrential Florida rain storms.

I have DWS06 on my e46 daily and DWS on the SAAB I'm selling, I like them quite a lot.

Im not looking for the best cornering tire I can find, I'm hoping for a better all arounder. The car will see occasional trips to the snow and I want to be able to put chains on and not be totally useless. Longer tire life would be a plus too. $700 every 18 months is going to get old. Im hoping I can gain these things with the Contis without giving up too much grip. It sounds like they should be fine for me

My Corvette was much better on low-rolling-resistance "eco" tires than on grippy rubber. The firm sidewalls kept the steering precision, and the reduced grip meant that 345 horsepower made it wild again. The car was better on dirt than pavement before the switch, so it was a step in the right direction.

I started a similar thread not too long ago, decent info inside:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/learn-me-high-performance-all-season-tires/126052/page1/

You'll be disappointed. Both in the summer and in the winter. You can't expect one tire to do everything decently.

Stick to the Comp2s for summertime and buy a set of winters. They'll cost you nothing in the long run (just a little extra up front for a 2nd set of wheels).

I was stubborn and used all seasons for 10 years. Now I'm a summer/winter tire guy. I'll never go back.

In reply to Blaise:

I think it depends on your situation. I've been a summer/winter guy for years, but when my current summers run out on my daily (Golf R), I'm switching to high performance all-seasons. Occasionally I might take a corner quickly in my daily, or have fun on an on-ramp, but ~99% of the time I'm just commuting in traffic. The extra grip that the summers provide come at a price: shortened tread life. At this point, I don't use the extra grip enough to justify the extra costs associated with low tread life.

Here in Colorado, we have plenty of beautiful mountain/canyon roads at my disposal and occasionally on a nice sunny day, I'm inclined to go canyon carving or head to an HPDE track day or an autoX event; but on those days, I leave my Golf R in the garage and take my S2000, which will always be equipped with nothing but summer rubber, as it's primary purpose is to be a fair-weather playtoy. My daily just doesn't need the extra grip, as it would just be wasted sitting at traffic lights.

While I agree that all-seasons will not give you the performance of a dedicated summer tire, if someone isn't going to be pushing their tires to their limits anyway (i.e. just commuting), it might be a waste. It all depends on the driver's intended purpose.

With that said, I plan on using a set of high performance all-seasons as 3 season tires; as I'll still be using dedicated winter tires when the snow starts falling. To me, that's one area where I will certainly appreciate and use the extra grip of a dedicated tire- when the snow and ice start hitting the ground. I think that's one area where the OP might really start to see some short-comings of HP all-seasons; depending on the winters in his area.

In reply to Blaise:

I agree with rononsoldier83 100%.

I, too, did the winter-summer tire shuffle for over 20 years. The moment I stopped DD my Miata, I "compromised" with a decent all season that comes on new cars.

They actually handle quite well (as good as good tires were 25 years ago) and handle ice and snow WAY better than I expected.

Sure, it's a compromise- it's a compromise to have one set of tires.

People seem to like the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3.

The Conti DWS that we had on the E46 work well, but surprisingly, the half-the-cost Sumitomo HTR AS P02 work excellent in every condition we've thrown at them. I have them on both the E46 now and the E38. Quiet, grippy in all conditions, and progressive breakaway when at the limits (which are pretty high). I've never really been an "all season" tire kind of person, but these have surprised me in a good way.

Great tires even in cold weather. And if it snows too much I always have the Suburban with 4WD.

I am running the Conti DWS 06 tires on my Lancer Evolution 8 right now. I guess I don't feel bad about the loss of grip in the summer because I feel good about the grip in the winter when the road is wet or snow covered. I used to run summer and winter tire sets. So I had to adjust to the car's dynamics after each swap. These tires feel very good in the snow and ice. Actually they feel better in winter than the old extreme winter biased all season tire they used to sell back in 2006. In the summer they are good but a bit squealy when I leaned on them. The squealiness went away after a few months.

I think if it as you are trading something to get something. Your MS3 will have different dynamics as it would even if you changed from one summer tire to another. This will just be more drastic. A word of caution you can probably try to maximize your on ramp attack with the all seasons to get close to the the summer tire performance but the wear will be more drastic on the all seasons if you go too far.