[s-cars] Tires

[calvinlc at earthlink.net]

Ian,

I currently have Conti Extremes on my wife's '01 A6 (225/55/16 - V Rated)
and I have a good friend who has the P-Zeros on his '01 S4.  My impressions
are that the Contis are more towards the snow side of all season with
absolutely awesome traction for all seasons in the snow, but not as good as
the Pirellis in the dry, so it kind of depends on which one you want to
slant towards.  I can tell you that through my research I have narrowed down
my all season choices to those two as well.

The funny thing is that my snow tires on my '01 S4 (V-Rated Dunlops) handle
about as good as the all-season contis.  All I can tell you is that the
Kumho ASX all seasons are downright dangerous in the snow, that's why I
wound up picking up the dunlop snow tires a few years ago.

--Calvin


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Ian Duff
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2008 9:14 AM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Tires


So, the perpetual can of worms, what's the consensus on tires? I'm in
the market for something that doesn't exist, good all season tires.

Don't start on me about dedicated snows, or summer tires being OK, as
neither works for me. What I'd like to find is a tire that works well
for the 99% of the time when there's no snow or ice on the road, but
is not dangerous on snow or ice. I also want something with a wear
index higher than the usual (near R-compound) summer tire.

I started my research at that paragon of tire knowledge, Tire Rack.
They list, test, compare and offer real-world reviews on a number of
what they call "ultra high performance all season" tires,
http://tinyurl.com/2jc7al
. The top entries are, in order:
Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position
Yokohama ADVAN S.4.
Goodyear Eagle F1 All Season
Continental ContiExtremeContact
Michelin Pilot Sport A/S
Pirelli PZero Nero M&S

Here's my so-called "thinking" so far:
I had Bridgestones as OEM on my 2000 S4 and hated them, swore never to
own another set. Should I reconsider?
The Yokohama and Goodyear have too few owner miles miles to have
credible reviews. Anyone on this list care to chime in?
The Michelins suffer from a weak dollar, are Wicked Expensive, and
can't be that much better, particularly considering how far down the
list they fall.

So, at first blush, it looks like I have the cheap Contis or the
expensive Pirellis to consider. The Contis are not offered with road
hazard coverage, maybe because they're near their end of life/going
out of production soon? Any reason I should spend another $43 per tire
and go with the Pirelli? Are there other tires out there I should
consider?

-Ian Duff.
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