I recently purched a new set of tires and purchased through Discount Tire. I went with the Continental Extreme Contact DW. I am very happy with the shock absorbtion that they provide but I think that is accomplished through a larger tire circumferance perhaps; the sidewall appears higher than the previous tires. Size wise, I did prefer the look of previous ones although they were a mismatched set (I think they were a combination of Continental and Nitto).

Anyhow, I wanted to get some input from some other members on here as to whether the set I have now was a good choice. I have a week or two to decide if I want to keep them and just want to confirm that they are a good choice. My choice came down to the Extreme Contact DW, ContiSportContact™ 5 P and Pirelli P zero Nero.

 

The DW & DWS are the only Conti tyres I would fit to this chassis. The Sport Contact range are all noisy & can become very noisy with wear on the W203 & W204 chassis due to geometry & selected bushing & elastomer hardness.

In my opinion the Michelin PS2 & PS AS2/AS+ are the best tyres you can possibly fit to these chassis but they are expensive & they are not a long life tyre. They are a reasonable life tyre for their level of performance. You can't have it both ways.

I presume you have fitted the correct aspect ratio tyres.

 

I currently have the DW's on my C300 and I chose PSS's for my brother's 335i. I chose the DW's for ride comfort, and the PSS for pure performance. I now realize that I could've purchased relatively competitive performing tires from Nitto and the like for much less $$$.

I feel like the sidewalls are pretty tall and yes, they do seem to help with the ride. I am very happy with them, and they grip WAY better than my previous stock all season tires.

 

I have Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 on my other car, and after having driven on them for about 3K miles now, through good weather, rain, and light snow, I feel they may be the best set of tires I've ever owned. And I'm one of those tire geeks that loves few things more than new tires (I've bought more sets than I care to remember).

 

^+1.....put them on our E, and will replace the Pilot Sport A/S+ currently on the C with the A/S3 at the next change.

 

Pleased to hear good reports on AS3. They are only available in limited sizes here because we don't really need AS tyres.

The W203 & W204 are so damn tyre fussy for those picky about tyres.

 

Are you sure??

 

Indeed I am

 

A couple of points for me to find a shot of snowy Cape Town so quickly, please!!!

Almost as fast as you took that selfie you posted in that "other thread" recently!!

 

If I may elaborate, the AS3s balanced perfectly, they stick like glue in ALL weather, and we recently had subfreezing 12F temps here in northern Virginia, and they did not flat spot at all after 4 days of not being driven. I am really impressed.


Our beloved c300 has Pirelli p-zero neros A/Ss, and although nice and extremely well behaved at high speeds (we recently took a nice trip to West Virginia), and I am not sure they are in the same league as the A/S3s.

 

10 out of 10 for finding a shot of snow in CT. Happens about once every 50 years.

We have a Mediterranean climate. Great for all our vineyards etc.