Anyone have experience with this tire? I have a 2011 Sport AT and I love the car. But the OEM Dunlops are terrible. Gives a rough ride and I don't expect the tire to last long.

What can you tell me about the Continental DWS in terms of handling, comfort, and tread wear? How would you rate it versus various Michelin tires?

 

yea its a great tire. the grip is amazing and even in the rain it feels like the same amount of grip vs dry.the tread wear is also amazing compared to other tires for the fit. the only thing is when driving through a deep puddle at a 45-50mph has a tendency to pull the wheel to one direction. the're also extremely responsive during high speed maneuvers. if your looking for confidence in the twists and turns this is definitely the tire to buy.

 

I disagree with the tires being really responsive. I don't know what kind of tires you have drivewn on before but the conti dws is not a summer performance tire.

I have driven on the dws for about 8,000 miles and can report that the tires have great wet traction and are a lot quieter than the stock dunlops.

Since the sidewalls are softer than summer tires I have my tire pressure set at 46psi up front and 42psi in the rear. The higher pressure remedies some of the squirm and sidewall flex during hard cornering but I wouldn't recommed you go out and compete on tracks on these tires.

Overall the conti dws' are a well rounded set of tires with good (not great) traction in dry and awesome traction in the wet. The treadwear is rated at 540 so I'm projecting ill get about 45k-50k miles out of these tirez.

 

I had them on my HHR and while the ride was semi quiet and the traction was great in the winter they felt squirmy to me and grabbed every imperfection in the road.....and yes I agree...very soft sidewall

 

oh one more thing, expect to pick out pebbles that get stuck in the water sipe/tread groove frequently.

 

I thought these were good...On tirerack, it has one of the best ratings on there...hmm

 

Don't be misled by my comments. These tires are great. Just don't expect super sport handling. I've yet to try them through the mtn pass and snow so I can't comment further but, fo rthe money you can't go wrong with the dws for all season performance.

 

If it's a softer tire, does that mean you don't get such good gas mileage with the DWS?

 

there are a couple threads on dws and dw, one being mine.

dw's offer great traction in dry. mileage will dip if you upsize.

 

We purchased a set when they were on sale. They're not installed yet, so no experiences with them. We picked the DWS's because of the reported quiet ride, treadlife warranty, and good wet handling. It's often foggy and damp in the mornings and evenings, so wet traction was important.

The reviews on here have been good about both the DW and DWS. Seeing how you're in NC and might need some snow/winter performance, I'd pick the DWS.

 

OH I forgot to mention like others posted above, I did see a decrease in mpg on my HHR when the DWS's were put on..trade off I guess is the improved traction

 

How big a drop did you get?

 

On average I'd say 3-5 mpg....this was on the HHR so may not be the same on the Fit...

 

Anyone else see something similar with their Fits? Did their mileage drop off that much?

I'm looking at needing new tires with a trip to Colorado nearing and my stock Bridgestones almost bald (and one of them mysteriously leaking about 2 psi a week lately), and these are interesting to me. On Continental's website, it states that they have "an industry leading level of rolling resistance for better fuel economy." However, they don't get listed as a low rolling resistance tire on tirerack. But, they are quite light weight for their size--the 205/50/16 weights 19 lbs compared to 18 for the stock Bridgestone 185/55/16, so that would point to a reasonably small drop in city mileage. All things considered, how much should I expect my mileage to drop?

 

I would seriously consider getting tires slightly larger than the stock 185/55, and the 205/50 size won't really do that, especially if you will be doing any interstate driving. I just purchased 195/55-16 tires and I'm glad that I went at least that size, and perhaps 205/55 but I was still concerned about rubbing. From what I understand, I won't have any issues with the 195/55 size, and my goal was to get more tire. Had I been certain that the Yokohama tire of 205/55 would not rub, I would have ordered those. If you are concerned about mileage, then don't go to a 205 size, the 195/55 is probably a better choice in that regard.

 

Can this be correct? First, tire pressure should always be based on a cold reading, so starting at 46PSI is already approaching the max rating of most tires. As tires heat up, that reading will only increase. Second, that PSI amount will result in a rock hard tire, translating into a lot of road impacts to the front suspension and components, which will shorten the life of the front end. Regardless, where did you come up with the specs that 46PSI andd 42PSI would be a good idea? What is the max pressure spec on the tire sidewall?

 

I put on 205/50-16 DWS about 600 miles ago, really like them. Much quieter than the Dunlops. Maybe a 1-3 mpg loss, but I also put on some other mods that lead me to be a little heavier with the throttle in order to enjoy--SRI, exhaust, Swift springs... wet traction is much better than Dunlops. I got mine through Walmart online.

 

I went ahead and ordered some last night. I'll get them installed on Saturday. I'm excited. I hope I like them.

 

I just installed a set of the 205/50 DWS's and now have about 800 miles on them. They seem to handle fine and have been great on wet roads, but my MPG has taken quite a hit. I just finished a 650 mile trip, almost all interstate driving, and my MPG has probably gone down by at least 4 MPG. I used to get 40-41 MPG easily on such a trip, but now it's a struggle to get over 37. The decrease was immediately noticeable on the meter, and then verified each time I filled the tank. I'm not real happy about that. I'm running standard pressure (33 psi) and may try increasing it a bit to see if MPG will improve. I have averaged over 38 MPG for more than 31,000 miles, but it looks like I will never see that kind of mileage with these tires.

 

Sorry to hear about that...but I've mentined several times that I think the 205/50's are not a good choice as replacement. I think people are being fooled due to recomendations being made by tire companies, but those recomendations are most likely based on maintaining the overall diameter to OEM, thus keeping the speedometer unchanged. I think a better choice is 195/55's, which I just had installed yesterday. Just doing a quick city/highway trip I don't see any change to our usual 39 to 40 mpg average, but I need to do an longer test to obtain better validation. I also think the 195/55 are more functional from a tire size perspective. Prior to the install I had a chance to compare the 205/50 size with my 195/55, and I like the larger diameter for sure. Next time around I may go for the 205/55, but I know the chances of mpg going down is greater.

Somewhere there is an optimum size, for both tire functionality and MPG...I just don't think the 205/50 is it.