So, after about 34k miles or so, my Conti DWS tires are about done (they're rated for 50k ). Of the DWS indicator letters, the S is gone, the W is starting to go also. I'm also pretty close to the wear bars. My tires will squeal if I so much as sneeze when starting from stop now. I have to be extra careful to avoid spinning my tires.

Of course, my Contis are on my Enkei wheels and I'm not really the type to sell or get rid of stuff, so I still have my OE wheels and three "good" dunlop tires. The fourth has a hole in the sidewall, which isn't fixable (at least with your typical tire shop).

I was thinking of ordering a single dunlop tire to replace the flat one and when winter rolls around, put my OE wheels with the crappy dunlops on and use them until they wear out. If nothing else, then I can finally toss the tires and store just the wheels somewhere.

But it got me thinking... what if I go with separate summer and winter tires? But... I have no idea what tires to go with. I really like the DWS tires... it's just, there'd be no point in swapping wheels if I use the DWS tires.

 

Thats easy.... Just hop on tire rack and find out what the highest rated summer tire for 205/50/r16 is. Thats your setup through spring-fall. For winter I would just replace you one dunlop and use the stock wheels....The caveat with this setup is that all the top rated summer tires are softer and will wear out faster than the DWS. How important is handling to you?

 

Oh, I checked tirerack like every other day for the past week or so. The highest rated tire in 205/50/16 is the DW with 8.7 (user reviews). But the DWS is already 8.4. And yup, tread wear rating is MUCH lower... 340 vs 540!

Handling...? Well... I don't really think I'm really going to push the handling on the Fit more than the DWS can deal with... mostly cause, I've already gotten a ticket for having a bit too much handling fun in one ravine by where I work.

I HATE getting tickets. Don't know how my friend can be so blasé about it.

Anyway, aside from that ravine, there really aren't that many opportunities to push the handling. I would love to go down highway on-ramps faster... but more often than not, I'm stuck behind some idiot that wants to come to a FULL STOP next to 70 mph traffic.

Well, I guess I'll just keep looking for something "worthwhile" as a summer tire. I mean, I'm giving up snow traction, so I'm looking for equal or better in EVERYTHING ELSE.

 

Try the new General AS-03. Ive been using there exclaim UHP for awhile on three of my cars. Excellent dry,wet, and snow traction even though it was a summer tire. They seem to know how to make a tire that's especially good in the wet.