Bruce In Philly

Ok, winter tire time and I need to choose between these two tires. What do you think? N rating is not important to me.

For my C2S, I just purchased some used 18" rims thinking that 18" would give me lower winter tire pricing with more options. WRONG! Maybe my memory is failing, but I did the analysis last winter and well..... anyway, there are only two winter tire choices for each size on Tire Rack and the pricing is the same. But anyway......

So my choices are Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II $960.00, Michelin Alpin PA2 (N rated) for $1,146.00 and an all season Continental ExtremeContact DWS $736.00

What do you think? Philadelphia, light snow, slush but can be heavy snow some years. Good snow performance is the issue for me as I am into safety.

From my personal experience with snow tires, I will never buy a Pirelli. Please, let's not get into a flame war about this. To be fair, these are a newer model but my honest use of the last model was so bad in all areas of performance, Pirelli would have had to outsource their design and manufacture to someone else for me to even consider them. If you like Pirelli, then fine, let's agree to disagree.

So, the big question for me is it the expensive Michelin which I never tried, to the less expensive all season Conti. From Tire Rack's user reviews, it appears they may be the same performer in the snow but it may be apples to oranges and not a good comparo.

Opinons?

Peace,
Bruce in Philly

alexb76

Why are you cross posting? Isn't there another thread on this already?

Pirelli or PA2 both would be better than DWS for winter. What's the point of all-season if you actually change tire/wheels for winter?

As I said in the other thread, Pirelli Sottozero is actually really good, if you are biased against the brand, then get the PA2.

brad@tirerack.com

The compound of a winter tire is what is doing a big part of the work. A winter tire will do better than even the best all season when the temperatures a very cold because they are designed to stay pliable when frozen. All season tires have the tread design (mostly), but not the compound to stay soft. If you are safety minded, go with the snow tire. You won't be sorry.

Dartmouth

I live in NJ and the weather in winter is a mix of cold, rain and snow. Right now I have the Conti DWS on my 09 4S. First time with these so I'm not going with winter tires. The previous poster is right about the rubber being better when softer but I know the Conti's are softer than the Michelin or Pirelli's. I had the same Conti's on my Cadillac CTS Coupe and they were great in the cold weather.

MessyMarvin

Exactly if your going DWS that would be because you did not want to change, otherwise get Winters. I had PA2 on my Audi and loved them, the rode great in Snow, Wet, and Dry pavement.

Bruce In Philly

Thanx all for your opinions.

The reason I am interested in the Conti vs Michelin comparison is that when I read the user reviews on TireRack, their snow performance was comparable. I don't put much cred in them and these reviews highlight how you have to be careful but the Contis sure had some positive comments about being good in the snow. Conversely, some complained about the Michelin snow performance.

Regarding the "conventional wisdom of the 'net" the softer rubber compound issue sure makes sense but I have real experience to provide a slight counter to it. Some have said that using a winter tire in the summer will burn them right up due to the softer rubber. Well, my buddy adn I had the same year/model of Blizzaks on our cars when he moved to Arizona. He had about... oh 50% tread left so he said he would just burn them up before he purchased new summer tires. After about eight months, he just took them off due to the soft ride but they had plenty of tread on them. We laughed about how you could not wear these things out even in 100+ temps!

Regarding the Pirellis: my experience stands for me, I agree to disagree.

Regarding my cross posting: The topic of my other post was about 18" vs 19" availability and pricing. This post is specific to Conti vs Michelins and the topic line will attract different readers. Sorry if it is not to the netiquette of some.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

rcg412

Michelin. Use pa on all my cars.

pdt

I thought I would revive this older thread to see if anyone's thinking has changed on cold-weather / all-weather / snow tires for a 997.

My working assumption is that 19" wheels are the most common option (though I was convinced by someone there was a 20" solution which, ahem, does not fit...)

Conti DWS?
Michelin Alpin?
Pirelli Sotozero?

Many thanks...

-Paul

Dennis C

I've used both of the tires that you are considering, but it was on my Cayenne and not my 911.

There is absolutely no comparison. The Alpins are far superior winter conditions to the DWS. I believe that the Alpin is actually one of the best winter tires that I've had, although I'm quite fond of the Pirelli Winter SottoZero that I'm running on the 911 now....

pdt

I really like the Alpin but can't find them for 19" rims. Anyone know of a combination that fits the 997?

steve0827

I know you said you will never use Pirelli, but I'd like to add my recent experience for the sake of discussion.

I used the Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie II with the 19" wheels on my .2 C2S this past winter. The rears weren't the best size for snow as they were 295's, but the car still did great in all of the Boston blizzards we had this past winter. In order to give the front end a little more "bite", I did end up adding about 120lb of sandbags to the front trunk.

You're obviously most likely going to get stuck if you try to get through a foot of unpacked snow, but I rarely had any issues on packed snow. When I did, it was when trying to get up steep hills, but I always was able to make it up (I'd have to turn off PSM) and never once had to turn around.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed and plan on using the car in the winter again this year.


EDIT: Just realized that the OP who said they wouldn't use Pirelli posted this back in 2013. My mistake! Hope my re-cap is useful to others though.

Dennis C

I just caught that too!

3Series

I had the same thoughts. I've been swapping Summer/Winter tires for a decade plus. With my current and foreseeable driving habits, I was thinking of going All-Season DWS year round and track tires. My car is mainly a weekend/errand runner or track duty. I live in an area with very good snow management and if I only need tires good enough to get me home if I'm stuck mid-storm. Besides most of the driving public where I live are on all-seasons and they seem to do just fine. If I asked half my friends and co-workers about winter tires, they'd give me a blank stare and say something like "Umm yeah, I got the tires with the 60k mile warranty, I'm good to go....I even scored a rebate!" End of convo. LOL

Carmichael

I plan on driving the car this winter with my DWSs.

Not in the snow. Only if it's dry and relatively salt-free out (she's basically staying under her car cover until April 2016).

My past experience with DWSs on "lesser" cars, is they really are a great all-rounder, even in light snow.

If you plan on driving in snow, I would definitely spring for a dedicated winter tire. There is no comparison.

Dennis C

I ran DWS tires on the Cayenne when we lived in the midwest. They were passable. Once we moved to the mountains, they were worthless. The Cayenne couldn't get up my driveway with DWS tires, even though the "S" was still showing in the tread. It ended up at the bottom of the hill, all four wheels spinning. With the Michelin Alpins, it drove up the driveway like it was dry.