I am sure you are 100% correct and can't beat the dedicated tires for the season. Unfortunately, I do not have a garage to house another set of wheels or have the absolute need to drive on a heavy snow day. Although it is a nice to have, I can avoid snow at times if it is too much at all. Having said that, I am still scared to take a summer tire just because of the very same fact. I want to be able to have the mobility to go out if I have to or make it home on a snow, or downpour evening from work with less risk. I want the best performing All Season tire on Dry, Wet and some Snow capability to keep my AWD sedan moving.

I did explore the Michelin A/S 3 and they have good reviews. But I am just not sure if they are worth the price difference though.

Tough call. I have minimal experience with michelin car tires. We put a set of primacy something or other on dad's grand prix. It was an ok tire, but inline with his driving style.

I've tried a wide assortment of tires on my motorcycles over the years. The michelin tire was one I kept coming back to (michelin pilot road series). It was the best tire for longevity and handling for a sport touring bike. Going to give the pilot super sport a try next spring on the G, hopefully it lives up to the hype.

FWIW, I have the straight continental DWS and I have loved them. Ive had a lot of different tires on this car and my other ones. For daily driving, I am very very happy with the DWS. Ive heard the 06's are even better.

I can relate to your thoughts. I am driving on a DWS 06 as we speak for the past 2 weeks and have over 800 miles on them since installation. It has become a bit less spongy or bouncy over this time. I have been cornering hard on ramps as I almost cant wait to take one every time I drive. It is a fantastic driving experience for sure. However, the extreme quietness and less road feedback is whats bothering me. These are great tires for sure and one cannot go wrong with them. Ramps that are 25mp/h, I have been hitting them at 60mp/h and came back home alive each time. Quietness and the ride quality is similar to a 2013 MB C300 that a friend of mine owns. This tire makes my G37 feel more premium (in pampering) than sporty.

I continued to study and research on this tire and it seems there is a cult following the DWS and defending it, while another labeling it as the best grand tourers alone and would not consider it a UHP tire.

I have 2 more days to live with this tire, and then I am hopping onto the Good Year Eagle F1 Asymmetric All Season which is known for better road feel but less snow grip (not worse by any means). I think that's a trade off that I can live with.

Positives of DWS 06 that I notice are,

1. Super quiet. I hear more bass without equalizing my Bose system and hear a lot of details, like I've gotten a premium set of headphones. Its that quiet.
2. Ride quality is soft and pampering. Very smooth over bumps and did not bump steer when hitting smaller potholes or other road imperfections in my experience.
3. I am able to corner harder than the Good Year RS-A I had previously.

Negatives that I see are,

1. Not as aggressive as it looks on pictures or online tire vendor demonstrations. Looks balloonish and stretches outside of rim (or does not sit flushed along the rim lines). Take this with a grain of salt that this is for informational purposes only. Some may find this appealing while others may not. Tire size also dictates the appearance. Mine is 225-55-17 - Default.
2. Too spongy. Extremely quiet ride and bouncy feel at first. (Did reduce with time, at least on my set. This maybe fixed with later revisions? as I got a fairly new batch).
3. Workmanship is terrible. Tires come off a press and yes they can't be perfect. But this one leaves lot of thin films hanging on the sidewall. An eyesore that I cant remove without sanding the tire. All 4 tires have the same imperfection. I do not want to sand the tire and mess with it, so I am taking the easy route of exchanging to the GY F1 A/S.

I will update my feelings about the F1 All Seasons in a week or so after I get them installed. Hope someone can find this thread informational if they are considering the DWS 06. Opinions and tastes vary, but having them can help us make better choices I guess.

Good Year Eagle F1 - Asymmetric All Season
 

So, got my Good Year Eagle F1 - Asymmetric All Season installed on Saturday. It has only been 2 days and I have put roughly about 200 miles on this tire now.

vs DWS
Ride is a lot firmer, rougher and noisier in comparison to DWS. I sort of wish this new set had the quietness of the DWS and keep the ride quality of itself. A combination of this two would be a sure winner.

Although I miss the DWS a bit for its quieter ride, I am enjoying my car again as I did previously. On dry and wet, I feel the grip is phenomenal in comparison to the loose riding DWS.


vs RS-A
In comparison to Eagle RS-A, this tire is pretty similar in characteristics. Although not as noisy (RS-A had 33k miles and this could have been the reason), the firmness and ride quality are roughly the same I think from normal driving (local/highway). Based on reviews from TireRack, the ride will get a bit better with break in and the tire will get a bit quiet as well. Not sure if I am going to be holding my breath on it. But I am a happy camper as it is.


Verdict

If you don't like the way RS-A was sounding (the deep hum noise), if you don't like the way it felt on the road, do not get the Eagle F1s. If you did like it, but wanted to quiet down the ride a tad bit, then this is the tire for you. If you love a little less sportier feel and more luxurious ride with a quieter cabin, and less road impact on your steering feel, then go for the DWS. You cannot go wrong with either one of them.

Great wrap-up!!:biggthumpup:

I'm glad you got the tires that make you happy. These toys are far too expensive not to have exactly what you want.

Sean

Appreciate your review, kinda puts my own experiences in perspective.

One odd thing, not sure how a tire can be spongy but good at cornering? Maybe I'm not well versed in how tires are described (which for me is hard to articulate).

Also, as you mentioned, looks is greatly dependent on tire width and a/r. With a wide tire on a narrow rims, along with relative high a/r, nearly any tire will look puffy and un-aggressive.

I went with a slightly wider-than-OEM tire up front, and at most I could describe the tire as looking "boxy" but not at all like a balloon (which I've dealt with in the past) ... best photo I have at the moment.

Attachment 137115

That is one great looking car right there.

As for the tires, if thats a DWS it looks whole a lot better than mine did. My tire was bulging out and had a curved sidewall similar to a balloon's sides, which looked terrible.

By using the word spongy, I was referring to the tire's personality of absorbing bumps extremely well, and often times feeling of bouncing back without noticing much of an impact on steering wheel. Your car would literally go down and come up at times which you had no road feedback of on the hands. Its a strange feeling at first. But I did get used to it a while later. Pardon my way of explaining, as I am not that well versed in tire terminologies as well.

Also, one thing I like to add is, as far as the cornering goes with the DWS, it was great. I was able to twice the speed limit at entrance/exit ramps without feeling any less confident. The tires felt loose, kind of like I am in the air and the road below me did not matter.

In contrast, Eagle F1 All Seasons, constantly reminds me that I am on ground. Keeps on giving me the road feed back for every nuance of the road (could be annoying for some). Also, puts out a deep hum noise which kind of cancels out your stereos bass notes. I did not know this was possible until I tried the DWS 06 myself.