I had these put on last tues 3/11 Drove with them to Cincinnati and back about 600miles..
DT installed.. had an issue I threw a wheel weight.. on the trip (aprox 25miles after they were mounted)
Car was shaking so bad the seatbelt was giving me an upset stomach
Stopped at DT in Columbus they were severely understaffed took 2.75hours to get rebalanced..
but in their defense they were professional and capable.
The good
Smooth quiet ride when the road is good.
MPG was outstanding slightly better than OE yokohama avid gt (which was already good)
I hit 30+mpg with the turbo outback going mid 70's
Would have been even higher at 65mph
Tires had a huge rim protector hard to see in photos how big the tires stick out around wheel to protect it but its about thumb width.(massive)
If you look at the 9 o'clock position on the picture below its easier to see it there.
Traction was good.. improvement over OE tires esp in the dry.. wet was also superior but not as noticeable.(2" of rain on road trip)
Steering on the grooved roads (where grooves run in same direction as road) was ok.. didnt pull you side to side like some tires I've had.
The bad:
When road was bad ride was poor.
Little bumps felt like fred flintstone tires (concrete) WHAM! and impact noise was loud. No give to the bump no "rounding it"
Bigger bumps were also felt considerably more than OE tires even moderate expansion joint humps were jarring.
Handling was fairly light steering ok but just ok. Turn in was ok, but lane holding in a crosswind was not an improvement over the OE tires(poor)
Tires were loud on anything besides good pavement.
Ground surface (where they remove road paint in construction) was obnoxiously loud.
I'll try to explain a little more:
On construction zones where pavement was patched or slightly uneven (they expanded a shoulder to make a lane etc)
the car was very floaty and unsettled. When pavement wasnt perfect it was like the tires were very hard with no give..
when pavement had bigger imperfections they had too much bounce and float.
So to me they felt like all the bad parts of a UHP tire with none of the good.. This may be an artifact to this tire size.. on this car..
after 800 miles I decided to exercise my DT rights
So What did I replace them with:
I was going to go Conti LX25.
but decided to go with Continental dws06 plus.
Now for bonus time I will compare my initial feeling on these DWS06+ vs the pirellis
The dws06 are firm.. but compared to the pirellis they round over the smaller bumps better.. still abit firmer than OE tires.
Dws06 on bigger bumps ABSORB some of the impact and dont get floaty/wobbly over road imperfections.
They arent overly harsh which I was afraid of.. They also seem well controlled by the suspension in a good way.
Steering is much improved esp. in crosswinds. vs OE but not edgy(which is good)
So far I'm very happy with the dws06+ I'll write their own review after 30days/1000miles or so.
I may be back to make some edits for clarity and spelling.
Here is a yokohama AVID GT tire pic
DT installed.. had an issue I threw a wheel weight.. on the trip (aprox 25miles after they were mounted)
Car was shaking so bad the seatbelt was giving me an upset stomach
Stopped at DT in Columbus they were severely understaffed took 2.75hours to get rebalanced..
but in their defense they were professional and capable.
The good
Smooth quiet ride when the road is good.
MPG was outstanding slightly better than OE yokohama avid gt (which was already good)
I hit 30+mpg with the turbo outback going mid 70's
Would have been even higher at 65mph
Tires had a huge rim protector hard to see in photos how big the tires stick out around wheel to protect it but its about thumb width.(massive)
If you look at the 9 o'clock position on the picture below its easier to see it there.
Traction was good.. improvement over OE tires esp in the dry.. wet was also superior but not as noticeable.(2" of rain on road trip)
Steering on the grooved roads (where grooves run in same direction as road) was ok.. didnt pull you side to side like some tires I've had.
The bad:
When road was bad ride was poor.
Little bumps felt like fred flintstone tires (concrete) WHAM! and impact noise was loud. No give to the bump no "rounding it"
Bigger bumps were also felt considerably more than OE tires even moderate expansion joint humps were jarring.
Handling was fairly light steering ok but just ok. Turn in was ok, but lane holding in a crosswind was not an improvement over the OE tires(poor)
Tires were loud on anything besides good pavement.
Ground surface (where they remove road paint in construction) was obnoxiously loud.
I'll try to explain a little more:
On construction zones where pavement was patched or slightly uneven (they expanded a shoulder to make a lane etc)
the car was very floaty and unsettled. When pavement wasnt perfect it was like the tires were very hard with no give..
when pavement had bigger imperfections they had too much bounce and float.
So to me they felt like all the bad parts of a UHP tire with none of the good.. This may be an artifact to this tire size.. on this car..
after 800 miles I decided to exercise my DT rights
So What did I replace them with:
I was going to go Conti LX25.
but decided to go with Continental dws06 plus.
Now for bonus time I will compare my initial feeling on these DWS06+ vs the pirellis
The dws06 are firm.. but compared to the pirellis they round over the smaller bumps better.. still abit firmer than OE tires.
Dws06 on bigger bumps ABSORB some of the impact and dont get floaty/wobbly over road imperfections.
They arent overly harsh which I was afraid of.. They also seem well controlled by the suspension in a good way.
Steering is much improved esp. in crosswinds. vs OE but not edgy(which is good)
So far I'm very happy with the dws06+ I'll write their own review after 30days/1000miles or so.
I may be back to make some edits for clarity and spelling.
Here is a yokohama AVID GT tire pic
.
