Quote:
Originally Posted by DWG
why's that? I noticed the DWS has a much longer treadwear grade, what's the trade off?
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Performance.
The DWS is an all-season tire designed to work in all conditions, so by definition it's a compromise. It sacrifices grip because it needs to utilize a harder compound that will work in winter temperatures, and because it needs a tread pattern that will help provide grip in the snow.
A summer tire like the DW or the OEM RE050s or Advan Sports is designed for warmer weather only (i.e. any season but winter). Summer tires feature softer compounds with an emphasis on grip. They generally have larger tread blocks with emphasis on maximizing contact patch because they don't have to consider grip in snow -- only dry and wet summer weather.
The softer compound summer tires generally wear much sooner than an all-season, but the summer tires significantly outperform all-seasons in dry/wet summer conditions.
Typically if you have to drive your car in snowy conditions it's best to have two sets of wheels/tires. One for spring-fall with summer tires and another set for winter with your snow tires. There's a saying... "all-seasons are no-seasons." It's true because all-seasons are mediocre at everything, great at nothing.
