Mergnthwirker

I totally agree. All-seasons are usually known as "No Seasons" here in New England. You make a lot of compromises otherwise. You bought the car for performance, why hamper it by putting on mediocre tires? Also, it appears that you don't have the sport package, so you won't have the advantage of limited slip in the rear. You need all the help you can get for traction in the winter! It's real easy to get the rear end to come around on slick roads (ask me how I know this...)

My solution was to find a set of base wheels that someone is selling, and then mount Blizzaks, which work very well in the winter. Of course, if we have another winter like last winter it's no problem. But in any real snow, you'll be SOL if you don't have snows. Keep your eyes on the classified for people selling sets.

I run Continental DWS tires on my AWD Audi S4, but when ski season comes around I mount full snows even on that car. The Continentals are reasonable on cold wet pavement -- most of what we saw last winter -- but they really don't cut it if there's piles of snow on the road. The main reason I run them on the Audi is for shoulder seasons. In the summer I drive the Z every chance I get!