I just had my tires replaced (which were terrible eagle sports and eagle ls2 which the previous owner bought) with the brand new Continental DWS06. This is a UHP All-season tire. Reading reviews it seems that Continental tried to keep their snow traction the same and improve on their wet and dry traction as well as stiffen up the tire a little for better steering response. The best tires I have to compare these to are the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 on my wife's 350z.
Now before I go any further, I chose an all-season for a fall/winter tire. I live in southern Tennessee where I can't run a snow tire because one week it will snow and the next week it will be 65 during the day. These temps will destroy a dedicated snow tire, so I run UHP all-seasons and plan on buying some new wheels for some summer tires in the spring.
For those of you that are like myself and looking for an UHP all-season, this tire is amazing. Compared to the previous DWS it is definitely stiffer, many people commented that the original DWS was too soft; I do not think that this tire is too soft. it feels just as tight and responsive as the Michelin A/S 3.
The tire is very quiet, I can barely hear any tire noise even at highway speeds which is astonishing considering how loud road noise typically is in our cars. NOTE: I do have a Berk CBE, so that could be drowning out some tire noise.
Ride quality is ok for a sporty tire, you do feel every bump but it isn't jarring, it's honestly not typically what I look at when buying tires. I think that you could find something better if you are just looking for ride quality. So far I have spent about 500 miles on dry roads, and 100 miles on damp roads after some rain. I have not been in the rain itself yet, but when I hit areas of standing water the only way I could tell the road was wet was the swooshing sound of the water, otherwise traction was barely affected.
I will report back once I have had some time in heavy rain and snow, but from my initial opinion, this is the best All-Season tire I have driven on.
For the dry I would give it a 9.5 out of 10.
For light standing water easily a 10 out of 10.
My wife already wants these tires for her next set instead of the Michelins, and I honestly love Michelin tires, I think Continental just knows how to make an excellent all season.
I will still be buying Michelin PSS come spring.
This is a rear 275/40/18 (On base wheels)
These are all my first impressions, I will return with longer term comments once I have more miles on the tires.
UPDATE:
So time for a little update after some solid rain time. These tires are fantastic on wet roads. My street has a few hills so in the low spots we get a lot of standing water, but I have yet to hydroplane with the new Continentals. The deepest puddles I have driven through were about 3-4" just guessing, but certainly deep enough to hydroplane with my previous tires. Now the car hits the water and there is simply the sound and a slight feeling of resistance from the water. Lighter puddles are simply an audible swoosh.
I was late for work one day and did speed a little on my way to work one morning; the tires are also nice and stable at higher speeds on the interstate and highways. Chattanoogahas terrible roads for water retention so I am Glad I chose these tires.
To compare them with my wife's A/S 3 I would say they both perform pretty equally on wet roads, but the DWS06 is much better at dealing with standing water on the roads.
Still 60°... maybe I should have bought a summer tire...