I had the previous generation Extreme Contact DWS tires on my previous car and liked them very much. I thought they were pretty good in the snow, especially for a high performance tire. The OEM Conti's on my Passat (it turns out) were good too...handled ok, wore well, but were getting a little noisy.
My first two sets were the OEM Conti's and PureContact. They were both great in fuel mileage and (Dry) grab & release specs. I just put on a set of Nokian eTyers 8,000 miles ago . The three areas where (IMHO) the Nokians out perform the Contis is in: quietness, rain & snow. The Contis were better on dry pavement but were noisier.
I had P7s(17\") installed on my 2013 SEL 4 weeks ago and the difference with the crappy Hankooks is night and day...quieter,braking and handling are transformed.
I live in Maine... as you can expect we get plenty of snow/ice. Never needed studded tires unless I was driving on a giant sheet of ice i.e. frozen lake. I run General Altimax Arctics on my 4Motion Passat, about $80/tire in 16" sizes.
Replaced the factory Conti's with less than 20k on them with the Pirelli P7's and I can report they are a better tire. Road noise is reduced, handling in snow and rain improved.
As for tires, I went with the Yokohama YK580s sold only at Discount Tire and have been pleased. Put them on the van and the Passat and very happy with the results. Similar specs to Michelin Primacy tires, but better cost.
I HIGHLY suggest Falken Azenis PT722. My local Audi Indy shop is practically getting all of their customers on these after they had it on their performance Audis.... And they loved them. I put them on my Passat.... Best tire I have had on that car.
Another vote for the Continental DWS... I have had them for front tires on my '06 for about a year..only reason I haven't replaced the stock rears is because they still have tread left at 73K!(they are Michelin Primacys which are a nice tire but only under dry or wet conditions..tread life is awesome, but they're terrible in snow)
Had the DWS and MXM4s on a 07 Passat 4Mo wagon. Destroyed the Conti's in 27K, the Michelins looked new at 25K. I won't buy the DWS again for my current 13 CC 4Mo.
Got rid of the Hankooks on my SE V6, replaced them with Michelin Primacy with a small Discount Tire trade-in allowance. Ride is maybe a little better, expansion joint thump is a little better, but noise on all but the smoothest asphalt is bad; on concrete, it's almost intolerable.
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