I had the dealer swap the Hankooks that were on our new B7 to Conti ProContacts which were on a another B7 in the lot. We have about 1500 miles on car and I can honestly say the car rides quiet.....no more road noise than the B6, and no wind noise.
+ get the continental DW, it has soft walls
By far the best tire I've ever ridden on. Just excellent all around.
When I first had mine, I used to run 38psi all around but after a few thousand KMs I found them to ride too hard so I lowered mine to 36psi but was slightly better. But lately, i've been running them at 35psi all around and I find that this is the right balance for comfort and sportiness. I think 35-38psi is a good pressure. Anything higher seems to be over inflated in my opinion. These tires are far better than my experience with Falken's FK452s. Those tires were just noisy as they wore. I also found them to be stiffer on the widewalls in comparison to the conti's.
I find that I do notice that cornering gets more "spongy" on any of the Contis I have had below about 36-38 psi. The factory recommendation is a compromise with soft ride / comfort. To get better handling and mileage you can go way above 38 psi before the inside wears out faster - something like >45 psi, perhaps. I run my TDI at 40 psi, and the outside edges still wear out quickly (from the many corners in the hills, here). And yes, the Contis IMO do like to be inflated.
I have the Hankook iPikes on my Prius and am very happy with them. I've run Michelin Arctic Alpins, Cooper Weathermasters (twice), Firestone Winterforce, Gislaved, and Nokian Haka2's. Each had very minor pros and cons but honestly I didn't find much of a real difference between any of them including the Hakka's which cost twice what the others costs.
I went with the Conti's and couldn't be happier!
The Conti DW's are excellent, but I do find they tread squirm pretty badly until they wear a bit. I just did my first rotation after about 4500 miles and with the higher tread back on the front, I noticed it instantly. Other than that though, really good so far.
Conti ExtremeContacts are noisy. I have them on my Mazda5. The tires are especially loud when they are cold and moving at low speed. They feel like good tires and seem to wear well, but the noise factor alone makes me want to not keep them for too long.
Just in case anyone is wondering ContiWinterContact TS810 S are the worst snow tires you can buy. I've got them on my car and as soon as snow hits they feel like worn-out all seasons. I think they were only designed for cold dry autobahns, not actual snow. Horrible.
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