Best Tires for Volkswagen Golf

I wanted to post my thoughts after a first winter drive with these Contis. They are stock 19" tires on my R and came with the vehicle. The VikingContact 7s have been more than excellent. Compared to the Conti TS830s, I definitely do not feel like I am at times running a summer tire in the winter. For this winter I feel completely confident in bad conditions like the X Ice 3 was. However, the HUGE plus is on dry conditions which happens a lot during winter here. I always felt the slight sponginess of the X Ice 3 (18s would have made a difference for sure), but these VikingContact 7s in dry are spectacular. They truly do everything in winter extremely well, and I would never think of buying another tire again...they are that good.

Stock tires from 2023 Golf R, the car was delivered on 1/20/23 with 7 miles on the odometer and I put on another 20 miles to the tire shop to swap them for all-seasons. Tires are like new with less than 30 miles.

I'm a Falken guy. Forget all those other over- priced name brands.

Actually just got those tires put on barely 2 weeks ago, took advantage of the rebate and good price on tire rack. I wasnt familiar either with the brand but after doing some research they are very well known and liked in Europe, they are made in Holland. I didnt want to buy new wheels til next summer so ended up getting the stock tire size 235 35 by 19 on the stock wheel. i cant speak on how they perform in the snow quite yet but so far so good, they give you a 10-15% stiffer ride specially in race mode compared to my stock goodyear summer tire but i was expecting that. so far so good! Specially for the price im a fan.

Have R3's on my Golf and love them. I know, wrong forum, but we all use winter tires. Going on soon for the second season.

I would highly recommend - Michelin X-ICE Snow Blizzak WS90 Either are phenomenal tires for snow & ice. I have used multiple Blizzak WS series for my EVO 8/9/10s and STi's, and used the X-ICE on the last 3 STi's I had. I plan on using the Michelin X-ICE on the factory wheels on my 2022 GTI S, because I like the better cornering stability of the sidewall vs. Blizzak...the Blizzak's have an extremely soft sidewall, and if you corner too hard it feels like the tires just want to roll over. Remember to take them off once it gets above 40 degrees otherwise you are going to wear the tread out quickly because the cell material is so soft.

So I came to event day on my normal Dunlop SP Sport Maxx tyres. In practice, I found that on the R-spec I could do an 89 second lap, but consistently run at 92 seconds (I could do consecutive 90 second laps, but brakes would become the weak link after about 4 consecutive laps). On the street tyres I could do a 93 second lap, but due to brakes again, nominated at 95 second lap.

I run PS4AS's on my R, and I've been VERY happy with them. Good all-season tire that performs almost as well as PS4S in the dry.

BTW PS4S are expensive as hell right now!!

Here's the 18" Cadiz wheels that came off 2015 Golf R. Stock 16" Astana wheels are beyond hideous, they are also heavy (e.g. 21 lbs.). As soon as you mount any sticky tires, irrelevant of size, your range will decrease by ~10%. The sole purpose of low resistance Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 Plus tires is to float due to super firm carcass. These tires are terrible in dry and scary in wet.