Tires BRIDGESTONE or DUNLOP

FWIW, my WRX came with a set of the Bridgestones when I bought it. I had zero problems running year-round, and we get some snow here.

I've experienced the Bridgestones on my Volvo for nearly two years, and am fairly impressed with their performance... for an all-season. Dry grip is great and treadwear is respectable.

Other than that I was happy with the tire. Ran it on a '97 Jetta (in NW PA).

I've been running Dunlop Direzza Z-1 StarSpecs on the track and on the street with no issues, still on OEM 18" wheels. NYC potholes have not been kind to me either, but no bubbles.

pretty sure i had some Dunlops on my GTI a decade ago or more, and would buy them again, too.

Had a bunch o different Dunlops on three different cars and they're far better economy tires than the sumitomos or coopers I've used.

Star Specs - 90% of the Bridgestone at 80% of the price.

The Dunlop's really aren't a bad tire (Having done tire evaluation for SCCA to decide the spec tires for a few classes i've done quite a bit of performance tire comparison), in the dry I was more than satisfied with the grip of the Dunlop's, it is more than sufficient to suit the \"sportiness\" of the GLI.

you probably had the same OEM dunlops that i had. those things were absolute garbage. i drove for a year in fear of driving over windy bridges with those things. after i changed tires, it was a whole new car.

I ran them on my R32, lasted about 20k miles. I was not impressed with them. Not sticky enough of a tire to have so short a tread life, not cheap enough either. I expected a hard tire that would last me awhile, and I got a hard tire that wore out at the same rate as a Toyo R-compound tire. Will not be buying Direzzas again. For the same price range I'd stick with Kuhmo's or Falken Ziex.