Tires DUNLOP or OEM Volkswagen

Honestly these are a pretty decent tire in snow and ice having driven the RAV in the snow storm we just got in Mass.

we've been using Dunlop for our vios.

Dude the stock dunlop's can't even handle muddy roads. I live down a really long one and turning out of my driveway onto the road always made the front tires spin and the diff lock up weird.

Changed over to as3+'s and it's never been better.

Stock dunlops...terrible in snow.

Winter tires...beast mode!

It's a night and day difference.

The Dunlop Direzza ZIII is worth looking into. A close friend has half a season of autocross and 4 time trial events (So about 17 twenty to 30 minute long sessions) on his ZIII in a 2013 NC and they still have life left. For autocross they're basically a less grippy Re-71R, but they come into their own on track.

I loved the Sottozero 3's on my previous STi. I got a set of Dunlop WinterMaxx on my R now (got them on sale from TireRack when I got winter wheels) and while they're fine and even good in the snow, they are horrific on wet pavement.

2 years ago, I got Dunlop Winter Sport 4Ds (205/55/16) for 443 shipped. 4Ds aren't the best winter tire out, but really I didn't need blizzaks.

Dang, I got the craptastic Dunlops on my '21 R4PSE, but we're only at 21k miles. Sad to see somebody got 45k miles on a set. Dang, I hate to replace them prematurely, so that means I have to endure another 2 years of squeaky skittish tires.

Looking at the Dunlops, they are rated poorly in pretty much every review I saw. They only have a treadwear rating of 360 which is pretty low for an all season crossover tire which explains why they're cooked at 20k miles. Most reviews I see are people complaining about them wearing out at 20-30k miles and being terrible in wet/snow.

Can confirm , the dunlops are absolute garbage in the snow. Bought a set of beater oem 16 wrx wheels off of marketplace today and will be slapping on some premium awd snow donut shoes tomorrow, almost hit a curb going five mph leaving a stoplight. They have as much traction in snow , as a puck has on a air hockey table.. prepare to buy tires if you live in a winter challenged climate .