Tires Hankook or Continental

Neuspeed RSe52 18x8 with 225/40/18 Hankook R-S3 (my current track setup)

My 2010 Golf TDI came from Germany with Continental tires and they were great in the rain.

Continental Extreme Winter Contacts!! from Ottawatiresdirect

I have these on my TDI for about 1 year now. I like them They didn't affect my MPG as I still get 41 MPG and the road noise is minimal. I too live in the Seattle region and have made multiple trip to Vegas and Salt Lake and the tires held up well. Glad I did, I feel that I have confidant cornering and good braking abilities with low road noise.

I had Hankook Ventus V12s on my old IS250 after the factory Bridgestone ER33 (Now that is a $hit tire) wore out. They were great and half the cost of the ER33s.

I ponied up the money for a new set of Continentals (Purecontact with ecoplus) because my previous set last 50K miles and had excellent grip throughout. They did become loud towards the end.

I was running OEM Continental Conti-seal Pro-contact and was not very happy with price. Went through two sets and had issues with road wear and durability (slightest potholes wreck the sidewalls) so I decided to get a set of the Continental ProContact Extreme DWS. I got a great deal on them w/ a 70 rebate to boot. I find them far superior so far. Great dry/wet traction. Minimal road noise. I had them paired with a new set of Niche Targa 18's... hit a pothole in the first week (cant tell you how freaked out I was at impact!) but they kept going just fine. No sidewall damage, no bent wheel (compared to OEM wheel). Cant tell about winter though as I run winter wheel setup. I would recommend you check them out.

I am currently running Continental ContiSportContact 5P. They are even stickier that the ExtremeContact DWs I had on my W8. I have two summers on them and do not have any cupping, I have only have been rotating front-back.

They did fine, not a great performing tire but for the price they aren't bad at all.

My biggest gripe was that you can't tell how much life it has left in the rear, since it had a smooth center. I just noticed mine showed cords one day.

I run Conti DWSes on my A3 and I think they're abysmal with anything more than an inch of slush on the roads. More than that, once the temps get below 40 I can definitely sense them losing their grip. I haven't been overly thrilled with the Contis and don't think I'll buy them again.