Tires OEM BMW or Continental

I have a B7 V6 Passat Wagon here in Australia and they come with Continental ContiSportContact 5 and they are amazingly quiet, much better than the Pirelli P Zero's I had on my R36 Wagon.

+ 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 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.

These tires are nothing short of amazing, i've never felt my previous gti or my new one perform the way it does on these tires. I can't recommend them enough, they're really *that* good.

Contis are on the car now - awesome.

Mounted (4) Continental ExtremeContact DWS 225/40ZR18 = $587