Tires Pirelli or Continental

Contis all day . I love those dws.

For 7k you should be able to find pretty good tyres for your Volvo. I looked around a bit this year and found last years NAF test winner for under 10k for a bigger dimension for my car, including mounting on rims. Look for the ones from NAF tyre test just under the winner, like the Pirellis that scored okay but not great are within your price range, at least here in Norway, and way safer than these unknown China tyres.

The Conti’s for sure. I’ve had great luck with these tires.

Depends if you also drive on the highway, sparked tiers have a tendency to have a longer braking distance and bad grip on wet roads.

If you do drive the county roads that's not salted , Nokian Hakkapellita 10 is the go to.

If you do drive on salted highway alot then Continental tires is preferred as they do handle wet surface better and if you do have black ice (underkjølt regn) alot , a sparked tire will always be the best option.

Aren't the Continentals OEM? They came on my 2010 S5 and I've stuck with them for the past 120k miles, year round, with no issues.

If you don’t get roads covered in ice and compacted snow for large parts of the winter, I’d personally go for studless. They’re quieter than studded tires, and you don’t need to pay the «studded tire fee» when entering major cities. In a coastal climate the roads are mostly just wet asphalt anyway, so no need for studs. They don’t help in fresh snow either.

I use Continental VikingContact 7 (now replaced by VikingContact 8) in Bergen. I’ve never had any issues with them in deep snow or over mountain passes on my FWD hatchback. Super predictable when they lose traction as well. In those dimensions the price difference between good and cheap tires isn’t that big, so get something good. If you’re a NAF member you get a really good discount at Best Drive (continental).

I’m on my 4th or 5th set of dws06. Unless I need a specific performance summer tire I’ll keep running them

Just don't get those Pirelli's. I have them on my RAV. Traction is great in snow, but they are wearing out fast!

I had particularly bad luck with Continentals on a couple of cars. Buddy (who had a similar experience) and I came up with a comparison: take one of those nice Staedler erasers and draaaag it on pavement, you won't go 50' before your knuckles get road rash. I'm a big Michelin fan, never had any trouble with those on any of my cars.

Continental DWS06.

Heard great reviews of people saying this was an amazing all season tire with tons of grip in all conditions, great for sports cars year round that see some winter use too.

My god these tires felt hard as a rock compared to the Michelin A/S3+ I had on another set of wheels. Just not as much grip at all as I was expecting in the dry. Even in light snow, my TC light would flash more than when I was on the Michelins.