Yesterday I bought a set of 4 new summer tires for Wolfi. I have long run Continental tires on this car for both summer & winter tires.

The tires I replaced were Continental Extreme Contact Sport, which I mounted in September 2017. Great tires. Yesterday, I purchased Conti's newest refinement in that line of "Max Performance" summer tire, the Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02. Little different tread pattern & claimed stiffer sidewalls for better performance. Sizes are 205/50 ZR17 front & 255/40 ZR17 rear.

[www.tirerack.com]

I run a set 16" Porsche rims for my winter tires, the rims that came standard issue on '97 Boxsters. Sadly, it's been a number of years since I have been able to purchase full winter tires for the 16s & have had to settle for Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06 Plus, an all-season "Ultra High Performance" rated tire. These are good tires, actually great tires regarding dry, wet, & overall roadability but they are just good in snow, whereas I remember my former Dunlop full winter tires being great in snow while still good in dry & wet conditions. Sizes are 205/55 ZR16 front & 225/50 ZR16 rear.

[www.tirerack.com]

All in on the new Conti summer tires I am @ $1,043.70 US (tires, mounting/balancing, new valve stems, sales tax). I didn't purchase them from Tire Rack as my local tire dealer & neighbor/friend saved me about $100.00 w/his bottom line price. Told me overall tire prices have increased 30% in the last 2 years. New summer tires will sit in my garage for a couple more weeks before mounting as we have snow forecast here for tonight through tomorrow w/another snow expected middle of next week. When I used to live in NOVA, I used to say I swap my winter/summer wheels & tires around Easter & Thanksgiving but here in SoDak, I've had to modify those milestones a couple of weeks earlier in the fall & later in the spring due to our higher latitude & continental climate here.

JB/SE SoDak
1997 986 - Wolfi
Yankton, SD

"Wisdom is the most perfect knowledge of the most important truths in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly.

-- Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.

"(School is to be a factory) in which raw products, children, are to be shaped and formed into finished products . . .(m)anufactured like nails, and the specifications for manufacturing will come from government and industry."

-- Elwood P. Cubberley, Dean of School of Education, Stanford University, 1905

"The creatures that want to live a life of their own, we call wild. If wild, then no matter how harmless, we treat them as outlaws, and those of us who are 'specially well brought up shoot them for fun."

-- Clarence Day, This Simian World



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2023 09:47AM by John Brown of SE SoDak. (view changes)

I always use my local tire dealer. Once I got tire rack tires and had my local mount them. Turns out I would have been better off getting the tires from him to begin with.

When I have ordered from Tire Rack, they offer a list of 'approved installers' from which I can pick and they (Tire Rack) provides the price. I've found this is MUCH less than the individual installer has wanted for the job without the Tire Rack pricing.

[www.tirerack.com]


Andrew

My dealer is a listed approved installer & his rate to do so is $196.00. I asked my dealer & he told me he sets his own rate & sets it sufficiently high that he can beat the overall cost of selling & installing slightly by selling me what I want & "throwing in" mounting, etc. The dealers make profit on the products they sell & they end up making more by selling & installing than they would by merely installing.

JB/SE SoDak
1997 986 - Wolfi
Yankton, SD

"Wisdom is the most perfect knowledge of the most important truths in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly.

-- Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.

"(School is to be a factory) in which raw products, children, are to be shaped and formed into finished products . . .(m)anufactured like nails, and the specifications for manufacturing will come from government and industry."

-- Elwood P. Cubberley, Dean of School of Education, Stanford University, 1905

"The creatures that want to live a life of their own, we call wild. If wild, then no matter how harmless, we treat them as outlaws, and those of us who are 'specially well brought up shoot them for fun."

-- Clarence Day, This Simian World

My local firestone, via the 'installer' page on tirerack is $22/tire + $5 for TPMS (my car doesn't have it, so I wouldn't pay that) + 8% shop fee + tax. That's $102.16 for the installation with 7% tax. I know we paid more for mounting/balancing when my wife put tires on a car without me.

Are you stating that your dealer's price on tirerack.com is $196?

Andrew

[www.tirerack.com]

This is the link to my checkout page after I loaded 4 Contis into my shopping cart & elected to ship & have installed w/Tire Rack's local installer. I don't know if this will be visible but try it & see. The cost of $196.00 is toward the bottom of the page. Under the displayed price of $196.00, click on "Pricing Details & Premium Services". Don't know what premium services are, but I don't see any in the listed details.

Edit: More on the improved steering & turn-in behavior that I touched on in one of my responses here to Laz. Pure speculation on my part, but I've been wondering why the difference between the former Conti & this new 02. I believe the improvement (to me anyway it's an improvement) results from tweaking of the sidewalls (firmer) & also likely some changes in the carcass just above the tread patterns, i.e. stiffer carcass. Another thing I noticed is the tread patterns are al little different. Both the inner & outer shoulders are wider than before, especially the outer, & the water channeling grooves in both inner & outer shoulders are a little shallower to my eye & they are sort of "bullet shaped". So perhaps these shoulders themselves are a bit stiffer, resulting in the accurate & sticky straight forward character, which quickly gives way when a turn is executed. Once again, I really, really like driving these tires fast on the highway.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2023 09:00AM by John Brown of SE SoDak. (view changes)

Warming up here in SoDak today, so this afternoon I dismounted winter 16s & mounted summer 17s fitted w/new Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02. Wow, great tires. Best summer tires I've run to date. Strait ahead @ speed they hold the road straight & stick like glue. The instant I want to swerve or begin a turn, they're immediately all in. Really, really like these new Contis.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2023 07:26PM by John Brown of SE SoDak. (view changes)

That's my choice when the time comes. They seem to have stiff sidewalls which is a purported characteristic of N specs.

Really great to hear from you again, Laz. Thank you for chiming in.

For old Wolfi, a '97 986, those particular Contis aren't N-rated, but I sure believe they're the best summer tire I could run.

JB/SE SoDak
1997 986 - Wolfi
Yankton, SD

"Wisdom is the most perfect knowledge of the most important truths in the right order of emphasis, accompanied by a total, permanent disposition to live accordingly.

-- Br. Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.

"(School is to be a factory) in which raw products, children, are to be shaped and formed into finished products . . .(m)anufactured like nails, and the specifications for manufacturing will come from government and industry."

-- Elwood P. Cubberley, Dean of School of Education, Stanford University, 1905

"The creatures that want to live a life of their own, we call wild. If wild, then no matter how harmless, we treat them as outlaws, and those of us who are 'specially well brought up shoot them for fun."

-- Clarence Day, This Simian World

Just a reminder to please use the referral link in the Tire Rack banner ad on this site when buying tires from them. Thanks!

Last fall got 4 new winters, one new rear winter wheel, and four new sensors through the PB link.
Had everything installed at a non-affiliated shop.

I keep a Post-It note by my Mac to remind me to do such purchases through PB.

I always shop tires there first.

Grant

gee-lenahan-at-gee-mail-dot-com