Input on tire choices
 

Ive got 30k miles on my 08 mazda 3 and of course those crappy RSAs are worn out. Looking at a few tire options and I need some help. I cant afford separate tires for snow so I need something thats at least decent in a Nebraska winter. And it would be nice to last more than 30k miles. Heres what Im looking at so far..
Continental Extreme Contact DWS, Nitto Neogen, maybe the Michelin Primacy MXV4.
The Conti sounds best to me so far, but its still pretty new, and I cant find the Nitto in the 17" size. So.. any experiences with these tires? comments? other suggestions?
Thanks

I just bought the Continentals for my 2010 MS3 and they have been pretty good so far. I live in Denver right now and we just had a snowstorm. The treadwear rating is 540, so you should get more than the 30k that you are looking for. I drove around in the crap left over from the storm (Denver is not known for plowing since it melts pretty quickly after a storm) and I didn't have any issues.

I will post again when the next storm hits. Next Tuesday we should get some snow. MTF.

Im going to drive another 500-600 miles before I get the new tires. Hopefully it doesnt snow again here until then. We did get a little snow last month, and driving around in it with worn out RSAs was kinda scary. Speaking of scary, remember that blizzard that came thru the midwest back in March? I got to drive an empty Sprinter van through that....all the way across NE to Denver. Not fun at all. Hopefully the Conties will make winter driving a bit more comfortable.

What model of continentals did you get? and do you still like them?

I purchased the Extreme Contact DWS. These tires work much better in the snow and ice than the stock tires that come on the MS3. They still slip quite a bit off the line in snow even just letting the clutch out ever so slowly and using very little gas. The car just has a lot of power to the front wheels. The treadwear has been great. I'm on my second winter season and I haven't used much tread. My car has 21000 miles on it. About to take these wheels off for the summer. Looking forward to getting some new summer tires when these stock craps wear out.

Do you notice any soft feel / squishiness with the tires? lots softer over bumps compared to stock?

Go with michelin pilots they are supposed to be the best

The continental extreme contact DWS as well as the goodyear eagle GT are both well rated - within the top 10 of consumer reports for both.

I did some testing last weekend and when driving behind my car there was no flex noticed in the sidewall, but my driver felt quite uneasy with the feel of the car too so it's not just me.
I then had my driver do circles & swerves with me hanging out the window to look at the tires.

I did see the front sidewalls moving on the order of a half inch, but that was with a decently hard corner, and 60% of the car weight on them - so i'd expect this. But the rear tires feel like hey are moving well over an inch in the rear - it's just not viewable when looking at the tires.
My conclusion is it's not the sidewalls, but the tread itself 'walking' when going around corners - this is just a hell of a lot more than i'd noticed on any other cars i've had, even with new tires installed.