km : Daily Driver

One of the many qualities that have always made the VW GTI such a great car is its all-weather capability. Unlike so many other sporty cars that are only really fun when the sun is shining, owners can always count on a fun drive regardless of what the ever-changing environment throws their way. Snow is no exception, of course, especially if you’re prepared for it.

When our black sixth-gen GTI showed up last fall, it rolled in on a set of Continental SportContact 2 high-performance tires. Wrapped around 18-inch alloys, the 225/40-series rubber offers great stick when the roads are warm and dry, but fall short in the traction department once the snowflakes start flying. Actually, snow or not, they start to give up once the pavement drops to around 40 degrees or less.



The only real solution to get us through the notoriously cold, occasionally snowy and ruthlessly long Midwest winters we bear was to line up a proper set of winter tires. A quick consult with our guys at Tire Rack had us ordering up four new Continental ExtremeWinterContact snow tires on 17-inch Elbrus alloys. The package, along with new TMPS sensors, cost a grand total of $1188, and should last three or four seasons typically. More importantly, they allow us to actually drive the car through the worst of the winter.

The ExtremeWinterContact tire is one of Continental’s more aggressive snow and ice performance tires. Normally we’d be satisfied just having a winter performance tire, something designed more for the low temperatures and damp conditions than for deep snow and slush, but as luck would have it, this year has been a little more brutal than most in the snowfall department. We’ve already had several significant snowfalls, the last one dumping nearly a foot on our parking lot and local roads before the plows could take care of them.



The Contis deliver decent acceleration and stopping abilities in the fluffy stuff, though the lateral limits seem to be a bit lower; the car will easily understeer through a corner if you get overconfident, though it takes only a lift of the throttle to bring it back in line most of the time. Dry road traction in the winter is considerably better than the stock SportContacts, and they ride quietly as well. At $124 apiece new, they’re a pretty good bargain and quite popular too, as evidenced by the fact that Tire Rack sold out of them in this fitment before the season was over.

We’ve always been big believers in the winter tire philosophy, especially on performance-oriented cars like the ones we primarily drive. While you may give up a bit in overall performance in the dry, the advantage when roads are at their worst is undeniable. This year’s weather in particular has confirmed what we’ve known all along: There really is no substitute for traction when it comes to going, stopping or turning.

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