Any all-season tires for C4 suitable for year-round driving?

I am in the process of purchasing a 2001 C4 Tiptronic. The car currently has brand new P-Zero "dry" that were installed as part of the Porsche certification process. The car is for my wife and I am much more concerned about it being safe in the rain and snow than I am about cornering abiliity. Is there a brand of all season tires that can be use year-round -- while I don't care about ultimate cornering, I don't want a lot of tire noise or have it ride like a truck. The dealer says there are no suitable all-season tires and I need to buy another set of wheels and tires for winter -- I would really prefer not to do this and I think that if I can identify an all-season tire, I might be able to get them to swap out the tires before I take delivery of the car. I apologize for posting a question when I'm sure that tires have been discussed within the forum (this is my first post and first time on the site), but I need to know immediately to have any chance of getting the tires swapped. Does anybody run all-season year-round? If so, what brand and model? I've heard very good feedback about Pzero Nero tires, but don't know if they fit on the C4 or can be used year-round.

Michilin makes a pilot sport AS all season tire, came out with it in '03.

Where do you live? This will determine the answer. If you are in the North East, I would suggest winter tires, and a dedicated of wheels makes that pretty easy. according to tire Rack, there are two options for all season tires. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...t=All&x=70&y=9

We live in New Jersey -- the snow is fairly light and infrequent, but we get a couple heavy storms per year. What a coincidence, I was just doing the tirerack check when I came back and saw your post -- here's mine search (I think the car has 18", but I'm not positive): http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...UHPAS&x=56&y=8 The Pzero Neros came up as a match through the tire decision guide when I specified tire noise/ride as highest priority, tread life as second, and dry cornering as third. I'd rather not bother with a separate set of wheels if the Zero Nero's are quiet in the dry and acceptable in the snow. Has anybody tried these?

Peterp - I live in Montreal. I would not drive a Porsche in winter on anything but narrower winter tires. All season tires are useless at temps at or below 5 deg F the rubber is too hard to give traction. Winter tires are good to -40. Next, in snow the wide tires of a 911 do not bite down to the hard surface and since a lot of winter driving involves slush and water, summer tires are more likely to aquaplane. You are talking about an expensive car driven by your wife. Is a second set of wheels and tires such a big deal? Rgds,

Bob, I'm just trying to figure out what the right thing to do is now while I have the chance to change tires before I pick up the car. The last Porsche I had was an 87 Carrera and it was a handful in the rain with performance tires, so I would rather have all-seasons on the car even from that perspective. If winter tires are required, then I'm happy to do that as well -- the whole point of my post is safety. I'm just trying to figure out what is required in the snow. She currently has an X-type which is 4 wheel drive and does great in the snow with the stock Continental tires. We are keeping that car and it will be the vehicle of choice in more severe conditions. But based upon the experience with the X-type, the snow handling is very good (comparable or better than the Jeep it replaced) -- but probably the difference on the Porsche is the width of the tires. Our weather is milder than yours -- it seldom gets below 15 degrees, but I obviously don't want to take any chances and will get winter tires in a second if that's what's needed. I would still be interested in hearing about anybody's experience with all-season tires in a year-round capacity. Am I incorrect to think that the car with performance dry tires will be difficult in the rain?

Why not run the winter tires all year round. You will probably have to replace the rears every year anyways. I usually have to replace my summer rears once a year and my winters last 2 winter seasons. If you ran on winters all year just replace the rears in the fall and your good to go till next fall season. The all seasons are crap in the winter and crap in the summer.

I would also recommend 17" snow tires. I run Dunlop Winter M2's, I use 6mm spacers on the front and 25mm rear spacers. I've used this config for 3 winters now and it works perfectly. Rob

All right guys, I got the message on the need for winter tires and the compromise of the all seasons. I will keep the dry Pzero's on and pick up some 17" winter wheeels/tires. Thanks very much for the feedback.

Peter: I fought this one tooth and nail when I first got my car, but soon realized it had to be done. If you look around, you can find a set of used 17' rims on Rennlist or elsewhere. I got a wheel/tire set with decent tread left on the tires for $600, late last year. Also, www.wheelenhancement.com is also a good place to look.

Peterp - you can also buy less expensive rims for winter. I got mine from a local tire dealer but tire rack is a good outlet. They have winter wheel and tire packages which are attractively priced. Mine were Momo as I recall and the set cost about as much as one OEM wheel. Err on the small side when it comes to tire width.

I agree with the winter tires. However, since you indicate wet weather traction is concern, I also would suggest you have the dealership install different summer tires. The P-zero's are not the best wet weather tire. Since ultimate performance and grip is not the goal, something like the Bridgestone S0-3 may be a better tire for you. It has great wet weather traction (better than the P-zeros) and good wear ratings (better than the p-zero's). Also something like the Goodyear Gs-F1 will have better wet weather traction.

Glad to hear it since I just got Bridgestones. How much longer do you guys think the Bridgestone rear tires would last compared to P-Zero rear tires that were shot at 8K (big difference/little difference)?

Tirerack can set you up with Dunlop M3 or Pirelli 240 "winter sport" tires(need spacers for the rear only at minimum) and rims....about $ 1800. World of difference during winter....used to live in Morristown, NJ and definitely worth the expense......run them December through March....

Great suggestions on finding the winter wheels/tires. I'm going to stick with the current tires on the car since I'm going to go the winter tire route and I don't think the dealer will be that enthused about changing them. I will probably consider replacing the tires with all-season though when this set wears out because it seems a safer choice for the intended use. The Pzero Nero's seem to be fairly uncompromized if you believe the reviews on tirerrack -- from 594 reviews it's rated 9.1 on dry traction, 8.8 on ride/noise/comfort, 8.8 on wet traction, and 7.5 on snow. I don't know if these ratings are compared to other all-seasons or against any tire -- if it's the latter, the results are fairly impressive: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ero+Nero+M%26S