Hi All!
I could use some of your collective experience on tire selection. Located in southern Wisconsin so we do get some snow.

The plan is to have two sets of rims and wheels, summer and winter. The winter tires will be used on the 19" stock sport rims that came with the vehicle. There are a couple of spots on the rims where the chrome is coming off so exposing them to snow and salt is a non-event for me. The car is a RWD but that is not a concern. I grew up with that in the north and snow and the traction control helps keep things under control.

The summer set up will be on staggered 20" rims. Fronts will be 8.5 x 20 and rear 10 x 20. I have debated on the wheel size for the staggered set up and decided that 20" was my limit.

What tires would you recommend for both winter and summer. Tire noise is my main concern followed by traction. Not looking for super sticky summer tires and do not want to have a winter tire that will not perform well in the cold.

Looked at available tires for this set up, front-245/40/20, rear-275/35/20. Read many of the threads on tire suggestions and compared what was available to those recommended. Only 1 or 2 of the recommended tires are available in the staggered sizes; Continential DSW & Michelin pilot.

So what say ye for :
Summer Staggered set up in 20"
Tire Rack has the following in order of rating: Anyone using any of these?
#1 Pilot Sport S4
#2 Pilot Sport
#3 Conti ExtremeContact Sport
#4 Conti DWS 06

Winter stock set up in 19"

TIA

 

I'm assuming your 2011 is RWD?

For winter, I'd go with 245/35/19 all corners instead of staggered for rotation purpose. These Pirellis are cheap options and currently on sale.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...wtpackage=true

For summer, those staggered sizes would work and you have tons of tire selection with 20" wheels.

I've driven with Continental all-season tires for two winters now on light snow in Illinois without any issues. I'm still debating whether to get a set of 265/35/20 winter tires for my M5 or not.

 

I live in Chicago and I have both AWD and RWD so I hope my post can help.

For AWD I have a summer setup which consists of Hankook Ventus V12 on staggered setup, which is 20x9 and 20x10.5, but those weren't by my choice, as they came with the rims I purchased, when it comes time to replace, my go-to all season tires are either the Goodyear Eagle Sport all seasons, Continental DWS06 (the newer of the originalDWS line which is also still good), and/or the Pirelli Cinturato P7. If you're AWD, having these will be just fine to run you through the winter.

For RWD, I highly recommend Nokian, or a dedicated winter tire setup, although the LS is a heavy car and handles much better than my S2000 in the snow, I've always been more inclined to run dedicated snows or RWD applications, whereas I feel more "comfy" running All-Seasons on AWD cars, especially if I have a square and not staggered setup, so I can rotate the tires as needed.

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To answer your question though overall,
I run the setups in this order
Pirelli Cinturato P7, Conti DWS06, then whatever else you wish in terms of all season for your summer setup.
You would be fine running these in the winter too if you really wanted but again, personal preference.
Nokian or Michelin brand for winter setup, I'm not a huge fan of Blizzaks (anymore) as I find they wear out quickly in my own observation after about 2-3 season of usage.

 

Staggered 20" Summer Tires
After looking at the tire reviews on Tire Rack and the feedback here, I'm leaning towards the Conti Extreme Contact Sport based upon reviews and price. They seem to be a good compromise. The reviews on Tire Rack ranked the tires relative to each as follows.
#1 Pilot Sport 4S
#2 Pilot Super Sport
#3 Conti ExtremeContact Sport
#4 Conti DWS 06
I think it is hard to go wrong with any of these 4 tires.

For the winter set in 19", there are a few dedicated winter tires and lots of all season. Since this is a RWD and I will have summer tires I am leaning towards dedicated snow and not all season.
#1 Michelin X-Ice X13 seems to be the best compromise of price and performance. The P7 all season actually rated higher than the dedicated Sottozero Series II.
#2 Pirelli Cinturato P7 All season
#3 Winter Sottozero Series II


Appreciate the comments and references, thanks.

 

Somehow this post ended up in the wrong threat, please delete.