I find that hard to believe.

 

who will not sell you run flats? please advise

 

correction:
who will not sell you non-run flats?

 

I just bought a set. Not really a problem.

 

What about cold wet roads? It rains a lot in the winter here with temps in the low 40s. Will the PA4s handle this ?

 

Because it's not true. They are also not supposed to sell you tires with a lower speed or load rating than came on the car but they do it every day in every state. Europe is about the only place where the government regulates what tires you can or cannot install. Here it's just a suggestion that most grunts at tire stores neither understand or care about.

 

Is this the same state in which you can not pump your own gas.
Can't pump your own gas, can't buy the tires you want, what is the up side of living there?

 

Of course. Does it not snow there? If not, then get the all season tires.

 

Atco and Englishtown dragstrips!

 

it does snow but very infrequently and on those days i generally stay home given folks in the PNW area aren't great at handling snow days

my concern is that the reviews all mention the PA4 being great in cold and dry roads but in Seattle, its mostly slushy icy rain on hills that is the big culprit for accidents, not snow itself

 

The PA4 should do better on slushy ICY rain, especially if temps are below 40 F or so.

 

If you're gonna go through the effort of having a 2nd set of tires for driving in situations where the daily high temps aren't above 40-45 degrees F and lows are pretty frequently below freezing, a performance winter tire should work better than a performance all season tire, regardless of whether it's dry, rainy, snowy, icy, etc. As long as you time the switches between summer and winter tires carefully, you can have the best of both worlds year round this way. All seasons are usually designed for people that want to run the same tire year round. And you don't have to take the word of me or any other random person on the internet - you could always contact Tirerack, Michelin, or other tire professionals and go with their recommendation for your situation. Tire selection is usually the largest factor in how a car drives, so I like to make this selection very carefully.

Article from Road and Track about winter tires:

Winter tire myths busted with a Focus ST on track. They're not "snow" tires. Here's why.

quote from the article:
"There are two common myths about winter tires. One is that they’re only good on snow or ice. Wrong. Even where the roads are dry, you’ll benefit from a rubber compound that’s optimized for freezing temps. Thinking of them as “snow tires” just perpetuates the myth. The other is that having them on when there’s no snow on the ground will wear them out. No way. We’ve run dedicated snow tires for months without seeing any snow at all."

 

Just wanted to say thanks for this thread - has been very informative. I too am trying to decide between winter sport vs. A/S. I'm leaning to winter sport as I will only have them on the car during the winter and want to make sure I can get home from work if there's light snow.

 

I installed Continental Extreme Contact DWS all season tires on my c7 at 13,000 miles.
Just had the first snow and they are just ok in 2" of slushy mess on the roads. The tail is somwhat squirrly with anything more than 'Sunday driver' antics. I had it set in Weather mode.
Braking was predictable and the antilock system works well. The corners and 90 degree turns were the main concern. It never felt dangerous, just light in the tail.
Tire Rack offers two other brands which may work better for about $4-500 more for the set of 4 tires.
This is just a first time review. Things may be different in hard snow. We'll see.

The tires are decent on dry roads, but when cornering you can feel a little more flexing of the tread because of the softer rubber and the deep grooves. They have 1500 miles on them and still feel the same as when new on dry roads.

We need actual c7 reports on the other brands. Tire Rack reviews were similar between brands, but included other models in the comparo. I chose the cheapest ones. Maybe there is a big difference in real life.