Hi Everyone! I'm looking for some advice choosing the right tires and I would greatly appreciate some guidance.

I currently have the stock Continental ContiProContact 245/40r 18" and these are by far the noisiest tires I've ever seen. There's so much noise that gets into the cabin that it sounds like I'm driving with my windows cracked open.

I've looked through a bunch of threads and I noticed that the Continental Extreme Contact DWS 245/40r 18" come highly recommended. However, I'm hesitant to go with continental again because of how poorly the ContiProContact tires performed.

My main goal is to get a new set of tires that are extremely quiet and offer a smooth ride.

Any recommendations besides the Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires?

On tire rack, the Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole Position come highly recommended but they are much more expensive compared to the DWS tires. Is it worth the extra money? Are there any tires that I should consider?

Or should I put aside my feelings about the ContiProContact and go with the DWS tires because they are the most quiet tires on the market and I will be happy with my decision? :)

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

some observations.

Almost all performance tires are noisy. Most All Seasons give you a quieter tire and longer life. You should also check what you did with your existing Contis:
1. Did you rotate them every 5K miles?
2. Did you have the alignment checked?
3. Did you use the correct tire pressures per the recommendations in the manual (not just the sticker on the car [US requirements now only show the max pressure to use for a fully loaded car on the stickers]. I personally use the min pressure the manual recommends =2lbs
4. Did you check those pressures every three months


All those things I recommend help the tires to wear correctly and reduce the possibility of noise. Tire noise is easy to differienate from wheel bearings as the pitch of the noise will change vs the road surface type.,

Irrelgular wear will cause even quiet riding tires like the Pro Contact to become loud over time. If you were to take a brand new set of Conti Pro Contact tires and a new set of Extreme Contact DWS tires, the Pro Contact would be smoother and quieter and would stay quieter longer than the DWS under the same conditions.

The three most quiet riding tires we sell in the 245/40R18 size would be the Bridgestone Turanza Serenity, the Conti Pro Contact, and the Kumho ECSTA LX Platinum.

Tires http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AR8&url=/tires/index.jsp

.. and a 35 series tire will be very noisy. Want quiet - get an all season or better yet, a "touring" tire, and get it in a more reasonable size.

G