Continental Car Tires

Initial Review, 38,000 Miles on Tires
April 01, 2013

I live in Florida, where the roads are pretty good.

At 38,000 miles, my back tires are nearly done, near the wear marks. Front tires still have the "DW" mark. Overall, I'm very happy with the treadlife; I've done suspension mods recently, driven the car hard and treadlife is still good.

For a summer performance tire, DWs are a nice balance of price, ride quality, traction, tread life, and wet performance.

When pushed hard, my car has plenty of grip and everything is predictable. Car feels very composed in the rain and we get plenty of rain here in Tampa.

I'm looking to buy replacement tires now and DWs are on my short list. Only reason I might pass on them would be to splurge on something finer like Michelin PSS.

***UPDATE - just bought them again today. They're just a great value with many good qualities. Mich PSS may have better responsiveness and traction but the DW's have longer UTOG, lighter weight and cost 25%+ less.

Initial Review, 1,000 Miles on Tires
April 08, 2013

Low road noise, great riding tire, great traction on corning, buying another set for my other car!

Initial Review, 1,500 Miles on Tires
February 19, 2013

This is a preliminary review of the Continental PureContact with EcoPlus for the Mazda5. We have put 1500 miles of Pacific NW winter driving on these tires since our purchase. They are significantly quieter when driving on both concrete and asphalt highways, especially at freeway speeds. The Mazda5 is not a quiet, touring car, but these tires are a dramatic improvement over both the OEM tires and the Goodyear Eagles that we have previously had mounted. Our Mazda5 has a 5sp manual and so far, the Purecontacts have not lost their grip during normal 1st gear starts. About 80% of our driving so far has been in damp and wet weather and the Purecontacts track predictably at all speeds. Fortunately, the Mazda5 has not been in snow this winter, so no feedback yet on their snow performance. Only time and mileage will show how these age, but we are extremely satisfied with these tires so far.

Initial Review, 100 Miles on Tires
March 05, 2013

This is an initial first impression review. Going from stock tires to these i have noticed a much quieter and softer ride which made my two trips to the office much better than my old loud tires.
Sidewalls i've found are MUCH softer than the OEM Yokohama's, which unfortunately makes cornering a little questionable. Even going down the highway, shake the wheel a little back and forth, you can feel the car floating around. Interesting how i didn't find any mention of the soft sidewalls here, but one i searched for that specific issue found a lot of forums with this complaint. Will post a followup review after i can test the performance in all conditions.

Initial Review, 37,500 Miles on Tires
April 02, 2013

I bought these to replace the Continentals that came OEM with my car, and out of the box they were significantly superior and fantastic. Considering they are merely all-seasons, their performance in the snow was surprising. I drive mostly in the city, so the streets get plowed regularly in the winter. I wouldn't use these for my winter set if I lived out in a rural area. The dry and wet grip when new was excellent. Now that I have over 37500 miles (60,000km) on them, their dry and wet traction is starting to decrease, despite having lots of tread depth remaining.

Initial Review, 2,500 Miles on Tires
March 24, 2013

Fantastic tires so far. So much quiter than the goodyears that came on the car. Traction is great in all conditions. Just got 6in of snow drove around with no problems. Haven't had them that long but I am very happy with these tires.

Initial Review, 7,000 Miles on Tires
March 24, 2013

Phenomenal tire.

I have a modified Taurus SHO putting down about 405hp and 450tq, and these tires perform great in all conditions. I don't consider these all-seasons, i consider then 4 season tires.

Good in all conditions. I swapped out my Goodyear Eagle F1 summer tires, and expected a drop off in handling, but I seriously can't tell.

They are also extremely loud when you try to break traction, which means there is some serious grip from these tires. They are very quiet and smooth on highway cruising, and high speed stability is impeccable. No reason to keep summer tires around. Just mount these and you're done.

Oh, and the tread life is also amazing. I can barely measure any wear after 7000 miles. And my car is about 4400lbs.

Initial Review, 17,000 Miles on Tires
March 20, 2013

These tires came stock off my 2009 Honda Fit Sport, I've wore it down to the belt in about 17,000 miles. These tires has horrible traction and horrible tread life... Over all I'm very disappointed in Honda's choice in stock tires. Hopefully my Continental DW will improve the overall feel of this eco car and make my commute fun and exciting... not a every day safety hazard waiting to happen.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
October 27, 2011

After 10,000+ miles on my Saturn SL2 I am ready to leave an informed review:



My old tires were Fuzion HRi 195/60HR15, roughly the same price range. They lasted me 50,000 miles. I recorded 33.3mpg over 20,000 miles. The new tires are averaging 29.4mpg over 10,000 miles, no other changes to the car and the drop happened the tank after I switched.



What that means is that with these tires I have paid $160 more in gas so far than I would have with my old tires ($4/Gal). By the time I reach 50,000 miles I could have bought 2.5 extra sets of the other tires, which handled and rode significantly better.



Sorry Continental, you failed.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
March 19, 2013

This car turned my 750i back into a luxury car, but also allowed it to continue to be sporty. I have two different sizes of tires front - 245 45ZR 19, rear - 275 40 ZR19. After 10,000 I am beginning to hear road noise with the radio off, but not bad. Great tire for a 7 series BMW.

Initial Review, 18,100 Miles on Tires
March 20, 2013

I have a 2009 BMW 335i, purchased these tires to replace the run flats.. Best decision ever! The DWS emblem on the tire vanishes over the life of the tire, letting you know when your traction is gone. After 18000 miles on all 4 tires, my fronts still have DW, (Good dry and Wet traction) and the rear two have faint symbols of the D left.. (Meaning I probably need to replace them soon, dry traction is fading. Overall I would give these tires a 9/10. I really don't have much to compare them too except the horrible run flats that came with it when I bought my car. I balanced and aligned my car after about 12000 miles on the new tires. So I believe I got good use out of them. I haven't bought new ones yet, I am going to try and get 20000 out of the rear tires. Most of my driving has been around town and short trips on the weekends. So for the price, I cant complain at all!

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
March 06, 2013

I tried the Bridge Stone Serenity Plus but as W speed rated tire ,I found the ride to firm and the tire had a faint hum as the car slowed in speed.
I also tried the Continental Pure Contact Eco Plus but found the tire to have a very audible hum at speeds over 60 and the gas savings became questionable.
I decided to put on a new set of the OEM Michelins Pilot Hx mxm4 and now wonder if the OEM tire that you purchase is better than the OEM tire that comes on the car, probably not but it sure seems like it. The OEM Michelin just seems like it is the better tire for my car.

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
March 02, 2013

Thus far, these tires have been incredibly disappointing. I did a ton of research before buying these to replace the OEM runflat tires for our BMW, and have had to replace both the front and rear tires again within 18 months. And good luck trying to get any warranty coverage on them. We put rear tires on December 2011, and with less than 15,000 miles of moderate highway driving, these tires were absolutely dangerous last time it rained. The car was hydroplaning all over the road at any speed over 45 mph. We were very careful when we replaced them last time to get them Road Force balanced, to make sure there were no problems with uneven tire wear. Didn't help at all. Really at wits end trying to find tires for this car.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
February 16, 2013

I+ thought this tire can handle light snow. But today there is about 2 inches of snows, and I can't even stop! It slided about 3 cars length before it comes to a full stop from 40mph. But to be fair, 255 is very wide on snow.... Please use caution with this tire if yours are wide too

Initial Review, 27,000 Miles on Tires
March 16, 2013

Tires are from factory, bought car new 4miles, around 1300 miles had sidewall start leaking,replaced that tire, had another constantly slow leaking never could find problem,finally blew out sidewall. now at 27000 miles and noticed little cuts and chunks coming out of tread,all 4 tires, not to mention they are almost wore out. Tires have been rotated and balanced every other oil change.I thought these were 60000 mile tires { half that } at least I'm not alone. But I think someone should be liable for the sorry tires.

Initial Review, 2,500 Miles on Tires
March 02, 2010

This is more a review of these tires on my specific car.



Great in the snow, absolutely great. The more snow the better, or so it seems. Braking is easily better than all-seasons, as is handling and acceleration. Wet snow is noticable more difficult to maintain control, however. Now for the bad news, seemingly terrible in the slush. Not sure if it is my car or the tires, but the car gets pushed around very easily by even small amounts of slush. I tend to believe it has more to do with my cars suspension, weight, and width to wheelbase ratio than the tires though. Easier to drive through 6 inches of snow than 1 inch of slush. Fun to have a car willing to rotate on dry roads, but not so much on wet winter slush.



Dry roads are mixed, as these things like to grab every little pebble and sand grain the road commission dumps on Michigan. Slip and control is well within tolerance though, and really only becomes an issue in spirited driving. It takes very little to spin the inside wheel accelerating through a tight corner if there is any sand, debris. Clean roads are great in the dry though. Some tire wandering above 65 mph, although determined mostly by road surface. Tires seem to move and stretch a noticable amount more above freezing temperatures, although this is only apparent driving back to back temperature differences.



Very quiet tire, almost as quiet as the non-OEM all-seasons that I had on before. (Coopers?) Much quieter than my father and bro-in-laws Blizzak Revo's. Stock wheels are 17", these are on 16", I notice more rebounding motion from the tires than stock, although small imperfections are slightly smoothed over versus stock. In retrospect, I should have gone with 17" as the extra sidewall can be felt in hard acceleration. Not sure on tread-wear yet.



In summary on my Mazda 6s, great on the snow, bad in slush, matches wet(rain) A/S performance, dependable dry weather performance and a very quiet ride for snow tires.

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
March 02, 2013

Convinced 87 year old mother to replace 7 year old original Continental tires with 1/2 remaining tread and 35k miles with new ones as they were getting a little hard. She was happy with the Continentals so I read all the tests on the new ProEco's and they finished first in the tests. Competitively priced with all the leading sellers with better performance. Know full well these will be the last tires she will ever need on this car. She was immediately impressed with the handling and quiet of the car and new tires. I took it out in 24F crappy weather with slush and rain to see how good they were going to be. Awesome!! They are much superior to the original design in wet, slushy and dry. Light snow and ice up and down driveways with traction control is a breeze. I've been driving this car in dry, wet and light snow for the last two weeks and can find no fault with them. Modern cars with ABS and traction control with 17" alloy wheels will love these tires. Handling in the extreme under bad weather is quite amazing for a Green tire with 80k tire wear. I have autocrossed cars for 30 years so pretty much know how to road test tires for grip and steering feel in both wet and dry. These tires have it all for the average motorist at a fair price. I totally concur with Tirerack's tests. Especially when the cruise control is on at 70mph on the highway the ride is great and they are totally quiet with an original factory suspension. These are great tires for NW Ohio where the snow rarely gets over 3" deep.

Initial Review, 8,500 Miles on Tires
March 17, 2013

I bought these Continental tires so I wouldn't have to put on my dedicated snow tires every year. They have been awesome with this winters above average snow fall. They go, stop, and corner as well as my snow tires. Granted as the tread wears, they won't be as good in the snow, but that's why I still have my snow tires sitting in the garage waiting for action. These tires look great on my Audi and although they don't match the OEM summer Dunlops ability to make the car feel like it's riding on rails when cornering, the Continentals are far superior for Iowa's climate.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
November 03, 2010

Honestly, I think most of the reviews in here are either bias or people don’t bother and put 10 in every category in the survey. Hence the ratings are skewed to the positive side. I can't agree with most of the folks who surveyed here about the noise level and handling. It bothers the heck out of me when driving on highway. That "woooo & wannng " noises are very irritating. Trust me, it’s not the road. I have tried on both smooth tarmac and concrete roads. I had to turn up the radio to compensate for it.

Handling in the DRY is mediocre at its best. I think Continental should rename it to OWS instead (Only Wet & Snow). I am not very confident in turning the car at high speed when exiting off the ramp---the car feels like it is not responding to where I want it to point. I have set the suspension to Sport 2, so I am pretty sure it’s the tires’ problem.

I have nothing bad to say about the tire in wet and snow. Snow is where this tire shines. During the blizzard in the beginning of the year here in DC, this tire combined with the 4matic works like a snowmobile. I was passing most SUVs all day long. The only time I was stuck was when the car had no more clearance which was about 6-7 inches of snow.

I am also very happy with the warranty with Continental. Two months after the installation of the tires, the right front had 2 bubbles. I immediately contacted TireRack and asked for a replacement. Be aware that the manufacture only warrants the first 2/32” of usage. I believe I still had 10/32” (11/32” is new) at that point so I was good. The only thing I have to pay is the shipping back to TireRack.

Overall, I am happy with the tire, but don’t expect to use these tires to sprint through the slalom in the dry as they won’t be able to catch up your demand. Also, if you can ignore the road noise, I would say go for it.

Initial Review, 12,000 Miles on Tires
March 07, 2013

I came on this site b/c I sold another car so the Z3 became my daily driver. I needed/wanted a new set of tires that would serve me well (work commute mostly) in summer but also in winter when we do get snow (Ohio). I checked out what kinds of (all-season) tires other 2001 Z3 3.0L owners bought-- and the top seller was the Continental ExtremeContact DWS (dry/wet/snow). As we all know, a tire purchase is a big deal -- it's lots of $ and you want to get the purchase right. So I was nervous, but HOLY COW I COULD NOT BE HAPPIER! I've got about 12k miles on them now, and I've had them in monsoon rain, snow, you name it! And the tires have rocked it out. I love this car and plan on keeping it forever and ever, well, until it stops running, and these tires have helped me out a lot. If you are even thinking about getting these, do it, I really think you will be pleased! So happy!