300 mile initial review Continental Vikingcontact 7 review (small car)

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I wanted to give my initial impressions of the Vikingcontact 7's on my 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage (175/55-15). I've had them on there about 300 miles now but we had a big blizzard and another smaller snow storm since getting them mounted.

Road noise: Very impressed with this. Cheaper snow tires I've run in the past would hum at higher speeds. The VC 7's seem to be the same road noise level as the Yokohama Avids that this car came with stock.

Dry performance: Basically indistinguishable from the Yokohama all seasons that came stock. Which to me is very impressive.

Snow performance: The weakness of a tiny car is getting going in deeper snow. With these tires the only time I ever got wheel spin was on thick wet slush. Hard packed or fresh snow they just grabbed. I did a little slaloming and medium braking in random parking lots and also couldn't get them to break traction.

My initial impressions of these tires is that they are certainly the best snow tires I've ever driven on. The confidence they give is totally worth the price. The big question will be how many seasons they give me.
 
I also have these - brand new - on my 2019 Infiniti QX60. Being AWD, it's not so easy for me to say how much I like the Viking 7's but I have no issues with their noise, handling, snow traction so far.
 
I wanted to give my initial impressions of the Vikingcontact 7's on my 2020 Mitsubishi Mirage (175/55-15). I've had them on there about 300 miles now but we had a big blizzard and another smaller snow storm since getting them mounted.

Road noise: Very impressed with this. Cheaper snow tires I've run in the past would hum at higher speeds. The VC 7's seem to be the same road noise level as the Yokohama Avids that this car came with stock.

Dry performance: Basically indistinguishable from the Yokohama all seasons that came stock. Which to me is very impressive.

Snow performance: The weakness of a tiny car is getting going in deeper snow. With these tires the only time I ever got wheel spin was on thick wet slush. Hard packed or fresh snow they just grabbed. I did a little slaloming and medium braking in random parking lots and also couldn't get them to break traction.

My initial impressions of these tires is that they are certainly the best snow tires I've ever driven on. The confidence they give is totally worth the price. The big question will be how many seasons they give me.

that pretty much matches my experience on the 2020 elantra , except they are better than the junk oem tires at pretty much everything.. except noise and mpg.
 
Narrow snow tires on a light car is a pretty good combination for winter driving I've found. I used to run 155/80R13 on a 95 Neon and it was fun in the deep snow. I see continental makes a 145/65R15 which would be really good in the deep stuff, but doesn't have quite the load rating for a Mirage. I do like these more ice oriented winter tires for their clear road manners, but they aren't quite as good in the deep stuff which is an issue if you can't get them in a narrow size. I see they make 175/65R15 with a 88T load rating so I would consider those as the next set of winter tires for my Focus. Its got 185 width WS80's now but I think it would handle the deep stuff better on 175's.
Hopefully you the vikingcontact 7's last for you.
 
....My initial impressions of these tires is that they are certainly the best snow tires I've ever driven on. The confidence they give is totally worth the price.

No ice on the roads in Minnesota?
 
We've had a heat wave the past few days. 38 yesterday and the day before so we've had the roads really clear up. Last week was a lot of packed ice and snow though.
 
I bought these in October, right after we unexpectedly were offered to buy a good condition winter/commuter beater, as the tires on it wouldn't have been able to handle winter. Very different type of car than the Mirage, as it is an '04 Impala.

These tires have made the car an absolute tank through snow, seemingly unstoppable with amazing grip. It does just as well on ice, packed snow, or any other winter condition.

No concerns on dry pavement, either. Haven't had any wet pavement to try them out on. Since before Christmas, we've been lucky with no precipitation, and temperatures bouncing between just below freezing to just above freezing, so the main roads are all bare pavement.
 
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