What's with Continental tires?

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Oldmoparguy1

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It's tire time for the GC. Will have 45K on the oem's by June when the yearly inspection is due. I've been researching tires for several months now. I read glowing reports about Continental pureContact tires, then I found truecontacts, which are recommended for my van. The Continental website says the trucontacts are available from Discount tire. I have a DT shop just down the road from the house. Ok, looking good, so I dial up the DT website and find no TrueContact tires, but they do have Continental ControlContact Tour AS.

Continental pureContact tires are 80k rated.
Continental TrueContact tires are 90k rated.
Continental ControlContact tires are also 90k rated. These tires look to be the same tire as the TrueContacts. The OTD prices are pretty much the same, so, what the heck?

In the near future, I'm going to stop by the DT store and talk to the folks.

In the meantime, anyone with personal experience with any of these tires, please chime in.
 
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.
 
Originally Posted By: mclasser
Continentals are overrated IMO.
Overrated in what respect?

Some good comments above, AFA mileage ratings go, I will be happy if I get 65k out of them. All of my Dodge mini's have been hard on tires. On my 2000 GC I was getting ~50k out of 70k tires.

Thanks all.
 
You might not want to actually use the full 90k, I usually change tires when they hit the 4 or 5/32's worth of tread and not wait til it goes down to 2/32's which is considered done. So when I've had 80k tires, I've gotten 60k out of them and have been happy. I think I got 40k tires once and only ended up getting about 30k.

You have to read the other specs, what's the speed rating, tread wear rating, and temperature rating?
 
Hello, Sorry I don't have model names for you but I've owned 2 sets of 4 and a pair of Continental Tires.
I was extremely happy with them all. They lasted a long time. I didn't take mileage notes.
The thing you need to know is if any tire you're looking at is a high mileage vs. sporty tire.
It's all about how you drive. Kira
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.


Not to worry! Based upon my limited experience with Continental tires, you will never need to concern yourself about driving on the same set of Continental tires for 80k, let alone 90k miles. My set of factory ContiProContact tires were down to 3/32 - 4/32 when I took them off this winter to put the Blizzak tires on. And I just barely had over 30k on them. Way too far from the 80k they are rated for, for that last 1/32" - 2/32" to get me there.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.

it's a minivan I'm not sure how sporty the tires need to be
 
Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
......so I dial up the DT website and find no TrueContact tires, but they do have Continental ControlContact Tour AS.......



One of the odd things about Discount Tire is that each store stocks different tires - according to the whims of the store manager. ANY store can get ANY tire they list in their catalog, but it may take a few days for them to arrive from the warehouse.
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.


Not to worry! Based upon my limited experience with Continental tires, you will never need to concern yourself about driving on the same set of Continental tires for 80k, let alone 90k miles. My set of factory ContiProContact tires were down to 3/32 - 4/32 when I took them off this winter to put the Blizzak tires on. And I just barely had over 30k on them. Way too far from the 80k they are rated for, for that last 1/32" - 2/32" to get me there.


I do not think that OE tires have any milage warranty. Where did you get the rating from?

Krzys
 
Continental tires are like everyone else they have some REALLY GOOD models and some duds.

Some research is required and also to make sure they don't give you a switch at the tirestore.
 
Originally Posted By: krzyss
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.


Not to worry! Based upon my limited experience with Continental tires, you will never need to concern yourself about driving on the same set of Continental tires for 80k, let alone 90k miles. My set of factory ContiProContact tires were down to 3/32 - 4/32 when I took them off this winter to put the Blizzak tires on. And I just barely had over 30k on them. Way too far from the 80k they are rated for, for that last 1/32" - 2/32" to get me there.


I do not think that OE tires have any milage warranty. Where did you get the rating from?

Krzys


You are correct. My OE tires have no tread warranty. I am basing the tread life warranty upon the warranty offered for the same tire at retail outlets.

It is inconceivable to me that Continental would ship an inferior tire to the assembly plant, compared to what they ship to retailers, and still expect people that are driving on the OE tires to be thrilled with extremely poor tread wear life, and want to become continued Continental customers.
 
The oe tires are designed to specs provided by the car manufacturer. Blame them.
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
Originally Posted By: krzyss
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I can't conceive of driving on the same set of tires for 80k miles. 50k has been my limit in the past. I buy sporty tires, and like the additional road-holding capability of the softer compounds, and the positive steering feel of the stiffer sidewall construction. When I first bought the Dodge Ram, it had Michelin LTX's, and I thought their grip in wet conditions was very poor.


Not to worry! Based upon my limited experience with Continental tires, you will never need to concern yourself about driving on the same set of Continental tires for 80k, let alone 90k miles. My set of factory ContiProContact tires were down to 3/32 - 4/32 when I took them off this winter to put the Blizzak tires on. And I just barely had over 30k on them. Way too far from the 80k they are rated for, for that last 1/32" - 2/32" to get me there.


I do not think that OE tires have any milage warranty. Where did you get the rating from?

Krzys


You are correct. My OE tires have no tread warranty. I am basing the tread life warranty upon the warranty offered for the same tire at retail outlets.

It is inconceivable to me that Continental would ship an inferior tire to the assembly plant, compared to what they ship to retailers, and still expect people that are driving on the OE tires to be thrilled with extremely poor tread wear life, and want to become continued Continental customers.


What is inconceivable to you is the norm in tire business.
There could be numerous flavours of the same tire name, the same size for different car manufacturers.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ContiProContact

Look for size 225/45/R17.
4 different SL plus one XL, one is OE for Mercedes

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Turanza+ER30

Look for size 255/50R19 .

Two tires, one is OE for Mercedes.

Krzys
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
.........It is inconceivable to me that Continental would ship an inferior tire to the assembly plant, compared to what they ship to retailers, and still expect people that are driving on the OE tires to be thrilled with extremely poor tread wear life, and want to become continued Continental customers.


As others have pointed out, the car manufacturer sets the specs for the tires, and the tire manufacturer has to meet them.

Usually the specs emphasize fuel economy (rolling resistance) and to get that, they are willing to sacrifice treadwear and/or traction. The result is tires that wear quickly and may have suffer from lack of grip - giving the appearance of low quality and/or low cost, but neither is true. The goals are just different. The means that each OE tire is unique and comparing OE tires is a fruitless activity.

For the replacement market, that fuel economy emphasis isn't there. In that arena, wear, wear and wear are the 3 most important properties.

HOWEVER, it is common for tire manufacturers to sell the OE tire (identical in most respects) in the replacement market. Sometimes they offer a treadwear warranty, sometimes not. They do this because people do run over things - even in new cars.

It is also common for a line of replacement tires to include a few OE tires - and sometimes the entire line is OE (and in between)

In conclusion, it isn't that the tire manufacturers inadvertently produce tires that don't perform up to expectations, it's that the specs are set to a different criteria - ones that consumers generally don't use.

If you want to read more on OE tires:

Barry's Tire Tech - OE Tires
 
Originally Posted By: BHopkins
It is inconceivable to me that Continental would ship an inferior tire to the assembly plant, compared to what they ship to retailers...


That would be a travesty, wouldn't it? Fortunately, they're not doing that.

The link above is a great one.
 
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