Continental EcoContact 6 Reviews - Page 13

I realise mine will not be a thorough review, however I feeI could still share my limited experience of the continental ecocontact 6 with you. The car was a rental BMW F40 120d xdrive (MY2019/2020) with msport package, which I am not sure comes with upgraded suspensions on the 1 series. Tires were 225/40/18. While I only had the car for two days, I was "lucky" to put it through its paces during storm Ciara, on the 10th of Feb in Edinburgh. I drove through some dry, damp, and wet while it was raining and snowing. Bear in mind there was no snow on the ground, however it was quite cold at 2 degrees Celsius and perceived -5 (according to google at least). I regret not having an IR thermometer with me at the time, however it is safe to say that the tires were considerably colder than ideal both in city driving and short motorway stints. Being eco summer tires, I was surprised by their positive behavior on cold, wet roads. Today's tire technology is remarkable. While there wasn't enough water to test the aquaplaning resistance at speed, I did try booting the accelerator pedal to see if the tires would struggle to maintain traction. Within the road legal limits, and without looking like a complete hooligan it was impossible to upset the car. This is to say that driving according to the conditions one could get through a mild winter with summer tires, and the ecocontact 6 seems to be no exception. In terms of comfort I found the 120d more compliant than other msport package bimmers (2,3,5 series) mostly wearing Pirelli P7 Blue, and Goodyear F1 A3. However, it could just be because of softer suspensions. The car was probably a little too stiff for what I think it sets out to be, but absolutely acceptable and comfortable by my standards. The new 1 series doesn't strike my like a performance vehicle of any sorts and somehow seems more cramped in the front than before. As for the handling, and feedback, nothing noteworthy. The feedback is lacking and steering a little vague on all the bimmer I have driven. The F30 3 series being the least disappointing. Granted I only driven F30 318i and G20 320i. So perhaps the good kit can still be found on the 40i's and M cars, but I am sceptical. The ecocontact 6 did not seem to mute the steering further. Good tire for touring, fits the car and satisfies the need of most of us. DISCLAIMER: the car had 2255 miles when I collected it, I assume all the mileage was done on this set of tires. I drove some 50-100 miles. The car had xdrive, bmw lingo for AWD, which very sporadically redistributed power, but never because of sudden lost of traction. This was hard to notice, but still present. Finally, why I may have said that summer tires CAN make it through winter, it is not advisable in Scottish weather. These tires performed just fine when they were new and had full tread. However the grooves do get narrower as the tread is reduced. (Any) premium all season tires for those who don't drive big miles would be my recommendation, especially for places like Scotland, where summer temperature are contained. Michelin CrossClimate Plus should not compromise warm/dry performance too much either.

These are my first Continental tires and will almost certainly be my last. I collected my Astra ST 1.6 diesel here in Singapore in mid Dec 19 and while it isn't the most powerful car on the planet it can certainly give the common-or-garden 1.6-liter Hyundai Avante or Civic a run for its money when it needs to. But these tires undo everything that's right about the Astra. They're noisy on anything but freshly laid asphalt and are very eager to transmit surface imperfections while ironically not giving the driver much information on what the road beneath is doing. Just yesterday I had to execute a pretty quick U-turn in a rainstorm and the squeal that issued from them was louder than a pair of cut cats. They also look pretty ugly in high profile form, what with their tubby sidewalls and not much rim protection. Apparently they're cheap and bad enough that even our local tire dealers wouldn't trade them in brand new... So I'll just live with them until they wear down (which shouldn't take long given they started out with only 6mm of tread...)

Continental doesn't even have a complaint section on their site only a Technical Questions section, so no room for complaints.

Living in a mountaineous area with 11 kms of gravel road to pass and usually snow in the winter, I chose a Fiat Panda 4x4 as second car. It came factory-equipped with Continental WinterContact and happily spent the winter and most of the spring with them.

Summer came so I bought a set of 4 EcoContact 6 tires and the nightmare started.

Today I had my sixth puncture in less than 4 months, below 7.000 kms. Two times tires evenn needed to be replaced as the side wall got a 4-5 cms long cut. I am completey pissed off now!

Paid alltogether for 6 rather expensive EcoContact tires that proved to be completely useless – whereas the marketing bla-bla on their website never mentions thin side walls or that these tires would be suitable only for the smoothest asphalt.

Many years and kilometers spent on the same route with different tires and/or cars without any issues. Other tire set on the same car: Continental ContiCrossContact Winter; on other cars: a 30 years old Fiat Panda 4x4 on Vredestein Quatrac AllSeason; Dacia Logan on some cheap tires; Land River Defender on BFG AllTerrain KO1, Michelin Latitude.

Just fitted a brand new set made in Slovakia, replacing almost 2 year old CPC5 of the same size that were worn down to 4mm.
Immediately I am already disappointed that the new EcoContact 6's brand new tread depth is only around 6mm!
All new tires I've bought in the past start at 8mm. Other owners of this tire seem to have noticed this as well and unless Continental explains this properly, it can be seen as an attempt to shortchange customers.

Performance wise, I noticed a marked reduction in rolling resistance, noise, and bumpiness vs the old CPC5. At downhill stretches in my daily work commute, my car actually now builds up speed rather than lose speed. I also noticed less need to tap on the petrol pedal to during coasting at low speeds. Tires feel a bit 'floaty' than the CPC5.

They are very prone to squealing/screeching when turning at low speeds over car park painted flooring and it is very much louder than the previous tires. Not sure if that's a good or bad sign. Dry grip seems to be good but no experience yet at wet emergency braking.

Will report back again once these tires have gone through many more miles.

I bought these to replace my PremiumContact 5 after six years and about 40k km (half the year i use winter tires). Compared to those EcoContact 6 surprised me on rolling resistance and comfort. After about 2k km i noticed approx. 2-3% less fuel consumption. Road shock absorbance was astounding to me (i have a small car); almost like i improved my suspension. Road noise was also excellent; my kids for the same speeds think we are going slower. Last great positive was handling over bumps: because they seem to absorb shocks in an excellent way, encountering a bump at a turn resulted to excellent behavior; very surprised. Didn't drive much over wet yet to infer a conclusion. On the negatives: i find steering a bit more num over the PremiumContact 5. I think spirited drivers should turn their head away from this choice (the tire is not targeting them anyways). To summarize, an excellent tire on what it promises: fuel economy, comfort with good safety.

In a nutshell terrible.

Bought a brand new car and they came on the car as new. Surprisingly like the other review on here they have only between 6 and 6.5mm on them brand new. They are not very comfortable either and transmit bumps in the road into the and are noisy. Dry grip is average at best as is wet grip.

A few years back I replaced a different continental tire set on my car at only 6000 miles! the wear I expect to be terrible as on these. Previously I made a set of goodyears last 30,000 miles a BMW 320D so definitely not my driving style causing the wear.

Once these are worn I will certainly not replace them with the same junk Continental. As an organization they should be ashamed. Low tread depths and poor wear probably to get through tire tests with good scores.

If you are reading this review and consider these tires I would say DONT. There are other brands out there that are well priced with better grip, better comfort, more new tread depth and better wear!

I bought a pair of these for the front of my car and drove them approximately 14 miles home today. I have measured the tread depths and found them to be approximately 6.5 mm. The Continental Premium Contact 5 which were removed had done about 28000 miles and had worn down to approximately 3 to 4 mm. These tires were original equipment on the car and I am pretty sure the tread depths were of the order of 8 mm when they were new. When I have bought quality tires in the past, they have generally had around 8 mm of tread. If the tires wear at the same rate, it appears I will have to replace them at a much lower mileage. It is possible that the new tires will wear at a considerably reduced rate. However, I am sceptical and suspect that I will have to replace then at rather less than 28000 miles.
Are manufacturer's quietly reducing the life of their tires for commercial reasons?
This practice is surely environmentally unsound. More used tire casings will be produced for a given vehicle mileage. Greater stress should be placed on tread depth (and longevity) of tires when they are advertised new. Perhaps a statement of the tread depth in the description should be legally required. This would help to sort out the tendency of tire manufacturers toward selling tires of reduced tread depth.
I will try and add a further review when I have had the tires for a bit longer.