Drivers generally describe the Continental Premium Contact 2 as a confidence-inspiring summer tire with strong dry grip, capable wet grip, and communicative handling/feedback when pushed. Many higher-scoring reviews also mention stable braking and predictable behavior, with some reporting very long life on lighter cars or predominantly motorway use. However, a large portion of users complain about rapid treadwear (especially on the driven axle) and noticeable road noise, and several note that wet grip/aquaplaning resistance can deteriorate as the tire wears. Overall, it's viewed as a strong performer when fresh, but often expensive to run due to wear and (for some) noise.
What owners mention most counted across 155 reviews
Very good and decent tires.They give you what are they are promised to give.Nothing more,nothing less.Very good grip both in dry and wet.A little bit more comfort would be easily accepted!And less road noise too!As for the wear,much better than Conti5.
So far, the best tire set i had on my car, i can't argue with the enhanced characteristics of handling, it got much better around corners, very communicative and resistent, both dry and wet conditions its performing really well, its very confortable to drive smoothly, it does gets noisy on bad conditions roads but that is normal, i didn't get the chance to find its limits on the streets, so i am looking forward to discover that on a future track day
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
In short, I've found better options out there. Although these are now an old tire, I still see them being offered and even fitted to some 16 plate cars as OE fitment. I'm not sure why as I've found these to be quite noisy and impart a certain sharpness to the ride which both Hankoik Ventus Prime 3 K125 and more notably Pirelli P7 Cinturato tires seem to round off a lot better.
For a touring tire, the Contis are impressively reactive and require less steering lock than many others. However, the negative side is that at the limit they lose grip suddenly and there is little scope for adjustment to the line. Used as such, they make the handling untidy at best and certainly less stable than others. I think these tires demonstrate German engineering ethos in that they are generally well rounded up to about 8 tenths but after that the shortcomings become apparent.
Tire life seems good. They were on the car for 20000 miles in both rear and front positions. Resistance to aquaplaning is quite good as is damp and cold weather cornering. As such, these older mid-performing tires may still make sense if they are discounted sufficiently.
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I have used these tires on a few vehicles. For present purposes, my focus is on my Djet (a light-weight mid-engined coupe of the 60s) & on the size 165/70-14. I consider them to be very good tires & am bewildered by some of the reviews. I drive the Djet very briskly indeed on country roads &, given its "tossable" charms, much of its time is spent at an angle to its direction of travel. I judge it to have good levels of grip in the dry & very good levels of grip in the wet (longitudinally under braking & laterally). But these qualities are not its main charms. It is not the crispest responding structure available in most sizes (but possibly is in 165/70) but is notable for two related traits.
One is that it's a very "talkative" tire which lets you know precisely what it is doing (especially useful in the wet). The second is that when its (high) adhesion levels are exceeded, its limit behavior is benign - the transient zone is broad & response to remedial inputs is faithful (especially important in the wet).
I'd love to be able to fit Michelin PilotSports 4 or Conti SportContact 6 tires but, regrettably, 165/70-14 is not an available size. Nor is the PremiumContact 5 available in Australia in 165/ 70-14 (or I'd fit them). In the meantime, I'm very happy with the PC2.
Not that I care, but they are not harsh riding or noisy although they are short-lived.
OEM fitted tires have been very good for the first 27000 miles, quiet with a comfortable ride, decent dry and wet grip. Rotated front to rear at 16000 miles as fronts showing signs of wear at the shoulder. No change to handling until about 28000 miles when wet grip seemed noticeably worse and traction control / ASC started cutting in more often. From about 31000 dry grip decreasing and handling becoming less controlled in the dry too. Now with 34000 they are going to be replaced. While still legal, 2.5 or 3 mm across the tread on all four, I don't trust them any more.
Member
Skoda
215/60 R16
3,000 miles
Mostly Country Roads
Spirited
Needed new tires for the front of Skoda Yeti 2.0Ltr and asked the local tire supplier for good quality branded tires. The garage said these where the best they could get and supply. Turns out they where and old model yet charge full price Terrible feel and lack of grip and feedback. I will never buy Continental again as so bad fitted replaced within months with Michelin Energy Savers which immediately felt better and where cheaper. Also surprised at how much the Continentals had worn. Never again.
My new 2010 Renault Scenic was initially fitted with contact 2 XL . I found that the tires wore quicker than I initially expected but accepted this as they performed well. When Renault changed the tire on later models the replacement cost and importing time increased as the demand drop..
I contacted Continental at Coventry and they were very helpful when I had to replace two tires quickly and they reserved an allocation on a boat at sea which was good service and also told me that another of their tires was suitable and cheaper because they fitted a Ford van where sales volumes were higher.
I have remained with Continental but have moved to Contact 5 extra load version on my current replacements with the option to increase fron pressures up to 38lbs pressure to reduce wear but this will make a harder ride.
I average under 20,000 miles per tire
These came as standard on both mine and my wife's cars: a 2013 Chevy Sonic and a 2013 Chevy Trax - both H rated. First off and most importantly, these tires didn't last as long as I'd hoped for Conti's - we got about 15k out of them before they were near enough bald on the Trax and 18K out of the ones on the Sonic. I've had budget Three-A P606's that have lasted 30K+ which was a real shame for the PremiumContacts. Secondly, there's one bit of corkscrew bend in my town that the tires frequently lost grip on in both cars in the dry - nothing major but you would feel the back-end step out at 20+, this hasn't happened on any other tires and remember both cars are FWD. Hitting this bend in the wet would cause the back end to slip out at anything above 15mph.
Thirdly, while noise was OK at first, it gets considerably worse the more wear you're dealing with, so much so in the Sonic that you would get out of the car after long journeys with ringing in your ears and a headache.
They feel pretty firm too and aren't great at absorbing bumps as much as other tires we've had, so they were uncomfortable at every stage of their lives. We were, at one point, thinking that the cars were the problem; Then we swapped the tires out (Sailun Atrezzo Elites on the Trax and Toyo Proxes CF2's on the Sonic) and they're both completely different cars, so much more comfortable to drive, much more reliable grip and so much quieter.
I'm surprised we had such bad experiences with this tire, because Continental are usually a great brand - but think they're just not well suited to our cars.
Very good tire in dry and wet road. Very good holding. After the 35000 km, the tires was more slippery. I changed the tires at 38000km.
Member
Ford
195/60 R15 H
12,000 miles
A Combination of Roads
Easy Going
Im not a hard driver and it's not loaded up with tools I'm currently getting 55+ mpg and all for tires are shot after only 12000 mile.
I will be looking else where for replacements
Very good tire with long life.
In all conditions wet, dry and cornering you'r safe with them.
At bit noisy so I 'll not buy again, prefering to find a quieter tire.
