Dry and wet grip are the Continental Sport Contact 2's clearest positives, attracting 91 and 63 favorable comments respectively, with fewer opposing views. The 193 reviews from 178 people average 69.6%, split between 91 positive, 92 neutral and ten negative. Wear is the main compromise, with 84 critical comments against 48 favorable ones, so short life is common but not universal. Road noise draws 36 complaints against 17 favorable mentions, affecting roughly one in five reviews. Dry handling and steering feedback also receive more praise than criticism, while comfort is evenly divided. Repeat-owner scores move in both directions, without a consistent pattern of declining satisfaction as the tire ages.
What owners mention most counted across 187 reviews
The tire grip is very good in dry and wet, even if you push hard it still performs very good. Two issues I had:
- can be very noisy on motorway
- it lasted only 14k miles fitted on front- I don't drive really hard. If you consider the price you may get equally good product that lasts much longer.
I've been happy with CSC2 on a number of fast Audis, but I think the C6 RS 6 is just too big a beast for a relatively hard (280 treadwear rating) tire, as the factory-fit P Zeros lasted longer than either of my last two sets of CSC2s. The shoulders on this set are shot at around 7k miles, probably because they just don't grip hard enough to stop the front scrubbing.
Dry grip is reasonably good, especially considering the 2100kgs of nose-heavy metal it's got to keep in check. Wet grip isn't desperately bad in a stright line - acceleration and braking are both reasonable, but cornering in the wet has become a bit of a buttock-clenching thing sometimes. Aquaplaning is noticable through the steering wheel snatching when it re-grips.
Noise isn't anything I'd complain about, given the weight of the car and width / profile of the size. Their reasonably comfortable, though prone to a bit of flat-spot vibration when the car's been stood while hot tires cool down - especially bad after a few days going nowhere. Soon runs out as they heat up though.
I might buy again, but I'd rather try out some alternatives first. Another 7k miles soon comes round...
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
I'm a very spirited driver, tire performed well. Ran it at inflation pressure 3.5 bar. At that pressure the tire was very sensitive to the road and reacted well. Feathers easily when cornering sternly, especially if at a low inflation pressure. Tires did not last as long as expected, but the wheel protection design has saved me from some minor mag scratches. I would rather buy Michelin Primacy for the price, as it is excessive.
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These came with the car from new and look very good on the car. Unfortunately that is all that is good about the front tires. I am having to change the front 2 at 16000 miles as they are down to the wear limits already. The rear tires are still OK and look to have a good few thousand miles on them. There is also an unacceptable level of road noise compared to other tires i have had.
I am changing to Uniroyal Rainsport 2 to see if they perform better.
not sure i will buy these again at ?129.00 each, real shame they wear so badly, but i guese you have to pay for the safety, i feel really secure on all types of road with these tires, when you hit a bend you can feel them gripping the road, superb handling, had them from brand new, back ones are getting near the limit too, might go for a another option, any tips guys on the next best thing ?,
Had the car from almost new, nearly all motorway driving. These tires function ok but the wear is very poor. Fronts are worn out after 12,800 miles, the same driving in my previous Avensis gave 50,000 miles on Bridgestones so the Conti's are clearly designed to last one service only - I won't buy these again!
A good tire apart from the Wear, but then my car is very front heavy. Never really thrashed them, but the odd time I've hit a bend / roundabout too 'enthusiastically', they've kept me on the road although I suspect on one occassion the unloaded rear tire broke contact. The vRS really needs an uprated ARB to keep things planted when pushing hard. Excellent fuel economy & a good looking tire; raised rims protect the alloys too
These were the original equiptment for a Mondeo ST TDCI. The grip on dry roads was fantastic, wet road when the tires were down to 3mm was really good. Once they get below 3mm they can be pretty scary on very wet roads you get in Scotland in the autumn and winter. My only gripes are they only lasted 16k on the front of my car and they are over 100quid a corner!
I found the tires wore evenly front to rear, even though the car is rear wheel drive.
From new I liked the tires very much. Due to circumstances, we let the tires wear right down when a rear tire blew out, fortunately at only 30 mph. Lucky we weren't on the Autobahn. We are talking a 2 inch rip here (5cm for those metrics amongst us). The scary part was that the rip formed a small part of a split extending around the entire circumference of the tire near (but not at) the point where the tread meets the side wall. This was invisible from the outside as it was on the inner wall of the tire. I have pictures.
I decided to check the others immediately.
Every single remaining tire on the car had the same problem.
I have made a formal complaint to Mercedes Benz. The tire guy at my local Mercedes Benz garage mistook my concerns for a request for compensation. While this would be nice, I urge you to go outside right now with a powerful torch and check out the inner walls of your tires immediately, particularly if they are high mileage. Look for open cracks where the tire flexes, as described above.
The tire man said he had seen this before many times but never all four tires on one car. He also commented that the Sport Contact 3's were OK. Great.
The tires are being returned to Continental and I am expecting a weasel (FX: Ooops! strike that out, I meant analysis) letter in the next couple of weeks. Yes, the tires were very worn. Yes, there was some usage damage. However this does not excuse the catastrophic failure of the carcasses on a car that is barely 16 months old.
Did I like the tires when they were working? Yes. Would I ever by Continental again? It would be better to ask if I love my family.
