Drivers generally describe the Continental Sport Contact 3 as a strong-performing UHP summer tire with confident handling, strong braking, and notably good wet-road grip with good resistance to aquaplaning. The most consistent complaint is rapid tread wear (especially on front axles/FWD cars), with many also reporting higher road noise/firm ride and premium pricing. A smaller but recurring theme is tramlining/steering pull on certain cars or as the tire wears, and some note wet/cold performance can deteriorate later in the tire's life.
What owners mention most counted across 189 reviews
225/40 ZR18 front
245/35 ZR18 rear
After 3 years of low and conservative usage (42K Khm), I was surprised to see pieces missing from the surface of my tires.
Bought these tires on reading good test results, great tires BUT,,,, in the 2 years I had them I bust the sidewalls on three of them in smallish potholes and two of the replacements developed serious cracks along thread grooves at about 6/7000 miles, 4/5mm thread. 'Continental' took them back and paid out. Now changed to another make.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
These are my favorite tires apart from Vredesteins. They wear VERY quickly and they aren't cheap but for all-round performance I'd choose them. If only they didn't wear so quickly. I drive in a spirited fashion in a RWD so it's not surprising, nothing lasts more than 15k, but these tended to last about 9k miles only on the rears. Trying out the Matadors next which are 'apparently' made in the same factory. Will report back.
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These were one of the best tires I've ever had but also the worst tires for wear. I've used Michelin, Goodyear and Pirelli previously which all lasted a lot longer than the Continentals. The Continentals gave me great confidence in both the wet and dry but I suppose with the grip it sacrifices wear. It hasn't even been a year since I had them on and they are close to the markers and I'm sure they'll need replacing when it reaches a year. Saying that, I have got the SportContact2 on the front of my car (which is rear wheel drive) and they have been on there 2 years and are only half worn. I do about 10k a year. In terms of performance they have been great. If you can afford to change your tires quickly, go for them, but if you want your tires to last long then these are not for you and just for that reason I won't be buying these again and probably will give the newer SportContact5 a miss too.
These are the worst performing tires that I ever had in my whole life. The tires are hard and bumpy. Considering the high prices one has to pay for these tires and the performance of the tires is definitely not one would expect.
I couldn't bear the noise and hardness of these tires, as I had lost all the comfort that I suppose to get from my new Volvo. In the end, I removed all these tires and replaced with GT Radial Champiro HPY. Now,I'm very happy and delighted after switching to GT tires. These GT tires are really value for money and they're "Y" rated i/o "W" rated.
Fronts worn out 18k miles, not wrong pressures: no spare rubber left anywhere. Twitchy on limit while giving a misleading crisp feel initially. Very noisy throughout. Also developed various circumferential cracks, several inches long. PilotSport 3's much quieter, less edgy feel, smoother transition towards point of losing grip. Eagle F1's or Ultragrip 8 performance appear OK / cheaper alternatives. Briskoda users all found Conti's poor & bad value: Conti 3's were little better than 2's.
I had to replace 4 of these on different occasions due to sidewall failure. Bubbles form on the sidewall and potholes cause rips in the sidewall.the grip was very good but to replace brand new tires after 2000km 4 times in one year is not fun.
Original Tires on my 2009 Mercedes SLK 350, 245/40/17 on the rear and 225/45/17 on the front.
Very good Tires for this car, very good handling and grip especially in dry, easy to handle and very good steering precision.
Very stable in high speeds, I drove a few times across Germany on the Autobahn in very high speeds up to 250 Km/h, the car was absolutely stable and balanced, very impressive.
For this car acceptable comfort and noise-level, I am however very doubtful if I would choose these Tires for a comfort-oriented car, these Tires are a bit hard and noisy.
The wear is probably acceptable for this type of car with 306 HP which I used often although 22.000 km on the rear Tires feels a little bit poor, I got about 35.000 km on the front Tires.
Because of good reviews I changed to Goodyear F1 Assymetric 2 but although the Goodyears has a little bit better comfort and noise-level they are not as good as the Continentals on this car, especially the steering precision and feeling is significantly better with the Continentals.
I would buy these Continental Tires again for a sports-car.
OK tires I guess but when getting to the 5mm mark they do tend to aquaplane in puddles of water. Poor grip when tire is still cold, but once warmed up grip improves.
Dry grip is really good but in wet not rly. Sometimes there is horrible understeer (before has nexen cp641 - no wet grip at all - on conti is better but not much) I have no idea how this tires won some wet laps in test on track.
Tires are comfortable. Good steering feel. I tested tires on 5 C digrees. Meybe will be better on wet in 20+ C digrees
Car tramlines very badly! Just put two ContiSportContact 3 XL tires on the front axle. Saab recommended XL tires due to the weight of the car even though the handbook doesn't require them. The problem I have is that the car tramlines very badly which it didn't with the Goodyear F1 Asy (2) that were on the front. When I come to replace the Conti's I will firstly not buy the 3's again and I will go back to regular not XL tires as I don't think they add any benefits and the stiffer sidewall of the tire just adds to the tramlining issue.
theese tires were on the car when i purchased it ,but i did not like them at all, main fault was on bad road surfaces [within the speed limit 30/40 mph] or slightly raised white lines the car would veer where it wanted to go, it had a mind of its own. maybe it was not helped as the tires were down to 2.5mm. as a senior citizen i do not tear about but i do tow a caravan on grassy fields and the grip was not great. just replaced with much cheaper tires, already much better.
