I had a set of 225/40R18 CONTI SPORT 5 SSR Runflats on the front of my Mercedes from new - great grip in the wet and dry but terrible mileage!

I work in the tire industry for a living and although Conti have a great OE share within Europe (30% apparently) their replacement share is one of the lowest out of the Premium brands.

There is surprisingly little tread depth to start with! Hopeless when accelerating in the wet: Rear-wheel driven care feels dangerous due to little or no grip. Very hard compared with non-runflats making ride unpleasant on London's poorly maintained roads. Fine on dry, smooth roads but most modern tires would be.

I have installed two new tires at the front side for one week.Everything feels similar compared to the Pirelli P-Zero which is at the rear side. One thing that I am surprised is the tire depth is only 6mm when new! I am not sure how long they will last.

Only run these 1000 miles so far on a Z4, but find them a huge improvement over the dreadful 2G Potenza - bearing in mind Bridgestone refuses to supply its supposedly improved 3G tire for after sales. This new Continental feels more planted and progressive, without the weave, tramlining and neurotic behaviour of the Bridgestones. The Continentals handle and ride far better, though at slightly softer pressures than the Potenzas. Run at BMW's higher pressures (fine for track days, not for today's crumbling "roads") the Continentals can be painfully hard too. Too early to judge wear and other factors but, having decided to stick with runflats (not everyone's choice, I know!) it was a good move to dump the 2G Bridgestones. Can't vouch for the 3G - I can't buy them!