Drivers generally describe the Continental Sport Contact 5 as a confidence-inspiring UHP tire with strong dry and wet grip, sharp steering response, and secure braking-especially praised in rain and at speed. However, the dominant complaint is very fast wear (often on the front axle), which many feel makes it poor value despite the premium price. A smaller but recurring theme is increased road noise and a firmer/harsh ride as the tire ages or on coarse surfaces.
What owners mention most counted across 195 reviews
fine in wet roads,very good on dry, noise in both cases, but the comfort is the worst of any tire than ever try in my 38 years diving experience. Low brake distance in any case, but the honor goes to my car IMHO
Recently put these on my Clio 197. Great tire... but wow, they wear quickly don't they. I've had about 5000 miles out of the fronts. I'm not going to lie, I have pushed these tires very hard and they have performed admirably. They match the Clio's cornering ability amazingly well.
They seem to go a little mushy when they overheat, or rather, they overheat quite readily leading to a mushy feeling. This would be fine if it were 30C, but I was getting this sort of response in March, and it most certainly was not 30C here in Yorkshire!
All in all, great performance, but if you enjoy "making progress" - especially on challenging, technical and twisty roads - I guess you just have to accept that they are not going to last as long as an "eco" tire.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
very grippy tire in all weather. but also poor wear. managed to scrape 15k miles from a set. had a budget set of Arrowspeed and managed 28k miles! performance v wear. for constant long distance sensible/steady driving, Arrowspeed are fine; for harsh braking and accelerating, opt for Continentals.
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Researching the Continental Sport Contact 5? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
First they said premium contact. In practice it means drive but dont push. If you are 25 then u know about what i m saying. i need a tire which will drive and brake perfect on highway. i get it. i need a tire which will brake on rainy days in town, it will. but if i drive in 4th to 5th gear on country roads its disaster. u feel like car is on 30 000 miles + old tires as in in corner steering is lost. on the car were before fitted sp sport fast response and turanza and i could do that. i just hope they will last next 30 000 km. for cars with less then 100hp it could be the best choise. but drive like +60s drive.
Phenomenal grip in dry conditions (seriously, this tire is like licorice!), wet weather grip progressive and good. Wear of this tire was a real let-down; might be better in Europe with cooler conditions but these tires won't last one hot summer in Australia.
Recently changed from both front Avon ZZ3's due the Avons distorting on the side walls and uneven tread due to inner arm damaged, I have a light weight front wheel high performance F1 R26 Megane, its early days to give a full review on how these tires perform but so far dry handling pushed for the Continental Sport Contact 5 M0 XL tires definitely suit my car, very low road noise, corner handling very tight, fuel economy reduced compared to the Avon's, recently had some rain, standing water no aqua planning or sliding, I would say excellent tires in the wet. I will update further with the wear. So far an excellent first experience for Continental Sport Contact 5 M0 XL tires.
I bought these tires based on good reviews seen on most sites and to replace some SportContact 3 that came with the car - I was VERY disappointed with their perfomance: Grip was lower than the SportContact 3, both on the wet and on the dry, being that on the dry they cannot simply be trusted. They are very unpredictable on the limit and the car will give little to no warning before letting go.
Also, they have worn alarmingly fast and they are quite noisy. I really ask myself how is it possible to see these tires topping so many tests - are we talking about the same tire or do the reviewers have other interests??
Worse thing I found was that the tires fitted to my car could not be balanced and were not rounded. After I complained and spent a lot of money trying to get them balanced they called in the country Conti rep, who reluctantly replaced one tire and later another, although all 4 tires had issues.
Overall, I will never buy Continental again and stopped recommending them - for the price, I expected MUCH better.
If you want to see me going around the Nurburgring with very little grip, simple go to YouTube and search for "Saab 9-3 Aero Nordschleife" (Jaco2k)
41%
Member
Audi
225/45 R17 W
14,000 miles
Mostly Motorways
Easy Going
These tires replaced Bridgestone Potenza RE0 50A on the rear of my TT, grip in the wet was awful with Aquaplaning and the same when the show came.
The wear was also ridiculous, nothing left after 14k miles of mostly steady motorway driving. Gone back to Bridgestone which last nearly twice as long and perform better for the same price.
I also put 2 of these on the front of my wife's A4, very low mileage and already down to 4mm - rubbish tire from a massive brand name. Been very satisfied with the Contact 3 in the past
Very please with Sport 5 .... until this weekend. On Saturday replaced two front tires on Mercedes C Estate after one burst in sidewall after very low speed impact (no more than 10mph) with kerb. One replacement blew out after 15 miles. No similar accidental impacts.
These tires just dissapeared; have no ability to take wear despite efforts to make them last till next summer they balded by Christmas and looked overinflated despite being run at lower than manufacturers recommended pressure for more than half their life to try and help them last. A pathetic tire unless you like money fires.
