Continental UltraContact Reviews - Page 2

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Subject tires (Continental Ultra Contact) have been fitted on a Toyota Prius 1.8, first registration 2010. Dimension: 225/45R17 91V.
Previous tires: Michelin Primacy 4, 215/45R17 87W (lasted for 70.000 km).
I was asking for Comfort and low noise. My driving style is fast, but smooth and without any risks. I rarely puss my car to the limits.
Initial review after 500 km:
Very comfort tire! Great difference to Michelein.
Quite silent. At the majority of the circunstances, tire is completely silent. In some cases (depending on the road surface and the vehicle speed) it may produce a light hum.
Great dry grip! (Up to now.) Better than the Michelein. I feel very confident and safe when I puss it in the corners. I wish it will keep this performance for its lifetime.
Very good wet grip (up to now). I do not feel any remarkable difference compared to the dry.
No difference to the fuel consumption, despite the increased tire width.
In general, very happy with my chioce! It is exactly what I was asking for! (For my driving style, for this specific car.)
Remarks. My feeling is that this tire is not suitable for sport driving style. It feels so soft that I suppose that if you puss it continuously for some time at successive corners it will be overheated. It may be just my feeling. I do not know. I do not want to try it!
Comment. The increased dimension on this specific car works without any problems. It still has plenty of clearance. Better grip, more comfort, same fuel consumption, less cost (to buy them)!

I recently bought 4 of these to fit my 208, size 185/65 R15 T. They have a good grip on the dry. I have not tested them much on the wet but so far they feel safe too. They also are quiet in a relaxed/city driving but somewhat noisy when driving at highway speed (above 100KPH). The problem with these tires is their sidewalls, wich are way too soft. That's why they are comfortable (more than my previous Michelin) but the feedback is very poor. Steering is vague and heavier and the car feels unstable when making fast steering/countersteering moves. They don't invite to a sporty driving at all, yes I know it's not their purpose but they should do much better, beeing "premium" tires. And because of those too soft sidewalls, they buldge a lot in the front, like if they are underpressurized, even if I overinflate them! It looks like the sidewalls are almost touching the ground... It's unpleasant to look at and I doubt very much that they are fuel saving because of that... Concerning the wearing, well I don't care at all because I will not have them on my car long enough to know. These Ultracontact are not worth their price tag if you want a sharp and agile driving. I expected much better from such a "premium" brand... Never again Continental.

Excellent grip both in dry and wet conditions. Only aquaplaning resistance in deeper puddles seems a bit average compared to my previous Michelin Primacy 4s. Its not bad, but just less impressive. Otherwise grip levels are similar. Road feedback is decent although steering response is not very sharp as the tire has very soft sidewall. Otherwise handling characteristics are very balanced and safe. Grip runs out progressively and there are no obvious understeer or oversteer characteristics. Feels very safe and controllable even at limit. Once again compared to my previous Primacy 4s this feels better. Primacy 4s had a ton of grip, but once you ran out of the grip, there was quite a lot of sudden understeer. UltraContacts give better confidence at the limit. Best part of the tire is comfort an noise levels. It's super smooth and silent compared to Primacy 4s which were in my opinion quite harsh and had nasty sound. after around 5000km can't really comment of wear. At least there is no noticeable wear at this stage, so seems good.
Overall I would recommend these to anyone looking for comfortable and safe touring tire. If sportiness is very important for you, then look elsewhere.

Beware of these tires!! Initially i was very impressed with these tires. Very comfortable, quiet (except on concrete surfaces), excellent dry and wet grip and safe on aquaplanning. I have never driven on a tire that has such a good mix between comfort (soft sidewalls) and driving dynamics. The sidewalls don't fold over when cornering which gives the tire a great feedback, much much better then Michelin Primacy 4. The wear rate is excellent too, they have lost 1mm after 15.000kms. HOWEVER, the car started to vibrate at 110km/h+ only a couple weeks after installation. I had re-balanced the wheels but the vibrations remained. After i put on my 2nd set, winter wheels, i decided to re-balance these Continentals again, and to my surprise 3 out of 4 had gone completely out of shape! They are no longer round! One wheel needed 35 grams on the first balancing, now it needs over 90 grams and the tire is egg-shaped, and so are two others! Continental have zero interest in helping me out because i already drove too much on them (i do 30.000km's a year). I work at a garage so i know what i'm talking about, the car has no issues when driving on different tires on the same set of wheels. Very, very dissapointed because this tire gave me everything i wanted. My confidence in Continental has gone out the window completely and i now switched to Fulda EcoControl HP after previous good experiences with this brand.

Note: After a chat with the local tire fitters, it appears that i'm not the only one with this issue. Also happens to AllSeasonContant apparently.

TLDR: Great performance in all aspects, but go completely out of shape very quickly thus causing incurable vibrations in the car. AVOID.

Finally, I went full circle and went back to having Continental tires.
Was on 3 sets of Conti PremiumContact 5 for a few years till they discontinued it afterwards tried its lacklustre cousin EcoContact 6 because CPC6 isn't for my wheel size.
Went on to having Yokohama Blue Earth GT AE51 and just after 2.5 years from manufacture, those tires seem to be slipping/skidding frequently for some unknown reason even with 5-6 mm of tread left for the last few months. Changed to Ultracontacts a few days ago and suddenly the slippages are mostly gone - most noticeably those on indoor parking flooring and ramps, gradients of humps. Tire squeal noise is very soft vs past EcoContact6 and AE51, when doing tight turns. If feel I can trust Continental tires for the grip they provide. These ultracontacts behave very similarly to my old PremiumContact 5. Unfortunately, this also extends negatively to the ride comfort and noise. They are noticeably much noisier and less plush (I can feel every rough bit and road marking I go over) than the Blue Earth AE51 I replaced them with. Anyhow, rainy season is coming and I don't have many choices where I am for my wheel size. Only time will tell if they wear well - my CPC5 worn down terribly just after 25000km (3-4mm left) but they say these made-for-EU Ultracontacts have some new formulation to reduct wear from abrasion. Note that these Ultracontacts start off with about 6.5mm of tread when new so I am also not happy about this short-changing (normally I expect new tires to start off with 8mm tread height).