Most drivers rate the Continental VikingContact 7 very highly for winter use, highlighting strong snow and slush traction, confident/forgiving handling, and a quiet, comfortable ride for a studless Nordic tire. Many also report stable highway manners and predictable breakaway, making it easy to control when traction is exceeded. A notable minority mention that ice braking/traction can be weaker than top alternatives (or studded tires), and several owners report faster-than-expected wear when used a lot on dry/warmer roads.
What owners mention most counted across 23 reviews
the VikingContact is most at home in snow. Dry traction is poor compared to non-winter tires, and worse than any other winter tire I have used. For example, I accelerated hard from 30mph and spun my rear wheels - in a miata (a miata is no mustang, and should never be unable to do this - 167 hp)
Snow traction is good, but ice traction is not nearly as good as a Blizzak ws-80. If you have ice, get Blizzak. Viking lasted longer than Blizzak, but was a worse performer in everything except soft snow. I would only buy these again if I lived in an area where the roads were always freshly snowed upon
We have these tires on our electric mazda mx30 during winter in Sweden. Mostly girlfriend commuting 100km per day. Never had any issues on dry, wet, snowy or icy roads. She feel really confident during winter with these on and she drives like she stole the car most of the times. Good comfort and second winter with them and no excessive wear. Other than being pricey, no other downside. Recommend.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
I scored a used set of VC7’s with only 200 miles on them. They still had the ink stripes on the treads. I have them mounted on my mercury grand marquis which is identical to a Ford crown Victoria, a rear wheel drive open diff 2 ton behemoth. Coming from all seasons that were down to the wear indicators, snow was a white knuckle ride. I moved to a rural area that averages freezing temps 4 months out of the year and has roads that aren’t plowed clean during snow fall. I am a little biased because of what I paid for these tires and how good they are coming from all seasons. My car is horrible in the snow but with the vc7’s I was able to climb up my steep driveway with 4 inches of fresh snow with little to no wheel spin. I am blown away by how well these snow tires work, especially on a car that is notoriously bad in snow. I will be switching back to my all seasons soon as the winter is over, so hopefully I can get a few seasons out of these tires. All in all even if I had to pay msrp for these tires I would buy them again. They are buttery smooth, cruise well, and are very quiet.
Have had these on my truck for 2 years now. Amazingly quiet, great ice/dry grip. No issues with wet grip at all so far. Only thing to note is tire wear. If you have a decent amount of dry/warmer driving these will wear (like any good winter tire) quite quick. Having to have winter tired on from Oct 1 to Apr 30 in the parts of BC i travel through yearly means i do a decent amount of dry/warmish driving. In 2 seasons i have lost 3-3.5/32nds of tread depth out of a starting 10/32nds. Also note my truck is quite heavy and that can only add to the wear (curb weight of 5300 lbs).
Snow grip on these tires is good - nearly as good as blizzak ws-xx, but ice grip is considerably worse than the blizzak.
Dry grip however is awful. My 167hp mx-5 spun the tires when I downshifted and hit the gas to pass someone at 40mph - something I would have
considered impossible. Buy these tires only if you most often drive in loose snow - anywhere else is not worth the loss in grip.
They are quiet and soft riding, but will suck all the fun out of driving your mx-5/miata or any other sporty car.
Soft but stable handling. Very quiet and comfortable at highway speeds. Phenomenal snow and ice traction all over. Very quick braking even when ABS engages. Can carry quite a bit of speed into a turn before noticing a loss of traction. Even when traction is lost car is very controllable and will regain traction fairly quickly.
As a snow tire these are unparalleled. To break traction on public roads I have to drive like an absolute maniac and they are very predictable once they lose traction. I've had these on a fwd hatchback and an AWD SUV and in four years I've encountered unintentional oversteer once on the road in my SUV and wife reports that she's never steered wide in her car. These tires are so good in snow they feel about as slippery as summer tires feel in the wet.
I bought VK7's to replace all season tires that came with my used car purchase. The all-seasons had snow siping but had very poor acceleration traction and bad braking performance. After one snow storm, I purchased these and it couldn't have been more different. These tires seem to have more grip in snow than my all-season tires do in the damp. ABS hardly ever kicks in when braking and there has never been an issue accelerating from a light. I feel very confident in these tires and also have peace of mind when either I or my wife is driving knowing that the tires are safe in bad conditions. I will likely only purchase these tires going forward for all my future vehicles that need them.
I have done about 20k km over the last 2 winters on my VC7s and I am pretty hay with them. they are really quiet and stable at highway speeds. I have not pushed their grip limit in the wet or dry very much but it takes a lot to get stuck with them. my only issue with them is the wear is not the greatest. tho i have to keep them on let into the spring because i run summer tires and don't want to get my self into trouble. my mom has had Michelin x ices on her car for the last 3 winters and they seem to have pretty minimal wear.
Best studless winter tire i have ever had.
Good allround. Low noise. Just take it a little easier on very wet tarmac, or very warm dry tarmac, as with all nordic winter tires.
Not as good as studded tire on ice, say for example nokian hakka 8, but what tire are??
Dont know wear rate yet. Continental are usually worn down after 1, tops 2 years. So that is the bad side. Will report later.
