Across most reviews, the Continental WinterContact TS 850 is described as an extremely confidence-inspiring winter tire with standout traction and braking in snow, plus excellent wet grip and strong resistance to aquaplaning. Many drivers also report good comfort and relatively low noise for a winter pattern, with several noting impressive tread life/mileage. A smaller group of users report drawbacks typical of softer winter tires-less steering sharpness/feedback (especially on sporty cars) and reduced precision as temperatures rise.
What owners mention most counted across 44 reviews
I've just had 4 of these fitted today (my first ever winters), 2 August 2013 in 25-30C temperatures! I would have liked to have got another couple of months out my old tires, but safety comes first. My intention is to run these tires all year. First impressions are very good: tire noise seems more subdued, ride comfort better and all other parameters similar or superior to my old premium summers. I'm looking forward to seeing how the tires fare over the next few months (hopefully years) and what sort of mileage I'll ultimately get out of them. I read (by Continental I believe so maybe an element of bias) that these TS850s will not wear any faster in the summer months than true summer tires. I intend to monitor wear (I usually switch front to rears half way through the tires life) so will report back.
when i had them on the rear, esp was going crazy!No problems when they just on the front! Good in snow, but a shame they couldn't go on the rear because of the grip!
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
Bought brand new Volvo V60, got it with summer Michelin Eco tires and replaced with those witnter Continentals. The car sounds and handles much, much better. Those are really the best tires ever.
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Used these tires on a K13 Nissan Micra mostly on Urban roads for approximately 7000 kms. The car normally had Bridgestone b250 tires fitted from the factory. They were really bad on wet roads and never gave confidence. But with this Continentals I had much confidence on wet roads. Braking distances on wet and dry was much shorter than the Bridgestones. Also it was a quiet tire. I would definetly buy it again
These tire's are just excellent. I used these during the winter in Ireland since beginning of December 2012 and loved them. I had great trust in using the car in cold winter weather simply because of these tire's. On days when I had planned to go up Dublin mountain, it snowed BUT I kept my plans because I knew these tires where up to it. I even had an emergency breaking situation in heavy snow and the car stopped dead from 60 km/h, very little slip and always felt in control.
100%
Member
BMW
195/65 R15 T
10,000 miles
A Combination of Roads
Average
Probably the best winter tire out there... I've been to ski resorts more than 10 times since I have them with my rear-wheel drive BMW, and I can tell you that this tire is the king of the snow :)
Dry performances are excellent and so are wet. Comfort and noise are also very good. Driven them up to 190 km/h which is the T limitation and the drive is smooth.
10/10 in all departments.
This is the best tire I had. Quiet, comfortable and with great grip. My BMW seems llike one category better car with these tires. My only concern is if I would be able to find such good summer tires.
I replaced my Barum Bravuris 2 (205/55/16) summer tires with 4 of these Continentals (195/65/15) on my BMW e46 320d. What I noticed so far is that the fuel economy has improved significantly (about 0.5l/100km) and that the grip is a lot better than the one on the Barums - both dry and wet. The only downside is that the noise is louder now, but I guess that's normal when switching from summer to winter tires. I'll update the review once I hit the snow with these tires, which is very important to me since the BMW is a rear-wheel drive...
So far, so good... Definitely recommend them!
I can only afford to run one set of tires a year. So last year I fitted Winter Tires and drove them all year round, (Kormoran SnowPro B2's to replace ContiSportContact2's) and they lasted 21,120 miles (+/- 1000 miles) in 12 months November 2011 to October 2012.
The main reason for investing in winter tires was that I covered 13.9k motorway miles commuting to Derbyshire from Hampshire every weekend all year round and 7.2k miles on A & B roads commuting to work in Hampshire during the week. Majority of the time British weather is wet and cold and roads in general are slippery, seemed like a no brainer - there is significantly more road noise with winter tires than summer tires but the pay off is grip and confidence.
I decided to fit the TS 850 after reading all the positive reviews in auto express and various other sites. I've covered 1100 miles so far and I have noticed that there is significantly more grip than summer tires (my set of snow pros were nearly bald and only 2 TS850's arrived at the start of november so I fit them to the front and the part worn contisport2s on the rear for 4 days); I found that the TS850 handled very well in the variance of wet and cold weather we have had so far. They offer a lot of grip and only noticed that my back end was slipping at higher speeds (only controlled by ESP) on wet or oil/slippery roundabouts and country roads as well as motorways.
I will update the review in January 2013 but all in all - I am happy with my investment so far as grip has been noticeble and that was my main reason in purchasing these tires.
Had these fitted a few weeks ago and was very imprressed...that was until two days ago I drove them on ice in our street and were struggling with grip. very dissapointed. Steering is lighter than summer tires and a lotquieter inside. Have yet to try in snow
Now done 2 weeks on 4 new Contis fitted on steel wheels on a Suzuki SX4 61 reg. First impressions are very good, cold 5C wet road braking, steering and acceleration all improved over a set of summer Contis. Frost and ice on our drive tackled without even using the 4 wheel drive. The car seems quieter than the summer tires and more comfortable over Kirklees's crap roads! My wife says she feels more confident driving the car. The summer tires are 205/60/16 on alloys I was told that moving to 195/65/15 would be better with winter tires and so far this advice is justified.
