Continental Eco Contact 3 Reviews - Page 3

I have tried a variety of tyres (always sets of 4, always newly tracked and balanced) on my 2008 Daihatsu Sirion and 2006, 2007 and 2010 Perodua Myvis (Myvi/Sirion is the same car with trim differences). All are very tyre sensitive, being light and tall cars with willing engines.

These EcoContact3s (?214 fitted tracked and balanced for 4) are extremely quiet and stable, with minimal road noise which is particularly impressive on newly dressed, poor or concrete surfaces. The car feels most stable on these tyres and tracks dead ahead without wandering, but the pay-off is the awfully vague steering feel and reluctance to turn in on our twisty roads, with the dead centre steering position returning strongly. This makes our rural roads less enjoyable than on any other set I have tried. A spirited drive results in vague cornering, running wide due to very slow turn in and mildly achey wrists from fighting the dead centre return.

These Eco3s were chosen at the toss of a coin over the (identically priced) Continental SportContacts, due to the Eco's higher mileage wear and better mpg, but unless these triple the wear time of the SportContacts, I would not choose them again-they are dull and tiring on our rural roads. Quiet, refined, stable and on Motorways, superb, but too compromised down the lanes for me.

Tried:
Sime Astars: at 30k front 60k rear-perished but not worn out: hard as nails, quiet, very poor wet grip, braking, aquaplaning. Lethal but great mile/?.

Avon CR Eco: good mileage, good mpg, a little dull, good all rounder, easy to ignore as do nothing especially wrong.

Goodyear Eagle NCT2: good all rounder, reasonable feel, quiet-can't say more as running these on our 2010 Myvi now

BF Goodrich G Grip: superb turn in, superb grip, the noisiest tyre I have ever used, poor mpg, dead at 11k miles. Ace tyre but wore too quick and ridiculously noisy. My choice if chasing point to point, though!

What would I go for next time? I'll try the SportContacts unless the Goodyears really impress me. Not EcoContacts for my roads and driving style.

OK this might not be the ideal car to test such tyres on but bare with me on this one. Because the Beetle is an old and - by today's standards - quite unusual vehicle, small changes like a tyre change make a huge difference on the car.

I have to say, I'm very impressed with these Contis. I had them for almost 3 years and their wear is slow and even.
In terms of comfort and refinement they are well above average, on par with the Brdigestone Turanzas I had before.
Handling-wise they are very progressive and offer decent responsiveness and grip for a tyre of this type.
More importantly though their Bionic design (which increases the tyre's contact with the road by ~10% under hard braking/acceleration) was very much appreciated on a couple of emergency brakings, something best avoided with an old Beetle! But nevertheless they performed impeccably in these conditions as well as in a couple of high speed manoeuvres on wet roads.
I was also happy to notice a considerable decrease in fuel consumption especially during motorway cruising.

I would definitely recommend them and I'm more than likely to replace them with the same ones.