Drivers generally describe the Continental Premium Contact 2 as a confidence-inspiring summer tyre with strong dry grip, capable wet grip, and communicative handling/feedback when pushed. Many higher-scoring reviews also mention stable braking and predictable behavior, with some reporting very long life on lighter cars or predominantly motorway use. However, a large portion of users complain about rapid treadwear (especially on the driven axle) and noticeable road noise, and several note that wet grip/aquaplaning resistance can deteriorate as the tyre wears. Overall, it's viewed as a strong performer when fresh, but often expensive to run due to wear and (for some) noise.
What owners mention most counted across 155 reviews
Good tyres, at first, after 2 years of normal driving cracks began to appear in the bottom of the tread grooves. These just got worse and forced me to replace them after 13,000 miles as I lost trust in their safety.
These tyres were factory fitted when I bought the car.
Probably the most impressive part of this tyre is its durability. Just on 31000 miles and still 3mm on the fronts though there is a tad more wear around the outer edges.
Even though the tyres are heading towards five years old they always provide excellent grip and braking performance in both wet and dry conditions.
Admittedly not the most comfortable on the planet and road noise is pretty high, but other than that very impressive.
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Premium Contact 2 are the only tyres made by Continental that are worth considering for purchase. I drove them on two different rental cars (a Fiat 500 and a Chevy Trax FWD small SUV) and found them to roll quietly and track straight along the highway, ride comfortably over bumps, and to grip quite well around corners on dry surfaces. I did not encounter so cannot report about wet or wintery road performance. The dry road characteristics were in pleasing contrast to prior bad experiences with ContiEcoContact tyres installed on other cars, which were noisy on all road types, lurched or wandered off the straight line on motorways, and ploughed diagonally instead of steering around corners.
I generally advise against buying Continental tyres, having had bad experiences with noisiness and directional instability, even at the correct pressures. In addition, in more than a quarter million miles of driving over 33 years, only two tyres of the dozens of brands on which I have have driven ever disintegrated internally while I was driving: both were Continental. These blowouts were despite rigorous visual inspection and pressure maintenance (I travel with and use my own tyre gauge, finding rental cars almost always have wrong air pressures when I pick them up: as many as four different readings on the same car, some too high and some too low).
These were original equipment on a Skoda Citigo and were replaced for all-season tyres after 150 miles, then fitted to my Fiat along with a wheel alignment. Very nice tyre, good grip in dry and wet conditions.
Only problem is: The front tires are worn beyond the wear indicators almost to the metal tread after 6000 miles have to be replaced. After three months mostly on the motorway. Avoid at all cost (even though they come cheap, being mounted on a variety of new cars).
Tyre came stock with the car, dry grip was just so-so, when cornered hard it tends to understeer and boy does it screech so loud, wet grip was just ok. Road noise tends to creep in a bit at the end of its life. Finished in 20k KM but maybe due to my very aggresive driving style.
I'd like to state that those tyres have been used on my weekend toy car, meaning that 90% of miles they've done were on full open throttle.
The tyres are nicely matched with the car (Abarth 500). The grip loss is very gradual and complimented the car's tendency to shift to the side with all four wheels (no over/under steer) at the same time very well. The grip levels in dry are on par with Pirelli P-Zero Nero (compared when run on my friend's Fiesta ST) but those Continentals seemed to be seriously more grippy and predictable in the wet.
They are excellent tyres really as they were designed to be good all around tyres but when driven extremely aggressively on a fairly rough tarmac they held up quite well.
The downside is definitely a price (at least for what I need my tyres to do on this particular car) as for this price you can get something that's 100% performance oriented.
Also I did manage to get the inner edges on front tyres down to 4.5mm (70% wear) in less then 3000 miles while running about -1.5 degree negative camber.
I definitely recommend those tyres as the performance they provide exceeds the original purpose of those tyres. They are great, safe and predictable daily tyres that won't let you know when pushed to and past the limit of your car.
Had these tyres factory-fitted to my 2015 car, but was not really impressed. As Continental have now stopped producing them, & have now introduced the 5 series, it would seem that Continental weren't that impressed either.
Not being overly confident about them, I "binned" them at just over 4000 miles, & fitted Goodyear 4seasons Generation 2 instead.
The improvement (in every aspect) is remarkable, & although it cost me a few hundred quid, it was worth the expense - I now feel totally happy & safe.
A point well worth remembering, is that if one buys a "budget" car (aka a City car) then quite large economies have been practiced somewhere, to make them both desirable & affordable - possibly with the Clutch system & the brakes being targeted, but fitting cheap (even though "adequate") tyres, is also a very obvious place to exercise cost-cutting.
The tyres have done almost 30000km and wear is showing that I could get another 30000km .The grip is excellent in wet and dry.Stopping distance is much less compared to the original Hankook K415 tyres.You can rely on these tyres with your life.
My tyres are just over 2 years old (date stamp is month 48 year 2013)with 8,000 miles on the clock and I was given an advisory warning at service for "mild cracking on all 4 tyres in between the treads" (not on the side wall). Remaining tread left = 6mm back and 4mm front - I will need to replace all 4 tyres before its first mot march (2017)! very poor quality tyres, needless to say I will not be replacing them with this brand! Ive been driving for over 30 years and I have never seen tyres as bad as these
These tyres fitted as standard on New Honda Civic, the tyres have covered 27,500 miles completely trouble free miles, just passed first MOT, with 4mm front, 4.5mm rear tread remaining. I have never had tyres that last anywhere near as long as this in 30 years of driving. The car feels very secure on the road, with little grip lost, when car pushed hard in corners, although, comfort wise, a touch on the firm side, this may be due to the car itself. I normally fit Michelin tyres, and have a set of Primacy 3 in the garage, I doubt if they will last as long.
They're a good, but expensive tyre to buy. Better mid range tyres out there, for a lot less cash. Pays to do your research first. Extremely poor for winter use.
Wouldn't buy again, not good value for money. Your paying for the brand, rather than performance.
