Continental VikingContact 7

So good grip in the winter

Good solid grip at all times with traction especially good on cold slush. Comfortable ride possibly at the cost of sidewall strength.

Stopping on frozen snow or slippery surfaces is the tire's biggest drawback. The ABS engages immediately, but the car continues to slide mercilessly. I have them on a 2020 Tiguan 4Motion. Very disappointing. I can only advise reducing your speed very early at intersections and traffic lights, otherwise you'll slide mercilessly over them. Until recently, I had a Touareg with Nokian Nordman 7 tires. Something like that never happened to me.

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Excellent in fresh snow, hard packed snow/icy roads, and good on dry and wet roads. Very quiet and comfortable.

Great tire so far. I am now using them for my second season. When purchased, I opted for 17" which is -2 from OE for my 19" tire size - the result is the same size that would be found on the base gasoline-powered trim level of my car (a 2024 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid). Asthetically, the taller profile of the tires makes my car look a bit more aggressive and ready to pounce on the snow.

During my first season, I found the Vikings were as quiet as my OE Michelin Primacy tires. The tires also provided an unexpectedly slightly firmer ride vs. the Primacy tires, but this firmness seems to have softened up a bit in my second season. I'm running the tires at 36 psi. These tires have great grip in the snow - the grip loosens up predictably if you are going too quickly while accelerating in a corner. The car handles very well in the dry and wet.

The only downside I have noticed is that my fuel economy is slightly worsened by maybe 0.3 L/100 km more? Despite that, I highly recommend this tire!

This is an excellent winter tire for mixed conditions and suits my VW Jetta Mk7 very well. The comfort and excellent grip in wet/slushy conditions are the standout characteristics for this category. The ride is exceptionally well damped with minimal harshness, just as good as the OE tire for this car. Impact noise is very sensitive on this car and thankfully the VikingContact 7 feels and sounds very well isolated. I find many other studless/nordic winter tires have poor wet grip, but the handling character of the VikingContact 7 is consistent and predictable across the range of dry, wet, slush, and snow conditions. There is also good steering feedback and a clear sense of straight ahead for a winter tire. This is a very pleasant and enjoyable tire for daily driving.

Snow and ice grip is excellent as expected for the category. There is useful feel in the steering and chassis, boosting confidence in snow. The VikingContact 7 also recovers quickly when the grip limits are exceeded. This feedback and forgiving character makes this more confident than other winter tires I have used.

After 3000 miles there is minimal wear to report, about 1/32nd lost on the tires that have been on the front axle longer.

I live at the Minnesota/Manitoba border where as I type this it’s 5 degrees fahrenheit. I’ve found this tire to be very well rounded. The dry grip is impressive and shocked me. I truly don’t want to take these off in the spring they felt so good in the 40/50 degree weather of our warm October. Practically zero noise, still can get upwards of 44mpg on the highway at around 65mph. But of course these are snow tires. The snow handling is probably as good as it gets. They feel like summer tires in the middle of July while driving through an inch of snow. Their true specialty imo is ice traction however. I’ve hit a couple icy intersections while making turns and I could feel the car start to lose control and skid, but it’s a controlled and slow motion sliding due to the rolling resistance of tires. It’s easy to correct the vehicle and get back on course. Perhaps Hakkas are a bit better on snow and ice, but these are a better tier overall. I’m sold on the VK line.

Ice performance as expected is bit worse compared to studded tires, but considering these days, most of the winter in the Northern hemisphere, we just have ice melted by salt to slush, it's perfect. Driving in the dry or snow, it performs great.

This is my 3rd winter with them and they seem to have changed since I first installed them. I drive a 2014 Kia Rondo and last year I parked the car for 3 months due to surgery and they now vibrate weirdly and have become very noisy. Grip on dry and wet was always great, I live in Montreal and most of our winter is cold and wet rather than snowy and icy. They perform really nicely on the highway when not on snow or ice. In the snow, even a few centimeters, they tend to be slippery when changing direction. I feel the car drifting a lot even when they were new and the ABS or traction control comes on a lot in these moments. I definitely do not push them hard in these conditions but I have become good at controlling the car when in a slide. On hard packed snow at the cottage they feel like I was on dry cement and I dont worry but any soft snow and things get loosy goosey. They seem to be wearing well, I have not measured them yet but they look fine however these are the first winter tyres I have ever owned so I dont have much to compare them with.

Very good steering feel and handling. These feel more like a good all season or summer tire than a winter tire, none of the mushy feeling you get with Blizzaks. Did quite well in the snow, had some slides on ice but you can only expect so much from a non-studded tire.

Strange, but this tire worked well 1,5 winter season, then they not like everywhere reviewed... My tires compound goes very hard, very uncomfortable to drive in potholed road(feel like car have sportcar suspension). In 2 season tire was good in dry, wet, snow, slush...but in icy road drive dangerous compared first season. Some people write they are low noise, no they like other winter tires! I never had that kind change with other tires, i allraedy thinking no more studded tires... But reality come back after 1,5 season.

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.

Tires have mostly worn out after only 20,000 km. Unacceptable! They’re great running tires but lifespan is too short to recomnend.

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.