Given
61%
while driving a
Hyundai i30 CRDi
(195/65 R15)
on
a combination of roads
for 25,000
spirited miles
First joy, then sorrow. I read a lot about tire tests and according to what I read, Continental brand products are always among the best winter tires. That’s why I chose the TS860 in 2017. Safety comes first. I am willing to buy an expensive tire, but my expectations are also high. The tires were manufactured in September 2017 and fitted to my car in November. I live in Austria, where there is usually a lot of snow in the mountains. My first experiences were extremely good. The tires had outstanding aquaplaning resistance. Very, very good handling in snow. It was safe to drive at 80 km/h in snowfall with 15 centimeters of snow on the road. The tires had very good cornering properties on wet and dry roads. A good grip made you feel really safe. Although there was no traction on pure ice, but on ice other tires don’t have traction either. The tires were very quiet and comfortable. I was really extremely happy with the TS860... for the first 2 winters. During the 3rd winter, my experience began to change. It wasn’t a problem on dry roads, but it was in snow. Although the tread depth of the tires was still 6 millimeters, snowy grip, cornering, traction, and most of all braking deteriorated a lot. There was a situation where I thought the car would never stop. At the end of the winter, the tires were 2.5 years old and were marked "cracked" on the roadworthiness test. It was like they were old tires. The legal requirement is a minimum pattern depth of 4 mm. Because it was still 5mm, I also fitted them to my car last November. The grip in snow had gotten even worse, but what’s worse was that the braking distance had grown extremely long on wet roads. On a wet road, you would barely press the brake, the ABS would already be working yet the car would barely slow down. Now it is dangerous to drive with this 4-year-old tire in rain and snow. I think any new budget winter tire is better than this 4 years old premium tire. It’s true that Continental makes great winter tires when we look at new tires. But people don’t buy new tires every 1-2 years. I have never had a tire that has aged so quickly. I drove about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) with these. I recommend these tires only to those who buys a new ones every 2 years.
