Best Tyres for the Volkswagen Golf mk5

I drove the Ultra Contact for 4 summer seasons as follows:
Season 1 (April 13-November 5, 2022): 17,643 km (10,963 miles)
Season 2 (April 15-November 11, 2023): 12,596 km (7,827 miles)
Season 3 (April 8-November 9, 2024): 8,362 km (5,196 miles)
Season 4 (April 19-November 18, 2025): 11,733 km (7,290 miles)
TOTAL: 50334 km (31276 miles).
I previously had Uniroyal Rainexpert 3 which were great, lasted 38819 km (24121 miles) in 3 seasons.

CONTINENTAL Ultra Contact: This set of mine was Made in Portugal. It's not less quality if it doesn't say Made in Germany. People often confuse Ultra Contact with UC6, UC7 and NXT. The dimension is 195 65 R15 H mounted on a GOLF MK 5, 1.9 TDI, 105 hp, manual transmission, 2004. production.

WET - excellent aquaplaning, short stopping distance, slightly weaker lateral grip in the wet.

DRY - excellent dry handling, braking and cornering.

NOISE - quiet and comfortable to drive.

WEAR - After driving 50,334 km (31,276 miles), of which 12,520 km (7,779 miles) were driven only on the highway at a speed in the range of 140 - 170 kph (87-105 mph), which is almost 25% of the total mileage. After 4 seasons, the smallest profile depth was 3.9 mm. When we consider the fact that the profile depth of the new UltraContact comes with a depth of 7.5 mm, this is an outstanding result when it comes to wear. The road infrastructure in the Western Balkan countries is of much lower quality than in the rest of Europe. In the summer months of June, July and August, air temperatures in the shade often exceed 40°C (104°F). Road surface temperatures often exceed 60°C (140°F).

CONCLUSION:
The Continental UltraContact is built for very high mileage, balanced on both dry and wet surfaces. The only downside is a small defect on wet roads when it comes to lateral grip. In my opinion, this Continental's model is one of the best in the last 10 years. I will definitely buy it again because it is worth every penny.

Very good tyre for snow. Good at dry and wet cornering. Not good at wet braking, distance of braking is longer but tyre is good for controlling that distance if you put breaking pad harder when you got to lower speed it will not slide in tricky situations.

I have used this tyer for city driving and long trips. Driving always over speed limits. It is pleasure to drive it. It is not sporty tyer but it is very very good for the price U can get it. I am driving in the city where is always raining so this tyer was best chose for low price. Very good wet braking and cornering. It gives U feeling it is better on wet than on dry road.

This tyres is on snow/ice road the best for price.
If you have mudy, ice road, they good. When start heat days you should take it off.

Has changed my driving to much more cautious - replaced some Vredstein All Seasons on the front, it now squeals round coners at quite modest speeds in both wet and dry letting go unpredictably , are harsher and noisier and are overall quite tiresome tire to drive on. For me it feels like a big mistake and am really considering binning them with around 1000 miles. I have no idea of them in snow or ice where they might be amazing, but not worth keeping as winter tyre because of the poor wet performance. I've had Maxxis before which while not as good as Vredstein, they were safe predicable and honestly not that far off the performance of the Vredstein.

They are very good for the price you pay. Everyone comments thay are lame on wet surfaces. I had absolutely no issue, might be my car which is not that powerful or playful but for sure all the wheel alignment is perfect, same all the joints and articulations. Those claiming they had the car all over the place or that they crashed, how much was because of the tyre and how much because the lack of attention or with the speed not adapted to the road conditions? Definitely buying again.

First winter with these tires in 600-1000metres above the sea level region with rainy,slushy and snowy winters and everyday drive to work , around 140km to work and back exceptional performance in wet and slushy roads, the snow performance is good but you actually don't have any feel with the road (Electric Power Steering) still talking about a FWD car with pretty much Nm and heavy engine infront of the wheels which create really annoying understeer, the ice perfomance is good enough so the ESP can handle almost every situation, on a dry road above 12 degrees celsius the tire tend to roll in the curve and have the feeling the it's loosing grip but the ESP compensate on that one, the tires also create a symphony at high speeds on the wet also hit a couple of fallen rocks on the road so in my opinion the sidewall is pretty strong on these.