Tire Review: Continental True Contact

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2016 CX-5, GT, AWD, Tech. Package
I've had the Continental True Contact tires on the CX-5 for a couple of months now. I've driven on dry roads, heavy rain, black ice (for more than 100 miles) and 6-8 inches of snow. They were instantly quieter than the original Toyos (although old tires get louder as they wear) and handle as well if not better. I think they do better in heavy rain than the originals. Over Christmas we had a very dangerous trip from Portland to Pendleton (I-84 in Oregon) with black ice for a good 120 mile stretch eastbound. Not a slip. It seemed like there were cars and trucks off the road everywhere so we were very happy with the CX-5, and maybe the tires made some of the difference as well. The snow traction was great. It snowed 6-8 inches while we were in Pendleton and the tires performed flawlessly.
 
Good info. I’ve traveled that stretch of I-84 a number of times. It’s one of the most beautiful interstate freeway drives but in wintertime can get very deadly.

Many years ago I was a passenger in a large farm truck that lost its brakes on Deadmans Hill. For a couple of moments I thought we had bought the farm. The E brake worked and was able to get the brakes fixed in Pendleton.
 
Good to hear this tire rides and handles well. This was my choice to replace the stock tires on our CX-5, but they were unavailable and so I went with the cheaper DWS06 in an alternate size. Had this been available though, I would have gotten them just to try them out.
 
Good to hear this tire rides and handles well. This was my choice to replace the stock tires on our CX-5, but they were unavailable and so I went with the cheaper DWS06 in an alternate size. Had this been available though, I would have gotten them just to try them out.
You should be able to get or order a set of Continental TrueContact tires from Discount Tire or many other tire dealers. What alternate size did you get? Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 is a Ultra High Performance all-season tire and I thought it should be more expensive than Standard Touring Continental TrueContact?

Continental TrueContact definitely is one of the best tires to suit our CX-5. The other benefit for this tire is its very light weight at only 25 lbs on 225/55R19! General AltiMAX RT43 is another excellent tire for our CX-5 which is similar to TrueContact at only 24.4 lbs. General Tire is owned by Continental.

225/55R19 Tire Comparison Table for CX-5 GT - Many to Choose From
 
I’ve owned many sets of Continental tires over the years and have always been happy with them. I think they tend to be class leaders in winter traction for all season tires.
 
yrwei52, you should update your Tire Comparison Table a bit. The OEM A23's are now $130.42 at Tire Rack. They also have the A36 for $130.36. IMO, if someone is looking to simply replace with OEM, these prices are hard to beat. I know we all know that they are not the best tire for our vehicle, but there are many folks out there who will simply want to use OEM, especially when they are cheaper than the alternatives.
 
I've had the Continental True Contact tires on the CX-5 for a couple of months now. I've driven on dry roads, heavy rain, black ice (for more than 100 miles) and 6-8 inches of snow. They were instantly quieter than the original Toyos (although old tires get louder as they wear) and handle as well if not better. I think they do better in heavy rain than the originals. Over Christmas we had a very dangerous trip from Portland to Pendleton (I-84 in Oregon) with black ice for a good 120 mile stretch eastbound. Not a slip. It seemed like there were cars and trucks off the road everywhere so we were very happy with the CX-5, and maybe the tires made some of the difference as well. The snow traction was great. It snowed 6-8 inches while we were in Pendleton and the tires performed flawlessly.

Are you FWD or AWD?
 
You should be able to get or order a set of Continental TrueContact™ tires from Discount Tire or many other tire dealers. What alternate size did you get? Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 is a “Ultra High Performance” all-season tire and I thought it should be more expensive than “Standard Touring” Continental TrueContact?

Continental TrueContact definitely is one of the best tires to suit our CX-5. The other benefit for this tire is its very light weight at only 25 lbs on 225/55R19! General AltiMAX™ RT43 is another excellent tire for our CX-5 which is similar to TrueContact at only 24.4 lbs. General Tire is owned by Continental.

225/55R19 Tire Comparison Table for CX-5 GT - Many to Choose From

Initially before I ordered, I wanted the tires available right away, like available next day for install. The Continental True Contact tires weren't available anywhere in DFW. It had to be custom ordered, estimated time of availability was 3-5 days and then I would have to pay tax as well. So I ordered from Tire Rack. I could have gotten the True Contacts from Tire Rack as well, but it was $167 in the stock 225/55/19 size. The DWS06 tires however were $143 in 245/50/19 size, so I went with that instead. Had the True Contacts been available next day, I would have gone with it.
 
I had these on my 2014 and while they were OK they wore out way too fast in my opinion. I only got about 40k on them before they were nearly shot, WAY short of the 90k treadlife warranty.
 
Driving with all season tyre on black ice! I am not sure if I would do that. Continental makes some real good winter tyres with sipes and that would be my preference. Better still is the studded winter tyre on black icy road.
 
The problem is studded tires are very impractical and not allowed in a lot of areas.

And studded tires are only superior in certain limited icy conditions, inferior in most conditions, and terrible on dry pavement.
Most people just don't know any better. They remember the old days when snow tires weren't good on ice. They are now.
 
Driving with all season tyre on black ice! I am not sure if I would do that. Continental makes some real good winter tyres with sipes and that would be my preference. Better still is the studded winter tyre on black icy road.

If we lived in Sweden, we'd have studded tires as well. But we only get a couple of snow events a year in Portland.
 
Studded tyres are the best in icy road conditions. They are great for acceleration, braking and cornering. They are not very much better than the soft rubber compound non studded winter tyres in mostly snow covered road condition. Here in Sweden we have a mix of cars, some with studded tyres and others with non studded nordic soft compound wintertyres, and that means even in moderate icy roads the studded tyres rough up the ice making it easier for the non studded winter tyre users. The studded tyres are more noisy and are not allowed in certain cities due to the particles that they create from the road surface that is considered health hazard.
 
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If we lived in Sweden, we'd have studded tires as well. But we only get a couple of snow events a year in Portland.

Point taken. Even in Sweden the northern areas (winter intense) use mostly studded tyres and the southern areas (near continental Europe) use mostly non studded winter tyres. The middle of Sweden (Stockholm level), has a mixed variety, some cars have studded tyres and some others have studless tyres. But winter tyres are compulsory during winter by law.
 
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