Continental Tire rant

Last summer I purchased Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires for the 750Li. New tire with great reviews and most importantly to me a 540 treadwear rating and a 50k mile treadwear warranty, since I had just blown through 2 sets of rear tires in about 25k miles. Fast forward 12k miles and the fronts look great and the rears are toast, well into the wear bars. My local tire dealer was great to work with and get Continental to warranty their replacement with a credit for 80% of the price, but it turns out that there's not a pair of these tires in my size (275/40R19) anywhere in the USA and there's not even a production date for them. Um, hello, Continental, you have a hit tire on your hands - how about you make them! The store manager has arranged for replacement of all 4 tires with a credit of 80% of the total price for the set. I'm strongly considering the Michelin Pilot Primacy since it's the OE all season tire but they only have a 240 UTQG and I know they won't last very long - 15k miles or so - and they're berkeleying expensive too - $650 for the set after discount. Anyone have experience with the Michelin Pilot Sport AS tire? They have double the UTQG rating and are cheaper too. Any other ideas?

Wow, that sucks. I bought a set of these for my WRX a few months ago, and after about 3,000 miles, they still look brand new. I know 12k obviously isn't much, but did you rotate them? I've read that a lot of the big Euro sedans like to eat rear tires, so rotation is extra important.

in that size its going to be tough to find, and likely what you do find will be expensive. in my experience, khumo have been a hard wearing, good all-season grip tire, even the MXs i had on my rsx wore like iron, had great grip, and were still better than the all season michelin mxm4 that came on it in the rain and cold. and this was a tire that was "not recommended for temps below 40 degrees"

the bridgestone potenzas that came on my ms3 were good tires, but are a summer only tire and downright dangerous in snow, which im guessing you are planning on having a bit of.

Conti USA is based in Alabama. I've talked with some of their engineers before and know that their Job 1 is to go after Michelin in this market. Give their service desk a call if you would like to plead your case directly to the brass at corporate.

SilverFleet wrote: Wow, that sucks. I bought a set of these for my WRX a few months ago, and after about 3,000 miles, they still look brand new. I know 12k obviously isn't much, but did you rotate them? I've read that a lot of the big Euro sedans like to eat rear tires, so rotation is extra important.

Staggered fitment so I can't rotate them. The 7 series is known to eat rear tires unfortunately - big heavy powerful rear drive and long tire life are apparently mutually exclusive.

In reply to nderwater:

My local tire guy was great and went to bat for me but they just don't have any of that tire in a warehouse anywhere. I may give them a call anyway and let them know they're losing a customer.

Michelin Pilot Sport AS tire

My dad has a set on his car. I just rotated them for the first time after 30k miles and 1 pair looked brand new, the other pair looked about 25% down (75% left).

And they drive well. Id go for it.

pigeon wrote: Staggered fitment so I can't rotate them. The 7 series is known to eat rear tires unfortunately - big heavy powerful rear drive and long tire life are apparently mutually exclusive.

What size is your right foot? My old 7, while not staggered, gets outstanding mileage out of my tires.

Vigo wrote:

Michelin Pilot Sport AS tire

My dad has a set on his car. I just rotated them for the first time after 30k miles and 1 pair looked brand new, the other pair looked about 25% down (75% left). And they drive well. Id go for it.

I'd second this. I had this on my old 330Ci and it lasted a long time and was quite grippy. Granted my 330Ci was lighter than your 760Li.

Just though I'd point out that the rears being reduced to vapor while the fronts are still good points towards a loose nut behind the wheel...

My 2010 Honda CRV came with Continental 4x4 Contact 102T tires. At 25k, they are all at the wear bars. Honda wants no part of it. No Continental tires will be in my future.

I love the DWS and DW, great tires those.

I got a bit over 27k miles out of star specs, so obviously, that tire rating doesn't mean squat.

My friends e46 m3 was doing this as well, until he took it to a shop that was exclusive to bmw alignments, sure enough, it had a crushed bushing in the rear end. The BMW dealer still couldn't figure that out

one other thing to consider is who's doing the alignment and how are they weighting the car. bmw typically specifies something like 500 pounds spread out in the car and another 150 in the trunk or something like that. if you rarely drive the car with 4 passengers and stuff in the trunk it'll likely change the alignment, maybe enough to exacerbate rear tire wear. obviously the reverse is true too.

As long as this is back from the dead I'll close it out. My tire dealer was able to replace all 4 Contis with Pirelli P Zero Nero all seasons. They ride a bit nicer than the Contis and after about 6k miles still look good.

No issues with alignment on the car (well, the dealer had to do it 2x after they replaced a tie rod end because it didn't go straight after the first time, but that was after the tires were replaced). The Contis were worn on the rear mostly in the center which points to too high tire pressure combined with too much power off the line too often, but I really don't jackrabbit the car that much and I was running the factory spec'd pressures, backed up with a check with my cheapie HF infrared pyrometer that showed an even temp spread across the tire.

The Continental Contact 4x4 102Ts are at the wear bars at 25k. Not very impressive for a touring tire. They came on my new Honda CRV, dealer says "too bad."

25k miles for me is 3 years, and about 5 years for my wife. If I have to put a set of tires on my DD every 3 years, I'm not going to complain too much. I'd rather have to replace worn out fun tires than replace "eternal life" tires that may have tread left but are hardened into hockey pucks.

25k is pretty reasonable for a set of tires IMO. That would be 4-6 sets of tires in the average ownership/lifetime of a car.

I will be surprised if the Pirelli outlasts the crappy wearing Continental.

+1 I love the DWS too. It was backordered when I tried to get a set last spring, yet they shipped from Tire Rack within a couple days. One of the kids hit something & took out the sidewall of one early this year, and now they're nowhere to be found.

That said, I've been running a set of Michelin X-Ice on my Accent since Thanksgiving. I've put 25,000-miles on them so far and they're holding up great. I'd originally planned to get some summer wheels/tires, but I'll just wait till fall & get another set of these for my car, and a set to replace the DWS on my wife's Fit. Oh, and they're great in the gravel too.

i put General Exclaim UHP's on my 5.4 Crown Vic 25,000 miles ago. I drive like a HUGE BUTTHOLE ALL THE TIME. Including but not limited to regular unnecessary burnouts. Even now they are a great tire, that I have not completely used up (getting close though).

e_pie wrote: 25k is pretty reasonable for a set of tires IMO. That would be 4-6 sets of tires in the average ownership/lifetime of a car.

No. That would mean 2 sets a year for me. My last set went 98K. I call that reasonable.

I am on my third set of tires on my 07 Dakota Quad Cab at about 51,000 miles. The OEM Goodyear Wranglers lasted about 20,000 before they were down to the wear bars. The replacement Michelins lasted about 31,000 miles. I just mounted Yokohama Geolanders yesterday. I have never gotten more than 35,000 miles out of any tire and I rotate them every 6,000 miles and keep them properly inflated.

funny.. while My bmw seems to go through rears quickly (and I know why:) ) my late Hyundai Tiburon used to as well.. and that was a front wheel drive car