conti's in snow

[blake31]

well, i've been through a handful of snow storms now with my continental tires, and i can't complain about how they handle for me.driving through 8" down my unplowed subdivision streets and getting up to 65 mph on the expressway while it's still snowing. no problems.maybe those complaining just arent used to driving in snow. i spent 6 winters in the upper peninsula of michigan driving a rwd ranger around, so i really learned how to drive in snow.

[rebbierae]

After our first snow here in SD, with some ice underneath, I thought that I was having troubles with the Conti's, but after talking to a lot of other people that drove around in the snow, they all said they had troubles too. I think it was just the mix of the ice, then the slushy snow. We haven't had a lot more snow here so I can do more testing (ie. drive around and have fun), but I really don't have any complaints either.

[ToolGuy]

Since we are in the same state I have to and can agree. My contis have plenty of tread and perform just like my PT tires. I really think in relation to my first car a 1987 Cavalier RS, that cars today just are not as heavy like my 1987 anymore. The 87 would go through anything! Would snow tires help? Sure, but just knowing how the car handles on non-snow tires is most of it to me.

[ColonelPanic]

I thought my Continentals sucked, but then I replaced 'em and winter came again. I bought a set of Big O Euro tires (made by Cooper) last spring. The Euros were pretty good until it snowed. Then I couldn't go anywhere! At least with the Continentals, I could still sorta make the car move. Now I've got 15" Blizzaks on steelies for the winter, and will swap back to my stock 16's in the spring.And MiVibe-ToolGuy, you're so right about the old Cavaliers doing great in the snow. Sis used to have an '87 as well, that thing did great.

[B18B]

I have to disagree guys; I feel that the Conti's are subpar in the snow, relative to the other tires we have mounted to the cars up here. Now I realize i'm comparing apples to oranges here (since the tires are mounted on different cars), but subjectively I haven't really found any defficiencies with the Vibe's traction in general relative to the other cars we have. Having said that, I find their performance in the snow to be adequate, but certainly disappointing (especially for a tire with 12k Kms) in contrast to A/S BFGs and Toyos on the other cars (which are both roughly 1/2 worn)

[ragingfish]

We have the same Conti's on the G6...they SUCK in snow...Could the difference in driving experiences have anything to do with 16 vs 17 inch wheels?

[B18B]

I would't think so 'fish. I don't think the diameter of the rim would adversely effect the conti's snow performance. I'd say the major contributors to this would be the contact patch of the tire (tire width, tread design), the rubber compound and design of the tire's shoulder block (ie: A/S tend to have rounded shoulders which cut through the snow better whereas performance oriented tires have more a more "square" profile).

[ColonelPanic]

Yeah, I can't say my Continentals were superb, that's for sure... But in hindsight, they were better than the all seasons I replaced 'em with however. The tires I replaced them with just don't have the tread to deal with the snowy and icy stuff. So, that's why I ended up with a set of Blizzaks for the winter - too bad we haven't really had enough winter percipitation to fully test them out.

[Mavrik]

My conti tires on my Vibe which I sold for a $200 after driving 3000km on them, sucked in any season, I could spin them no prob on dry pavement and they simply had no traction at all on ice and snow.Now Ragin, bet those 17" conti tires suck on the G6 because they are a low profile tire made of hard rubber, hard rubber is not the best kind of tire in the winter, you want something soft.

[Atomb]

i haven't really had any issues with my conti's (25k km) ...knock on wood 3 times....the car drives in the snow just as well as my old VW golf with Goodyear Eagle HP all-seasons ...and i've driven through 2 snowstorms in 2 weeks for at least 140km each storm!!i'll admit the biggest thing for me was getting used to the Vibe's clutch and letting the power out slowly...it was easier to do this in the Golf as it didn't have an hydraulic clutch so the 'feel' was a bit better....but once i got better at that, driving/accelerating in the snow is just as good!