nhdoc

I recently bought a set of Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires for my C2 and within 1000 miles they developed bad vibrations. I had them checked on a road force balancer and basically all 4 failed with three of them exceeding 40 lbs. of road force and one of those exceeded 50 lbs (the threshold for failure is 18). One was at the 18 lb. limit. Continental has offered to replace them with another set of the same tires but my feelings are with 100% failure rate I don't want to even deal with them again (these are staggered set so they can't claim it was just a "bad lot"). I have ordered a set of Michelins and am pursuing getting Conti to refund the purchase price plus the $160 I spent proving it was the tires that were faulty. There are a lot of comments online from people complaining about the quality (or lack thereof) in the current Continental line if you look around. I am not interested in chasing tire issues again as I have a life and have wasted enough time and money with these.

I would strongly urge anyone looking for new tires to avoid the ExtremeContact DWS and Continental tires in general as they are really not the line they once were. Learn from my bad experience and buy something else.

Marc Gelefsky

Just put my 2nd set on the cayenne, been an excellent tire.

User 040621

Same here. DWS on the 16's and DW's on the 18's. Have been great tires.

nhdoc

I am glad others have had a good experience with them, and hope you will continue to do so but given my 100% failure rate I am pretty disappointed. They had slight vibrations initially but by 1000 miles got to the point where the car is undrivable at speeds over 50 MPH (essentially undrivable on my C2).

They are a cheaper alternative to the Michelins, but after spending $160 having them road force balanced only to confirm they were all bad I could have bought the Michelins and still saved money. While there are lots of complaints about Michelin tires online too the fact that they probably outsell Conti by 10 to 1 tells me they are still a much better tire.

At this point I guess I am still thinking about what to do...accept the replacements and try again or spend more money to switch brands to Michelin, but I am leaning heavily to switching and have asked Conti to buy these back so I can put this behind me. I've just lost confidence in the brand.

nhdoc

A very rude representative from Continental called me today to say they would not refund my money on the tires, only replace them, so it looks like I will be stuck with a new set of them. They are the worst people to deal with.

If anyone wants to make an offer on them contact me. They are a pair of 205/55/16 and a pair of 225/50/16 and will be brand new.

In any event, I have ordered a replacement set of tires, of a different brand, and will list the contis on my local craigslist.

lowside67

Seems very strange. I also have had a set that was perfect for the 9,000 miles I had the car and still had lots of meat left when I sold the car...

Mark

nhdoc

The tires started out with very minor vibrations on the highway. I could have lived with it (though I should not have had to) but as miles past I could tell each time I took it up on the highway it was getting worse and worse until it became so bad the car can't really be driven on the highway at all.

Continental did not seem at all surprised to hear that the tires all were bad and never offered any apology or offer of goodwill to make the situation better - all they keep telling me is they only have to do what the warranty says, replace all four defective tires. They won't pay the cost of the diagnosis even though they would not let me return them without it being proven the tires were faulty.

The sad thing is, if they just had done right by me and bought the tires back they would have come out ahead in the long run. Instead, I will post on every car enthusiast board I follow (Mercedes, VW, Acura, BMW - Yes, I have a lot of cars) about this experience and if just a few people don't buy their tires they will lose far more business than by just cutting me a check. I tried to post about my experience on TireRack but apparently they censor the critical posts and so you might want to take that into consideration any time you rely too heavily on their customer reviews.

Like I said, if anyone wants a new set at a heck of a deal, just contact me or respond to this post.

ahetzel

10,000 miles on my Boxster with no problems, in fact they have been great...

User 040621

They offered to replace your tires.
Doesn't sound to me like you've been wronged.
Continental apparently hasn't kissed your *** enough - and by God, you're going to hammer them on every forum known to man. Life is too short to get so wrapped around the axle over a few bucks. Your perspective and actions make you come across as a very small person.

Go drive your car.

Rant over.

nhdoc

I love it when people belittle other people's problems and take the high road when it isn't their time or money being wasted. It's easy to spend other people's money when you have your "life's too short" attitude but my guess is you'd react somewhat differently if it were your time and money wasted. If you have a nearly a grand to throw away on defective tires you're luckier than I am, I work for a living and it takes me some time to earn it - Continental should respect that.

Why should I have to take replacements for a set of tires with 1,000 miles that I have lost complete faith in? I wouldn't go back to a restaurant that give me food poisoning if they offered me a free meal. I've already wasted several hours waiting for the car to have the tires mounted and diagnosed as being at fault and so I don't think it is unreasonable to have them buy the tires back as a goodwill gesture, but that's me. I'm not asking to have my *** kissed, just to be made whole and not be forced to roll the dice again and hope a replacement set isn't defective too.

The purpose of my post was to vent my frustrations with Continental and warn others of my experience. Obviously there are lots of people with loyalty to the brand and who have had better experiences than I have had and I am happy about that. My advice would be to avoid the line, but the vast majority has spoken and feels I am being unreasonable in my conclusions...that's what freedom of expression is all about and people can decide for themselves if they will take my recommendations seriously or treat me dismissively, like you have.

FWIW they did call yesterday and requested a copy of my receipt so maybe they are reconsidering their policy. Maybe my posts are getting attention after all. If they step up and do right thing I will update this post.

Now I'm done ranting too.

nhdoc

I was just told by the dealer I bought the Contis from that they have authorized a full credit for the purchase price towards any replacement tires, so I am satisfied with this resolution. It took the intervention of the Better Business Bureau to get them to offer this, but that's what they are there for.

No mention was made about reimbursement of the cost of diagnosis, but I will "take the high road" on that, write off the $164 and chalk it up to experience.

So, in the end it all worked out and it's good to know that eventually they did do "the right thing".

User 040621

I too work for my money and appreciate the effort required to earn it. What I don't do is prematurely slam anyone - especially on a public forum.

It's now up to you 'to do the right thing' and invest at least an equal amount of time updating your posts on the sites, praising the BBB, and the retailer that went to bat for you.

Glad it worked out for you.

Z00mie

I've had great luck with Conti Sport DWS, two sets now(on V-dub). I guess I've been lucky!

Kevinmacd

Check out the Hankook Ventus V12. I have them on my 996tt replace the Michelins. They have outstanding grip and handling, are quieter and offer a smoother ride, for a lot less than the Michelins cost. Great all round street high performance tire!

nhdoc

It's very funny you should mention this. I was prepared to order the Michelins and went to Town Fair Tire to discuss my problems. I also thought of the exact same Hankooks and asked the salesman about them and he too highly recommended them. They were offering an $80 rebate so the entire set, mounted and balanced would be under $400 out the door. Well under half the cost of the Michelins. He also reminded me of their 30 day guarantee in that if I was unhappy with them I could always upgrade to the Michelins and just pay the difference so I had nothing to lose. I ordered a set and had them installed and so far so good. I have absolutely NO vibration on the highway, this is the ultimate proof that the Contis were totally to blame for the extremely severe vibration problem.

Also, they were nice enough to check my alignment and recommend I have it done as the camber on one wheel was out of spec and they didn't have the special Porsche tool needed to adjust it. Since they were not able to complete the entire alignment they didn't charge a nickel for what they did, which was more than fair. So a special shout out to Town Fair Tire on Amherst Street in Nashua for being good guys. Also, a special thanks again to the Better Business Bureau without whom I would never have received a refund for the defective Contis.

Also, a reminder about TireRack reviews. They have never published my review of the Conti tires and it is absolutely irresponsible to have a forum where negative reviews are deleted at their discretion when they don't say they censor anything on their site. If they want to offer a forum where people can leave their reviews of their honest experiences with a tire then it should include all of them or they should clearly state the reviews are censored. I know they are the sponsors of this board so I hope they will read this and take it to heart. Since people seem to put great weight on the customer's reviews it is important to know the data isn't complete and, at least in my case, a negative review was not published.