Continental ControlContact Tour AS Review & Rating for 2024

If the Continental TrueContact is a tad too expensive for your meager budget, the natural choice should be the ControlContact Tour A/S. It offers a better balance of fuel economy, all-season traction, and ride comfort at a lower entry price. Mind you, the Continental ControlContact Tour A/S is not the cheapest all-season tire you can find (you can basically find cheaper China-made tires for less than $60 a pop), but it does offer a ton of great features starting at around $80 each.

My test vehicle for this Continental ControlContact Tour A/S review is a humble 2016 Toyota Corolla S fitted with a 1.8-liter four-banger and CVT transmission. It also came with stock 17-inch wheels wrapped in Continental ControlContact Tour A/S tires. I know, the Corolla is not exactly the type of car that will make you scream for excitement, but it remains a bestseller for all the right reasons: reliability, comfort, easy to drive, and relatively frugal. Let’s see if the new Continental tires made a difference.

The Continental ControlContact Tour A/S is manufactured using Continental’s EcoPlus Technology. It is geared towards enhancing the reliability, wear characteristics, and wet traction of the tire. The tire is a great choice for compact sedans, hatchbacks, minivans, and small crossover vehicles.

The ControlContact Tour A/S is an affordable all-season touring tire. The symmetrical tread deign enables superior performance on wet roads while enhancing silence and road comfort. The conservative tread design is also designed to maintain excellent fuel economy even as the tire wears out. Equipped with full depth sipes and traction grooves to offer more biting edges over snowy or icy terrain, the ControlContact Tour A/S is all about providing the right balance between all-season traction and touring comfort.

Continental ControlContact Tour A/S review: Test Drive

I noticed the right rear tire in my test vehicle was a bit short on air. I suspected a puncture so I drove to the nearest tire station. As it turns out, the tire was only running low on air. I had all the tires pumped to 32 psi, grabbed something to eat along the way, and proceeded with my test drive.

Dry Traction

The Continental ControlContact Tour A/S tires felt marginally better on dry tarmac compared to other cheap tires. Grip and traction were always present, but you will feel the tires gasping for dear life if you push hard in a winding corner. The Corolla, like most front wheel drive cars, had a tendency to understeer if you approach a corner at speed, but the tires managed to hold on and bring the car back in line with a simple correction of the steering. These tires are at their best at low or moderate speeds, which is exactly what I expected in a set of touring tires. If you have a fast car or if you like sporty handling, these are not the right tires for the job. But for normal driving, the tires are more than willing to perform.

Wet Traction

I was quite impressed on the Continental ControlContact Tour A/S tires behaved on wet roads. Yes, braking distances were significantly longer in the wet, but the tires managed to claw for traction even with my ham-fisted driving style. Again, not particularly brilliant at high speed but marginally talented at low to medium speeds. So far, so good.

Snow Traction

I did get the chance to test the Continental ControlContact Tour A/S tires over light snow. Traction was acceptable given the dreary road conditions, but you will need a major tire upgrade if you are looking to drive in places with more than 2-inches of snow or ice. I can feel the sipes and grooves hunting for traction as I gingerly tackled a snowy uphill, but the tires managed to get me home without any fuss or drama.

Comfort

The comfort level is the biggest selling point of the Continental ControlContact Tour A/S. The Corolla is not a Rolls Royce by any means, but the tires managed to further enhance the refinement of my test vehicle. I had more fun cruising down the highway than speeding on empty back roads during my test drive, and most of it had something to do with the superior comfort of the ControlContact Tour A/S tires. If all you want in a cheap tire is comfort, silence, and a longer wear life, I strongly suggest you take a closer look at the Continental ControlContact AS.

Noise

What can I say? The Continental ControlContact AS were superbly quiet and serene even as I drove over rougher patches of concrete roads. I did hear some tire roar at higher speed but it wasn’t too obtrusive to be considered annoying or uncomfortable. Of course, this may also have something to do with the NVH tuning of my test vehicle.

Treadwear

The Continental ControlContact AS tires fitted to my test vehicle were still fairly new. I found no traces of accelerated wear and tear and the grooves were as fresh as the morning dew. I had a brief conversation with the guy at the tire store and he told me his customers were amazed on the wear characteristics of the ControlContact AS. Of course, it always helps to have the wheel alignment checked when buying new tires.