Continental TrueContact Review & Rating for 2024

I am familiar with the brilliant all-weather capabilities of the Continental TrueContact tire. My colleague once drove a Honda Accord fitted with Continental TrueContact tires. They cost less than $100 each and they gave the Accord a higher level of touring refinement.

When I found out I was doing this review of the Continental TrueContact, I wanted to find a test vehicle for a long weekend drive, preferably a sedan or crossover. Luckily for me, I got my hands on a 2017 Ford Fusion S sedan. It came with the 2.5-liter four-banger and six-speed automatic transmission. It is also fitted with 17” stock wheels in a luster nickel finish.

Heard the news the Fusion will be discontinued only to be revived as a station wagon? Ford saw it fit to utilize the Fusion platform so it can go head-to-head with the magnificent Subaru Outback. That’s too bad because the Fusion is not only a great-looking car, but it rides smoothly and offers a ton of room for five adults plus cargo. I heard some rumors about reliability issues and bad customer support, but the Fusion is still a great car.

The Continental TrueContact is an all-season touring tire. It is designed to increase the refinement and comfort of your sedan, crossover, minivan, or sports coupe. This tire is primarily engineered to deliver tons of comfort, a quiet and serene ride, outstanding fuel economy, and a longer wear life.

Continental utilized the patented EcoPlus Technology to create a tire that performs well in all-season driving (including light snow) while still providing excellent traction and longer wear life.

The Continental TrueContact was constructed using an all-season tread compound infused with Tg-F polymers and +Silane additives to prolong tread wear, offer better wet traction, and enhance the fuel economy by lowering the rolling resistance.

The symmetric tread design is equipped with three wide circumferential grooves to prevent hydroplaning. The tire also comes with traction grooves that you can see as vertical ridges in the circumferential grooves to deliver more biting edges over snowy or loose surfaces.

In order to offer a more comfortable and silent ride, the Continental TrueContact is also equipped with a cushioning layer of rubber that Continental calls ComfortRide Technology. This unique system will absorb shock and vibration to give your vehicle a better ride.

Continental TrueContact review: Test Drive

The goal in this review of the Continental TrueContact is to drive my test vehicle for a weekend jaunt that covers approximately 1,200 miles. I will need to drive a bit aggressively if I was to return home by Monday the following week. After packing my bags and playing some driving music, I hit the open road and drove off.

Dry Traction

The sun was up by Sunday morning, but it rained hard as I departed the big city. The Continental TrueContact tires felt marvelous in the dry, but the single most defining factor will have to be the road comfort, but more on that later. Braking also felt fuss-free while the steering and handling was a bit on the sportier side of the spectrum. The Continental TrueContact offered higher levels of grip in the dry than other touring tires I tested. This was not surprising since the TrueContact is endowed with a sporty symmetrical tread design, but it’s not the top dog if you desire more grip or traction for true sporty driving.

Wet Traction

The Continental TrueContact felt stable and secure as I sped on a wet highway. Credit also goes to my Ford Fusion test vehicle. It behaved like a sporty sedan even as I clumsily sawed at the wheel over wet and dirt-filled surfaces. The tires never failed to maintain traction as my sedan rolled over multiple patches of water puddles that some, I assume, were more than 2-inches deep! Braking in the wet was also strong and straightforward.

Snow Traction

I didn’t get the chance to test the tires in deep snow but I was able to traverse over moderately icy terrain. I am happy to report my Ford Fusion remained unperturbed even in the presence of ice or light snow. I even had a chat with a fellow driver behind the wheel of a Subaru Forester which also came equipped with the Continental TrueContact tires. He even told me it was the best all-season tires he tested so far, and it can even handle a couple inches of snow without breaking traction.

Comfort

The true test of a touring tire is riding comfort. The Continental TrueContact is one of the best tires if you desire luxury-car levels of riding comfort for less than $150 each. The Ford Fusion is a comfortable sedan to start with, but the TrueContact tires were simply magnificent in terms of comfort and ride silence.

Noise

Like I said, the Continental TrueContact tires were eerily silent at both high and low speeds. This also happens to be one of the top tires I tested that rolled silently over any type of road, be it harsh concrete or smooth tarmac. Yes, it’s not the best in terms of dry grip but no other touring tire comes close when it comes to comfort and refinement.

Treadwear

The Continental TrueContact tires in my test vehicle were approximately 5 months old and have traveled an estimated 3,500-miles that consisted mostly of highway driving. The grooves were still fresh and had little signs of fading or wear.