Price-value champion tires from Continental?

On the varied landscapes and roads of the Austrian Alps, we tested Continental’s novelty, which, according to experience and official information, is intended by the manufacturer for an environment that is typical for our country. In Hungary, four-season tires can be a really good choice for average users, since the tires have to deal with precipitation mainly at temperatures above 0°C, while the really hard, permanently above 30-35°C, exclusively dry periods do not last for months. Of course, all this does not mean that the four-season tire is unsuitable for the mentioned extremes, it is simply that a winter or a summer tire clearly performs better beyond these limits. However, four-season tires cover a much wider and more varied range, which is why it’s worth seeing how Continental’s engineers achieve this.

The key is to know the expectations and meet them as best as possible, and not to skimp on details that will eventually only be revealed to the users. The four-season tire must receive winter certification, and it must simply be suitable for summer use. Most of the time, this is precisely why – especially in the case of the cheap category – four-season tires are much closer to winter tires, the larger part of their pattern and their softer material suggest this. However, these tires also underperform in summer brake tests, and their resistance deteriorates significantly in the warmer months. Continental tried to avoid these pitfalls, so while the pattern of the AllSeason Contact 2 is more similar to winter tires, the compound is much harder, so that it does not become too soft and slippery in the summer. All of this is also confirmed by discoverable differences compared to the winter model, such as the so-called C-block arrangement. Of course, we were also able to try out what we saw and heard when we ourselves were able to perform brake tests on hot, wet roads with identical GTI Golfs equipped with the new AllSeasonContact 2 and Atlas Green 4S tires. The result was clear, 2 attempts each by the 12 drivers produced an average braking distance difference of 15 meters when slowing down from 90 km/h. To put it more clearly, it means that when the GTI stopped on the Continental’s four-season course, the car was still traveling at 40 km/h on the cheaper Atlas tires.

This is what it looks like when a car hits the foam wall at 40 km/h

Of course, all this is understandable, but Hungary is a particularly price-sensitive market. However, this is also a point where Continental’s engineers seem to have deliberately tailored the tire for us: the previous AllSeasonContact was also one of the most durable four-season tires, but even this was improved by 20 percent, which can mean a full season for average users. In addition, the range continues to expand in terms of sizes, the AllSeasonContact 2 also goes “upwards”, responding to the increasingly large rim sets of new cars. It is also important to note here that the changes in the cars were taken into account in all aspects of the design. According to their own research results, the average vehicle weighed 1,268 kilograms and produced 100 horsepower 20 years ago, while today it is 1,481 kilograms and 140 horsepower.

Here are the sizes in which Continental’s new four-season set will be available

In addition to dimensions and load, the expansion of electric cars is also an important aspect, to which AllSeasonContact 2 also adapts, by reducing the rolling resistance, it was achieved that the new pattern and material can now be a full-fledged tire for electric models as well. Of course, this is also a disadvantage for those using an internal combustion engine, since the improvement in rolling resistance not only contributes to the life of the tires, but also keeps the consumption values ​​lower. Of course, this could not be at the expense of traction, to prove this, we were able to drive the new development on dry and wet race tracks with the Toyota Yaris GR and Hyundai i20N models. Although the AllSeasonContact 2 is clearly not a racing tire, it still performed well. The fact that the road test took place on huge, electric models can also be called extreme conditions. Here, too, the experiences are similar to those of the competing cars: the Audi e-tron S with over 500 horsepower was already able to produce such loads in the alpine bends where we drove at the limit of the rubber, but it performed perfectly under the Nissan Ariya. Overall, I experienced this as a positive experience, since a 2.6 ton car capable of accelerating with nearly 1,000 newton meters of torque is rare in Hungary, so the novelty will remain well within the limits of the average user.

AllSeasonContact 2 also performed well under heavy and powerful electric cars

However, they kept silent about the prices, but we didn’t leave it at that and asked about it. Obviously, they expected the question, but Continental’s experts could not give exact prices either, but they did reveal that there are no significant price increases compared to the currently running, first generation AllSeasonContact tires. If this turns out to be true, then it will hardly be possible to find a better price-value ratio tire on the market than the new development that preserves its texture and performance for up to 5-6 seasons on the cars of average users.

Continental’s engineers tried to create the most versatile tire possible when developing their new four-season product: based on tests and presentations, it seems that they are on the right track