Continental TrueContact Review: Supremely Quiet and Comfortable

Continental is one of the biggest tire manufacturers in the world. Their products are known for precise German engineering, outstanding durability, and excellent performance. They’re mostly known for their all-season touring tire portfolio, which consistently is one of the best in the past few decades.

The TrueContact is a great example of that. It’s a standard touring tire designed to offer its owner a completely safe driving experience, comfortable and quiet ride, and outstanding durability. See how it compares to its biggest rivals in this detailed Continental TrueContact review.

The TrueContact is specifically designed for owners of sedans, coupes, minivans, and crossovers. It comes in many sizes ranging from 15-19-inch wheel diameter. This means that it covers both older and newer models of cars, and also some compact and sub-compact vehicles. Being an all-season tire, the TrueContact should offer its driver excellent traction and braking performance throughout the year, even in light snow.

Vehicles that are best-suited to these tires are sedans such as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, and Ford Fusion, minivans such as the Honda Odyssey and Toyota Sienna, compact sedans such as Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic, and even some sporty coupes. However, if you drive a sports car, please note that the Continental TrueContact isn’t designed for maximum performance – it’s a more comfort-oriented type of tire. Also, it comes in lower speed ratings than grand-touring tires – always check the speed rating to see if it suits your car. In other words, the TrueContact is a tire that you would probably want if you drive your family around in your car, thanks to the focus on safety and comfort.

Price-wise, the Continental TrueContact is comparable to most standard touring tires from premium manufacturers. It’s even cheaper than some, like the Pirelli P4 Four Seasons Plus for example. It is also cheaper than grand-touring tires, despite offering almost the same performance in every category (aside from lower speed rating), especially the things that the average driver cares about. The TrueContact comes with Continental’s EcoPlus Technology, which combines several features for low-rolling resistance.

What are the features of the Continental TrueContact?

Like most Continental tires, the TrueContact has a lot going for. According to Continental, it was designed to offer extended treadwear and excellent wet braking grip, while also improving fuel consumption and lowering emissions. The all-season tread compound is made of Tg-F Polymers and +Silane additives, that are now pretty standard across Continental’s range and from our previous experience with them, they really provide advantages in dry and wet conditions, as well as with durability.

The tire compound is molded into a symmetric design that is developed to ensure continuous contact with the road, which should improve traction and handling, responsiveness, and high-speed stability. Unlike some of its competitors, which offer only two circumferential grooves, the Continental comes with three. These grooves should improve hydroplaning resistance in heavy rain, improving wet traction. The all-season aspect is covered with siped intermediate tread blocks and Traction Grooves, which help the TrueContact with traction in light snow.

Continental’s ComfortRide Technology is also here to improve ride quality on uneven surfaces, while the tread design is also optimized for low noise output. Other things, such as the internal structure with twin steel belts reinforced with spirally wound jointless polyamide are also standard for Continental’s tires, and also similar to what other standard touring tires offer.

What are maintenance indicators?

Continental is very serious about safety, and that’s why they’ve built the TrueContact with wear indicators that are very easy to read. They are spaced evenly through the main (biggest) grooves of the tread. When the tires are new, you won’t be able to see these wear indicators from normal distances, but they will start to show as the tire wears off. But, what does that mean and when to change the tires? It’s simple – if the tread is flush with the wear indicators, the tires will not be usable in wintry conditions, and especially in the snow.

That won’t happen soon, though. The TrueContact is one of the most durable tires on the market right now, even when compared to more expensive models from other manufacturers. The 90,000-mile treadwear warranty (T & H-Speed Rated models, V-rated get 80,000-miles warranty) speaks volume as for how much Continental believes in the durability of their standard touring tire, and we can confirm that this is the case in the real world. Users consistently get over 5-years worth of driving with these tires, which is certainly impressive.

As for uniformity warranty, the Continental TrueContact gets 1 year or first 2/32″ of wear. The company also gives 60-days trial test drive, which is twice as long as other manufacturers. Call that self-confidence if you want, but it really shows that the German tiremaker believes in its products.

Is it good for off-road driving?

Of course not! The TrueContact is designed only to be used on paved roads and won’t give you enough off-road traction. That said, it can be used on gravel roads without any issue, provided you don’t drive too fast. The tread of standard touring tires is sufficient to give you enough traction on gravel, but only at lower speeds. If you want a set of tires that will work in off-road conditions, you might want to start with all-terrain tires.

How does it behave on dry tarmac?

As expected, the Continental TrueContact is one of the best handling tires in its category, especially given the fact that it is also cheaper than some. We were surprised by the responsiveness first and foremost – every steering input is transferred to the road faster than expected in a standard touring tire. Additionally, traction levels are very high for the type of tire, while the grip is excellent.

The Continental TrueContact also provides its owner with one of the shortest braking distances in the category, which makes it a safe choice for any family. Sure, some grand-touring or performance tires will give you better handling abilities, but for the average driver, the Continental will be more than good enough.

How is it over wet and slippery roads?

As much as the TrueContact is comparable to other premium standard-touring tires, it beats almost all of them when it rains. This is not something new to us – we already know that Continental puts a lot of focus on designing tires that will work in rainy conditions, which almost always results in outstanding performance.

Thanks to the three wide circumferential grooves, the TrueContact has outstanding hydroplaning resistance. Your car will remain to be controllable, even when driving into puddles of water. Stopping distances are also very short, while the side-to-side grip is excellent. On top of that, thanks to the advanced compound with Tg-F Polymers and +Sylane additives, the Continental holds itself very well in damp conditions.

Suffice to say, if you want the safest standard touring tire in the rain, the Continental TrueContact might be the best bet.

With that being said, how is it in snowy roads?

Even though most buyers expect that all-season tires aren’t really suited to winter driving. Sure, they are much better than summer tires, which are completely unusable in colder weather, but they’re still far of winter tires. The same can be said for the Continental TrueContact. It is much better than summer tires if the weather is dry and cold. Traction remains to be solid, and braking is still pretty powerful.

However, even though it is rated as light-snow tire, the TrueContact doesn’t provide the driver with enough traction or stopping power for safe driving. I mean, yeah, it does have traction in light snow (you won’t get stuck), but that still doesn’t make it completely usable. That’s why, if you live in an area with harsh winters, you might want to invest in winter tires from October to March. On the other hand, if you live in areas with mild winters without almost any snow, the TrueContact might serve you well.

Is it comfortable and refined?

Thanks to the ComfortRide Technology, ride quality is simply outstanding, even on roads with large potholes and lot of small imperfections. Noise is also not an issue at highway speeds – you can’t hear the tires even on sub-compact vehicles without sufficient noise insulation. If the title wasn’t clear for you, the TrueContact is perhaps the quietest and most comfortable standard touring tire right now.

You can see more Continental TrueContact Review here: videos created by Indiana DIY

Should I buy the Continental TrueContact?

If you’re in the market for a set of tires for your family car, the Continental TrueContact is the safest bet out there. It’s not very expensive, yet it will last you for a long time. It is also supremely quiet and comfortable, and outstandingly safe in dry and wet conditions. It’s really hard to find any real faults with the TrueContact – this is easily one of the best standard-touring tires right now.