You probably already know that light trucks, SUVs, and crossovers are everywhere on the road these days. With over 80 percent of vehicle sales in the US, trucks, and SUVs seem to have driven sedans and minivans out of the picture with respect to daily driver and family car duties. This latest trend does make sense since light trucks and SUVs are comfortable, practical, and durable, and with every passing model year getting a little more sophisticated and refined. While many of those trucks, SUVs, and crossovers are equipped with 4WD from the factory, let’s just be honest– most of them are never going to leave the pavement, or at least very seldom. For years in the passenger tire world, all-season tires have been the perfect do-all solution since they deliver long, even wear with a generous limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty, year-round traction, a quiet and accommodating ride, and predictable handling, and the same can be said here too.

A tire like the Continental ContiTraccan be considered a light-truck equivalent of an all-season passenger tire. It’s technically classified as a highway-terrain tire, but highway-terrain tires have a lot of common ground with all-season tires for cars. They have many of the same performance targets and similar design elements, but they feature beefed-up construction and internal design that helps them easily accommodate the added weight and load of a truck. The Continental ContiTrac is loaded with premium features and innovations that make it a great value and a great performer in the arena of highway-terrain tires for light trucks and SUVs. Let’s get in there and get a closer look with this Continental ContiTrac tire review:

Features and Benefits

Here are some of the great innovations and design features that make the Continental ContiTrac a standout:

• All-season tread design with circumferential grooves that evacuate water from the tire’s contact patch to resist hydroplaning
• Advanced tread compound is designed for low rolling resistance and long, even wear as well as improved traction in wet weather
• Stone ejectors built into tread grooves let the ContiTrac easily shed gravel and debris from the tread area to protect the casing
• Polyester casing with high-tensile steel belt package and nylon cap overlay to hold it all together
• Great-looking outlined white letter sidewall on select sizes
• Tread pitch is randomized and computer-tuned to keep road noise low by negating certain frequencies and harmonics
• A dense network of sipes multiplies tread surface area and traction by adding hundreds of hair-thin slits to slice through water or slush
• Redesigned contact patch is optimized to put more rubber in contact with the road for enhanced handling, braking, wear properties, and control
• Continental’s design package helps to isolate vibrations and roughness for a forgiving ride
• Continuous center rib gives the ContiTrac stable road manners in straight-line driving as well as quick and light steering response
• Backed by Continental’s Total Confidence Plan, including Road Hazard, Limited Warranty, Customer Satisfaction, and Roadside Assistance plan

Pros and Cons

The Continental ContiTrac is a tire where the pros definitely outweigh the cons, as seen below:

PROS:

• Exceptionally quiet and refined ride on the highway
• Handing properties are confident and predictable
• Durable construction for long, even wear
• Low rolling resistance helps to save on fuel costs
• Dependable traction in about every road condition other than heavy snow

CONS:

• Not good for off-road use
• No limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage
• Not good in heavier winter weather

SimpleTire’s view on Continental ContiTrac tires

Are you familiar with SimpleScore? SimpleScore is the rating system that the SimpleTire team developed to give you a quick, easy, at-a-glance idea of any tire’s strong points and weaknesses. We take into account the tire’s technical details, specs, manufacturer info, customer reviews, and other data points, then process all that to a 1-10 numerical value for the categories of traction, handling and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore. In the case of the Continental ContiTrac, the SimpleScore numbers shake out like this:

Continental ContiTrac:

• Traction: 8.6
• Handling: 8.4
• Longevity: 8.7
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.3

One of the first things we noticed with the Continental ContiTrac is its low noise and ride quality. This is a tire that delivers a supple and accommodating ride that’s whisper-quiet on most pavement surfaces, the kind of ride quality and overall road manners you’d expect from an automotive Grand Touring tire. The continuous center rib of the ContiTrac delivers a nice solid feel for straight-line highway-speed driving on the interstate, but it’s never numb or sluggish. Steering response is nimble and quick without being overly touchy or twitchy, and the overall handling and cornering of the ContiTrac are predictable and consistent, remaining within the limits of your vehicle’s handling properties.

On wet or dry pavement, control and traction are dependable and consistent with short braking distances, and the ContiTrac even performs well in a couple of inches of snow thanks to that sipe system and the tire’s circumferential grooves. It’s true this tire doesn’t perform well off-road in heavy mud or in nasty winter conditions, but then again, that’s not really what a highway-terrain tire is designed for. Apart from the above, the ContiTrac isn’t covered with a limited manufacturer’s tread life warranty, although Continental does offer a comprehensive set of benefits with their Total Confidence Plan.

We’ve also taken note of the fact that the ContiTrac is available in a wide range of sizes for everything from smaller crossovers to full-size American trucks, and of course that outlined white letter sidewall looks great on a variety of vehicles. All in all, it’s our take here at the SimpleTire team that the Continental ContiTrac is a versatile and dependable tire that would make a great fit for all kinds of light trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.

Vehicles the Continental ContiTrac is an OEM tire for

The Continental ContiTrac is (or was) featured as original equipment on the following vehicles:

• Ford Ranger
• Mazda Tribute
• Mercury Mariner
• Infiniti QX56
• Nissan Titan
• Ford F250
• Chevrolet Trailblazer
• Mazda B3000
• GMC Envoy
• Isuzu Ascender

Vehicles the Continental ContiTrac is a good replacement tire for

Along with the trucks and SUVs listed above, the Continental ContiTrac would make a great aftermarket replacement tire for vehicles such as these:

• Ford Explorer
• Buick Enclave
• Chevrolet Uplander
• GMC Acadian
• Jeep Grand Cherokee
• Nissan Pathfinder
• BMW X5
• Dodge Journey
• Genesis GV70
• Hyundai Palisade
• Jaguar F-Pace
• Lexus RX350
• Mazda CX-7
• Tesla Model X
• Toyota RAV4
• Volkswagen Taos
• Honda Ridgeline
• Jeep Gladiator
• RAM 2500
• Kia Sportage
• Mitsubishi Montero