10/22/2009

European experts give Continental tires top ratings

Hanover, October 2009 – According to the astronomical clock, winter begins in Germany with the winter solstice on December 21. Last year the first snowfall was in November, though, after which roads were extremely treacherous. In 2008 the number of accidents caused by snow and ice rose 15.4% year on year to a total of 6,033. This year the first accidents due to snow and black ice already occurred in mid-October. From now until May, temperatures are likely to drop below seven degrees Celsius on at least 185 days.

Here you can find the media service as a Word-document.

Here you can download the media service as a pdf-file.

Here you can download the press photo as JPEG.

For experienced drivers it is thus again time to make the switch to winter tires. These tires have a softer rubber compound than summer tires and more sipes. This makes for the right grip on wet, slick and snow-covered roads and also ensures much shorter braking distances. Tests also document how truly vital they are. With winter tires the distance needed to brake on snow at a traveling speed of 50 kmph can be over thirty meters shorter than with summer tires. Generally, one should remember that tread depth has to be at least four millimeters if the sipes are to still offer good grip.

Dr. Walter Eichendorf, president of Deutscher Verkehrssicherheitsrat e.V. [German Traffic Safety Council] in Bonn, affirms: “The fall switch to winter tires should be a given for any motorist. Genuine winter tires simply offer a wider margin of safety in cold weather and on wintry roads. And there’s no putting a price on safety. That’s why experts recommend going with quality when buying tires.”

For Continental, as well, safety and quality are the key criteria in developing winter tires. The top quality offered by Europe’s market leader in passenger car tires again proved convincing to the continent’s tire experts. And so the ContiWinterContact TS 830 in size 205/55 R 16 H was unanimously rated best tire by the German Motoring Association ADAC, the consumer testing organization Stiftung Warentest, the Austrian motoring association ÖAMTC, and the Swiss Touring Club TCS. ADAC, ÖAMTC and TCS likewise assigned their top rating of “highly recommended” to the ContiWinterContact TS 800 in size 185/60 R 14 T, while Stiftung Warentest declared the compact-category tire its test winner. The Uniroyal MS plus 66 and MS plus 6 and the Semperit Speed-Grip and Master-Grip were other winter tires netting good ratings. The experts again warned buyers not to opt for cheap winter tires from Asia, which exhibit glaring weaknesses on wet and even dry roads.

Incidentally, as of May 2006, motorists out and about with summer tires on wintry roads run the risk of being slapped with a €20 fine in Germany. If they pose an obstruction to traffic, the fine can be jacked up to €40 and the motorist be given a point toward suspension of the driver’s license.