I've put 23,000 miles on my car so far, and am on my 3rd set of rears, 2nd set of fronts. I replaced the stock conti's on the rear after putting on an intake and only 6,000 miles. Pieces of $hit... After the death of those tires, I put Conti SportContact3's on the rear. Went with those bc the stock fronts were fine ( I thought) and they got really good ratings on TireRack reviews (Dirty Liars). Those "max-performance summer tires" performed like a crippled racehorse.

The tread on the 2nd set of contis lasted all of 10,000 miles and gave little to no grip. Figured you could have one or the other right? Well no, with Continentals you get neither. PS, my Conti front tires were simultaneously dry rotting; Just loved those tires... Will never buy from them again.

Put my fat Vredesteins on front and rear about 7,000 miles ago and OH MY GOD! They actually hold the road like a beast. And you know what, most of ( about 2/3 ) of the tread is still there.

If you're looking for good gripping and wearing tires, just stay away from Contis. I don't have experience with the other brands that members have been happy with, but the Vredesteins can't be beaten in my opinion.

Maybe the people on TireRack who loved the Continentals so much drove cars like the Smart ForTwo, Nissan Versa, or similar "huge" amounts of power...