So, my Conti's are getting balder by the day. Right now, they're at ~2/32 on the rears... I'm at 54,xxx miles, and these were installed at around 38,000 miles. Hardly the 50,000 as rated by Continental, but I knew that would never be observed on our cars.

Apparently, they did too.

There's a nice refusal by Continental to support the warranty on any sports car with negative camber in the rear, even if it's factory negative. This includes all Crossfires, Mercedes models, etc.

When the guy at Discount measured my tires, he said they were 3/32" on the outer-most tread blocks, and 2/32" in the inside tread blocks. He politely explained that Continental would outright refuse the claim, and would not support the pro-rating. He went on further to explain that they were the worst to deal with regarding customer service, whereas Michelin was the most supportive.

So, for the 1/32" difference between edges of the tire, the warranty is null.

Discount made it up to me... they did their inner-computer witchcraft and managed to give me a price of $360 out-the-door for a new pair of 285/30/19 Continental DWS. Honestly, that's probably better than Conti would have done. And realistically speaking, 18K out of a set of rears, the way I drive, is shockingly good. So, I'm a happy camper

I'm also an annoyed camper, because I feel Continental is sorely misrepresenting the DWS' warranty.

The performance of the tire has been superb; value... meh. Cheaper than Michelin, but not exactly cheap by any standard.

Oh, and the prices on the DWS have jumped for 2011 as well... gotta love it!

So, Discount Tire saves the day again.

 

Thanks for the update John. I'm going to chat with my dealer about that. I also have a road warranty on the tires so I wonder what would happen at about that measurement and for some reason the tires would blow? Odd for it to happen but one never knows when misfortune would hit.

 

I told the guy @ Discount that I was trying to go about things the honest way. I have the road-hazard protection as well, and I told him not to make it tempting for me to drive through a scrap iron yard, aiming for the nails. He laughed, and five minutes later we had the price mentioned above...

 

Fuuny how that happens. And John, what are you implying? I merely mentioned that there was a road hazard coverage and stuff happens. You know how that goes. Out of the blue really! Sheesh. And I thought you had more faith in me than what I think you might be saying. LOL!!!

 

Didn't you put all four tires on for around $1100? and how is that fair when they sold you the tires with the warranty? Would you have bought them if you knew you would automatically void the 50k mile warranty just by putting them on your car? Sounds like a massive lawsuit waiting to happen.

 

Honestly I wouldn't ever do a full-blown lawsuit over something so frivolous, but it is shady as hell. And I'm not too thrilled with Continental.

When I purchased, it was $600 new for both rears, $450 for both fronts installed + tax. So, $360 for two new rears is reasonable since I doubt very seriously that Continental would give me a legit 65% off (18,000 driven miles on a 50,000 mile tire). The "warranty" was a deciding factor on the purchase of these tires. I could have bought the hancooks for $400 cheaper. So, from that perspective, it's a bum deal. Discount's warranty is only road-hazard related... Conti's warranty was mileage.

And, he said prices went up, but check this little nugget out: Continental no longer produces the DWS in the 285/30/19 size. See below:

Tire Search Results

So, looks like I'll be entertaining other options anyways. Perhaps Discount has a stash somewhere, but with such an obscure size, I doubt it.

I may ultimately have to drop back down to a 275/35.. only a 10mm difference and then I can flush out the wheels even further with some 10mm spacers. And, a higher aspect ratio to soften the daily drive a bit. Both the size I have on now, and the 275/35 are XL load-rated, Y speed rating. If nothing else, the slightly narrower width will translate to stiffer sidewalls, which was a complaint I had about these tires from day one.

I'll keep you all posted on how it plays out.

 

dont go down to a 275 go up to a 295!!! really the warrenty on just about everything voids when used for racing but if the car comes with neg camber i would complain to the attorny gen

 

Well, they can see by the tire wear that it hasn't been raced. He even made the comment that it "looked" very even... He said that Conti required the tires to be shipped to them, otherwise he would have simply written it down as even and called it a day.

As far as the 275/285/295 debate, I hardly make the power to break the 285s loose. And I noticed a substantial decrease in lateral stability/slalom by stepping up to the 285s... Now that I'm running the 9.5" wheel it's not so bad, but with the OEM wheels it was... tricky.