How to ruin a good car - CONTINENTAL TIRES
Written: Jul 13 '07 (Updated Jul 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: these tires and this company are horrible, best I can do
Cons: vibration, horrible tread wear, poor weather traction, awful dealer network
The Bottom Line: don't buy Continental products at any cost, although you may be the one lucky customer - who knows?
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| ckaaron1's Full Review: Continental Touring CH95 Passenger/Performance Tir... |
Let me start out by saying that I give anyone more than a fair chance at doing good business, and I usually suffer from being far too decent to people who have wronged me, it's a fault and I know it.
That said, I am beyond upset with the lack of quality I've found with this set of Continental Tires. I am currently awaiting a callback from a Continental corporate customer care supervisor, to file a formal complaint against the person that answered their phone this morning. This individual could've been replaced with a voice mail system and is better suited slinging raw rubber in one of their factories - don't worry, their quality can't possibly get any worse. She was, at the best - rude, and at the worst - insulting and mean. I will suggest they move her to a desk in the basement and take her red stapler away (Office Space is the best movie ever!!).
Now on to the tires, absolutely horrible. Tread wear is like some kind of magic trick, as I can see rubber disappearing before my very eyes. I now have 6,000 miles on this set and they have more vertical miles from going up and down on a service lift, and I'm beginning to wonder if the lug nuts are going to wear out from overuse. From the time they were put on, they have made noise, vibrated, shook, bounced, wobbled, pulled, wandered, and anything else you can think of - these tires were most likely the original equipment tires on the barnum and bailey circus clown cars and they should've stayed there. At one point I got so disgusted with one particular tire I swapped it with my spare and drove on that for 3 weeks - solving the majority of the vibration and wandering. All 5 shops that I've taken the car to for troubleshooting these issues mentioned above, has stated the tires seem okay. Although in the words of the Mercedes Benz Dealer technician it "wanders over bumps, and seems better after rotating the tires". These tires have been rotated and rebalanced 6 times in the 6,000 miles they've been on the car. The tire dealer I got them from suggested I go elsewhere as they are no longer dealing with Continental Tires at all, so they've lost my business as well. I also feel I should mention that the tires have been dismounted and remounted on the wheels 3 times now - inspecting the wheels and tires for damage or anything obvious. Apparently defective tires have to have red flags that pop out for anyone to notice it. I had the tires rotated again yesterday, as it was pulling to the right (again) and now it's pulling to the left. The idiot (for lack of a stronger word as I'm keeping this G-rated for publicity) at Continental was even dumb enough to tell me it's most likely due to uneven tire wear after I told her that they've been rotated and rebalanced 6 times in the past 6,000 miles. It could also be the condition of the vehicle, she went on to say, however - as I told her before that regarding uneven tire wear - this is a mercedes sedan purchased new, with no accident history at all, and at one point it went to the dealer for alignment and inspection due to the problems these tires were causing - and the car is in good working order with no issues. I can say with all certainty that I will NEVER BUY CONTINENTAL PRODUCTS AGAIN. At this point, every time I look at this car I get pensive, and I am currently in the process of trading it in just to be able to put all this behind me. I can also say that I will never buy a car with Continental Tires on it either - hopefully they will go the way of the dodo bird, as there are far better manufacturers out there. You don't have to take my word for it, though - read the reviews out there, and then discount the excellent reviews as they are obviously false. One reviewer even went so far as to say that they had been driving a set of these tires for 67,000 miles LOL HAHAHAHA yeah right, okay, pal, whatever you say - noone else can get 30,000 out of them - he must've been driving on the moon :-) Take care and try another brand, you will definitely be better off. By the way, it's been over 2 hours now and still no call back from a supervisor regarding my complaint.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 450
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Epinions.com ID:
ckaaron1
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Reviews written: 1
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