Continental Eco Contact 6 -atrocious in the wet

[MC Bodge]

I bought a used car (Focus Estate with a 1.5 Ecoboost petrol). The front tyres are Continental Eco Contact 6 with plenty of tread remaining.

In the dry, they are ok, if nothing special.

In the wet, and on anything vaguely dirty, the grip is absolutely terrible.

They are like the worst kind of cheapo plastic ditch finders.

I will be buying a set of Goodyear Vector all seasons, as we have on another car and have been impressed by, in all seasons.

[_Rodders_]

Are they old? They were standard fit on my car and because I swap between summer and winter tyres they're still going 5 years later.

They're not great but I think it's age rather being outright terrible out of the mould.

[Huzzah]

My wife's car has eco contact 6, it's absolutely fine.
We're not hard drivers, but drive in all weather.

[CSR Performance]

Could they be brand new? Might need a hundred miles or so to scrub in.

Also check the pressures if you haven't done already. Sounds stupid, but you never know what some clown has done before.

[MC Bodge]

The tyres appear to be from 2023 and haven't had a lot of use.

The pressures are fine.

I know that many people never notice the differences between tyres (or other things), but I have driven a few cars , motorbikes, pedal bikes in my life, on various tyres and have noticed marked differences.

These EcoContacts are terrible for traction and lateral grip in the wet in comparison with some other tyres.

Some people may well drive very gently at all times, but if somebody needed to steer away from trouble in the wet, or drive on less than perfect asphalt, better to do it on decent tyres, than on plastic ditch finders.