Continental contitouring tire failures: what 104 owner reports say

Every complaint filed with NHTSA against the Continental Contitouring, read and classified: which failures owners actually describe, how that mix compares with all tire complaints on file, and at what mileage the tire let go.

By Mark Bishop · Last verified 2026-10-07

The evidence base

104Written owner reports

4Reported crashes

Crash, injury and death figures are the counts owners themselves reported to NHTSA when filing.

What owners described

Blowout or sudden deflation is the most common description, in 19% of these reports. Percentages are shares of the 104 reports filed against the Continental Contitouring across every vehicle it was fitted to that include a written account; a single report can describe more than one problem, so they do not total 100%.

Reported problem	This subject	All tire complaints	Relative
Blowout or sudden deflation	19%	20%	1.0×
Sidewall failure	19%	15%	1.3×
Cracking or dry rot	9%	9%	0.9×
Tread or belt separation	8%	13%	0.6×
Bubble or bulge in the tire	8%	6%	1.3×
Loss of control, rollover or collision	8%	8%	0.9×

Mileage at failure

75 of these reports state an odometer reading. The middle report is at 18,000 miles, with 8 in 10 falling between 6,000 and 36,060 miles.

In owners' own words

Verbatim excerpts from complaints filed with NHTSA about Continental Contitouring. Reports are published by NHTSA as filed and are lightly cleaned here only to remove intake codes.

I NOTICED A VIBRATION BETWEEN 25-40 MPH. DEALER FOUND BELT SEPARATION AND CRACKING. THERE ARE 5 OR 6 OTHER INCIDENTS OF THIS ON 1998 AND 1999 VOLVO CARS AT THIS DEALERSHIP. THIS IS A FACTORY DEFECT AND SAFETY ISSUE AND I AM UNHAPPY THAT CONTINENTAL MADE ME PAY A PRO-RATA AMOUNT OF $25 FOR EACH TIRE THEY REPLACED.

NHTSA complaint 284522

WHILE DRIVING ON A CITY STREET IN A RESIDENTAL AREA AT ABOUT 25 MPH, THE RIGHT FRONT TIRE BLEW OUT. THE TIRE IMMEDIATELY WNET FLAT AND DESPITE MY EFFORTS TO CONTROL THE STEERING WHEEL THE CAR VEERED TO THE RIGHT STRIKING THE CURB. REPAIR WORK INCLUDED STEERING AND SUSPENSION UNITS, TIRE, WHEEL AND 4 WHEEL ALIGNMENT. TIRE SIZE P21560R16.

NHTSA complaint 315033

DRIVER SIDE REAR TIRE BLEWOUT AT 70MPH ON I-85 IN ATLANTA, GA ON JULY 26, 2002, AT APPROX 4:30PM. NO ACCIDENT OR INJURY, AS I WAS ABLE TO KEEP CONTROL OF THE CAR. A CONTINENTAL TIRE DEALER EXAMINED THE TIRE AND SAID THERE WAS NO SIGN OF A PUNCTURE OR DAMAGE FROM ROAD HAZARD. THE DEALER COULD NOT DETERMINE WHY THE TIRE FAILED. THE FAILUR WAS A SEPERATION OF THE TREAD FROM THE SIDE WALLS. THE DEALER CONTACTED CONTINENTAL AND THEY AGREED TO REPLACE THE TIRE AT NO CHARGE.

NHTSA complaint 371528

WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 35MPH, CONSUMER HEARD A "ROARING" NOISE AND PULLED TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. UPON INSPECTION NOTICE THE LEFT REAR TIRE WAS FLAT. DEALER CAME TO INSPECT AND DIAGNOSED "THE INBOARD SIDEWALL WAS SPLIT FROM THE WHEEL TO THE TREAD". TIRES WERE ORIGINAL. VEHICLE IS A 2003 MERCEDES E500. TIRE INFO: CONTINENTAL CONTITOURING CONTACT ECO PLUS 245/45R17 DOT NO. LMUXPXBU4402 **TS*

NHTSA complaint 388354

How to read this

Complaints are voluntarily submitted to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation and are not verified by NHTSA. They are owner-reported problems, not proven defects, and volume tracks how many of a tire were sold as much as how often it failed. What is comparable is the mix: which problems owners describe here versus across every tire complaint on file. That comparison, the mileage distribution and the mode rankings on this page are our analysis of the public record.

Related analysis

Premature or uneven wear; 5.2× the corpus rate here; see which other tires over-index
Continental Sport Contact; 54 reports

All Continental tire failure analysis

FAQ

What goes wrong with Continental Contitouring tires?

Across 104 written complaints, the most common description is blowout or sudden deflation, in 19% of reports; about 1.0× as often as across all tire complaints. A single report can describe more than one problem.

Is the Continental Contitouring recalled?

Complaints are not recalls. A complaint is a voluntary, unverified owner report; a recall is an official campaign requiring a free remedy. Check the current recall status by DOT date code at the NHTSA recall lookup; that is the only authoritative answer for your specific tire.

At what mileage do Continental Contitouring tires fail?

Of the owners who stated an odometer reading, the middle report is at 18,000 miles, with 8 in 10 between 6,000 and 36,060 miles. These are failures, not typical tire life; nobody files a complaint about a tire that wore out normally.

Have Continental Contitouring failures caused crashes?

Owners reported 4 crashes when filing. NHTSA publishes these as reported and does not verify them.

Sources

Last verified 2026-10-07 against the sources below.

NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation; owner complaints dataset (unverified owner reports, US federal government work, public domain).
NHTSA Recalls database, nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Corpus baselines computed over 58,390 complaint narratives longer than 200 characters.