Continental TrueContact Tour vs Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires

For most drivers of sedans, coupes, minivans, SUVs, and crossovers, all-season tires are just a sensible, versatile choice for a set of tires. They’re like the Swiss Army Knife of tires, designed for great wear properties, capable handling and braking, a composed and refined ride, and stable, sedate road manners. They’re the do-all solution for most drivers’ vehicles and needs and they get the job done well in any weather condition other than heavier snow. Grand Touring tires are designed to meet all the requirements you’d expect with all-season tires, but with a greater emphasis on ride quality and low noise, making them a great pick for vehicles that spend many hours on Interstate road trips. Today we’re going to do a head-to-head comparison with two premium Grand Touring tires, the Continental TrueContact Tour and Falken Sincera SN250 A/S.

With generous treadwear coverage, low noise, and a full checklist of top-quality innovative features, the Falken and the Continental are both strong performers that offer excellent value for money. While they share many of the same characteristics, Falken and Continental also have some pretty substantial differences, which we will compare and contrast in this brief article.

Are you familiar with SimpleScore? SimpleScore is the system that the SimpleTire team has devised to give you a quick at-a-glance idea of a tire’s strengths and weaknesses. We go through and take a look at specs, manufacturer’s product information, reviews, and other data points, then we process all that information down to a 1-10 numerical score for each tire for the categories of traction, handling, and longevity, as well as an overall average SimpleScore for each. For the Continental TrueContact Tour and Falken Sincera SN250 A/S, the SimpleScore numbers are as follows:

Continental TrueContact Tour:

• Traction: 8.7
• Handling: 8.6
• Longevity: 9.5
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.9

Falken Sincera SN250 A/S:

• Traction: 8.6
• Handling: 8.4
• Longevity: 9.0
• Overall average SimpleScore: 8.6

As you can see, the SimpleScore numbers for both tires are pretty respectable, and both tires compare well to each other in the pertinent SimpleScore categories. SimpleScore is a handy resource to give you an overview of what a tire’s strengths and weaknesses are, but it’s still the 30,000-foot view that doesn’t give you a detailed picture. Let’s go in and get a closer look at this product comparison review:

Continental TrueContact Tour tires

With the TrueContact Tour, Continental raises the bar for long wear, year-round performance, responsive handling, and steady, balanced road manners in a Grand Touring tire. The Continental TrueContact Tour starts with an advanced tread compound that’s designed with temperature-activated functional polymers that deliver long life and great traction in wet, dry, or wintry conditions, along with Silane additives that let the TrueContact Tour stay flexible for grip in subfreezing temperatures.

The all-season tread of the TrueContact Tour resists hydroplaning on wet roads with circumferential and cross-hatch grooves that help direct standing water away from the tire’s contact patch. A network of sipes in the intermediate tread blocks and lateral notches towards the shoulder help boost traction on snowy or slushy roads, and Continental’s traction grooves trap and retain snow to develop snow-to-snow friction. Continental’s EcoPlus technology package enhances fuel economy by keeping rolling resistance low. Interestingly, the letters D, W, and S are molded into the TrueContact Tour’s tread, with D standing for Dry, W for Wet, and S for Snow. As the tread wears down, the letters that appear will indicate the conditions where that tread depth will still be effective.

The internal construction of the TrueContact Tour incorporates a single-ply polyester casing with twin steel belts and a spiral-wound nylon cap layer for stability. The tire’s low- to mid-apex ensures a good balance of confident handling and ride comfort, with Continental’s ComfortRide subtread layer helping to absorb vibrations and road irregularities for a forgiving ride. Continental covers the TrueContact Tour with an 80,000 mile manufacturer’s treadwear warranty. SimpleTire’s price on Continental TrueContact Tour tires starts at $122.99 per tire.

Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires

Next up is one of the SimpleTire team’s favorites in the all-season category, the Sincera SN250 A/S from Falken. Falken designed the Sincera SN250 A/S with class-leading durability and traction as objectives in all kinds of weather. Along with great handling and ride comfort, Falken stands by this all-season tire with a limited manufacturer tread life warranty that ranges from 75,000 miles for H and V-rated sizes to 80,000 miles for T-rated sizes. That outstanding tread wear coverage can be chalked up to an advanced rubber compound and a rib tread that encourages long, even wear – our team notes a SimpleScore of 9.0 for longevity. Year-round grip here is the result of a combination of circumferential grooves, lateral grooves, and 3D sipes. These features are designed to achieve an interlocking effect from all the tread’s systems, racking up a SimpleScore of 9.0 for handling. Finally, the Sincera SN250’s solid center rib and reinforced shoulders give this tire great road manners, steering response, braking performance, and cornering. We should also note that the Falken Sincera SN250 A/S is equipped with a rim guard flange built into the sidewall that guards the tire and wheel against curb scuffs. The Falken Sincera gets an overall aggregate SimpleScore of 8.7. SimpleTire’s price on Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires starts at $76.00 per tire.

Continental TrueContact Tour vs Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires on traction

Our first category is traction, and the Continental and Falken are neck and neck with each other; the Continental gets a SimpleScore of 8.7 vs. 8.6 for the Falken. We have to give that slight edge to the Continental, with its combination of the innovative Silane tread compound and its system of sipes, circumferential grooves, lateral and angled grooves, and the Traction Grooves feature that helps to enhance winter traction. Any tire that can get a SimpleScore of 8.6 for traction (like the Falken) is definitely doing something right, but in this case, our decision goes in favor of:

ADVANTAGE: Continental TrueContact Tour

Continental TrueContact Tour vs Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires on handling

In the handling category, how do the Falken and the Continental stack up against each other? With a SimpleScore of 8.6 for the Continental and 8.4 for the Falken, again, it’s a close one. The physics of a vehicle means that as it rounds a corner, momentum, and inertia try to keep it pointed in a straight line. A tire that’s too flexible will distort at its tread face and experience “tread squirm” and deformation, with the inboard side of the tire leaving the pavement sometimes. The stiffer, more stable internal construction of the Continental TrueContact Tour helps to resist tread squirm and deformation, ensuring steering response that’s quick and light and cornering that’s predictable and stable, even when pushed hard. The Falken is great too, but our decision:

ADVANTAGE: Continental TrueContact Tour

Continental TrueContact Tour vs Falken Sincera SN250 A/S tires on longevity

Let’s just say this, first off: any tire that offers more than 70,000 miles of limited manufacturers’ tread life coverage is phenomenal, especially since it wasn’t that long ago that a 50,000 mile warranty was about best-in-class. The Continental comes in with a SimpleScore of 9.5 for longevity, as opposed to 9.0 for the Falken. In this case, the difference in SimpleScores comes right back to the tread life coverage of 80,000 miles for the Continental and 75,000 to 80,000 miles for the Falken. It’s not like the Falken is the loser here, though, because either way you go, you’re going to get a tire with outstanding warranty coverage. Our decision:

ADVANTAGE: Continental TrueContact Tour

When to use each

When we’re talking about a premium Continental tire versus a premium Falken tire, you really wouldn’t be making the wrong decision with either one. Both are equally strong performers for a wide variety of sedans, coupes, minivans, and crossovers; both offer great grip and handling in wet or dry conditions, with the exception being heavier snow (neither tire has a 3 Peak Mountain Snowflake certification for winter traction, and most non-3PMSF all-season tires don’t do well in heavier winter weather). The Continental is designed for a quiet and luxurious ride, along with a lengthy treadwear warranty and enhanced handling. For that matter, so is the Falken, although it doesn’t quite stack up favorably against the Continental in the SimpleScore ratings. Long story short, though, these are tires that are very closely matched in performance and value and are great candidates for any driver who needs year-round traction along with a compliant, hushed ride.

Which one should you choose?

When we get right down to it, this one is rather a tough call. The Continental and the Falken are so closely matched and so competitive with each other when it comes to SimpleScore rankings, with very strong scores in all three categories. Both offer phenomenal limited manufacturer’s tread life coverage, both are loaded with innovative features, and both deliver excellent performance and value. So let’s talk about price for a moment, with SimpleTire’s price on the Continental starting at $122.99 per tire vs. $76.00 per tire for the Falken. In cases like this, our best advice would be to go for the Continental if you don’t mind spending more money (considerably more). If you’re on a bit of a budget or if you have an older vehicle and don’t want to drop $800-1000 on a set of tires, go with the Falken. Either way, you decide, you’ll be making a great purchase of a set of premium quality Grand Touring tires.

Still not sure which tire to buy? Fortunately, SimpleTire is here to help, and our helpful agents will be more than happy to assist you in selecting the right tire for your ride and budget.