In this article we will be looking at independent tire test data, and real world driver reviews of the Continental IceContact 3 and the Michelin X Ice Snow to find out which tire is best for your own driving.
The good news is that both the Continental IceContact 3 and Michelin X Ice Snow are Premium Touring Winter tires designed to be fitted to Passenger Cars, which means comparing the two tires is relatively simple.
Both tires are hugely popular in the market place with drivers, and both have been featured in independent tire tests.
Independent comparison tire tests are the best source of data to get tire information from, and the good news is there have been four tests which compare both tires directly!
Out of these four tests:
While it might look like the Michelin X Ice Snow is better than the Continental IceContact 3 purely based on the higher number of test wins, tires are very complicated objects which means where one tire is better than the other can be more important in real world use.
Let's look at how the two tires compare across multiple tire test categories.
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during one dry braking tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 stopped the vehicle in 2.07% less distance than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Dry Braking: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Dry Braking winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:29.9M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 31.2M |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:31.5M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 31.5M |
Looking at data from one tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during one subj. dry handling tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 scored 11.11% more points than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Subj. Dry Handling: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Subj. Dry Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:9 Points | Michelin X Ice Snow: 8 Points |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two wet braking tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 stopped the vehicle in 10.17% less distance than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Wet Braking: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Wet Braking winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:33.4M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 38.6M |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:33.7M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 36.1M |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two wet handling [s] tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 was 0.57% faster around a wet lap than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Wet Handling [s]: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Wet Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:34.9s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 35s |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:35.2s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 35.5s |
Best In Subj. Wet Handling:
See how the Subj. Wet Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:8 Points | Michelin X Ice Snow: 8 Points |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during one snow braking tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 stopped the vehicle in 0.88% less distance than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Snow Braking: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Snow Braking winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:50.4M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 50.4M |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:51.4M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 52.3M |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two snow traction tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 accelerated 1.68% faster than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Snow Traction: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Snow Traction winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:5.9s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 6s |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:5.8s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 5.9s |
Best In Snow Handling [s]:
See how the Snow Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:48.8s | ✓ Michelin X Ice Snow: 48.7s |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:53.5s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 53.6s |
Best In Subj. Snow Handling:
See how the Subj. Snow Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:9 Points | Michelin X Ice Snow: 9 Points |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two ice braking tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 stopped the vehicle 8.38% shorter than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Ice Braking: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Ice Braking winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:38.9M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 42.7M |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:40.9M | Michelin X Ice Snow: 44.4M |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two ice traction tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 accelerated 26.67% faster than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Ice Traction: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Ice Traction winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:3.8s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 5.3s |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:3.9s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 5.2s |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during two ice handling [s] tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 was 8.95% faster around a lap than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Ice Handling [s]: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Ice Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:60.2s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 61s |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:57.8s | Michelin X Ice Snow: 68.6s |
Looking at data from one tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during one subj. ice handling tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 scored 12.5% more points than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Subj. Ice Handling: Continental IceContact 3
See how the Subj. Ice Handling winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
✓ Continental IceContact 3:8 Points | Michelin X Ice Snow: 7 Points |
Looking at data from two tire tests, the Continental IceContact 3 was better during zero subj. noise tests. On average the Continental IceContact 3 scored 23.53% more points than the Michelin X Ice Snow.
Best In Subj. Noise: Michelin X Ice Snow
See how the Subj. Noise winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:7 Points | ✓ Michelin X Ice Snow: 8 Points |
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:6 Points | ✓ Michelin X Ice Snow: 9 Points |
Best In Price:
See how the Price winner was calculated >>
2021 Studless and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:600 | Michelin X Ice Snow: 600 |
Looking at data from one tire tests, the Michelin X Ice Snow was better during one rolling resistance tests. On average the Michelin X Ice Snow had a 40% lower rolling resistance than the Continental IceContact 3.
Best In Rolling Resistance: Michelin X Ice Snow
See how the Rolling Resistance winner was calculated >>
2020 Nordic and Studded Winter Tire Test 205/55 R16 |
Continental IceContact 3:3kg / t | ✓ Michelin X Ice Snow: 1.8kg / t |
Tire Reviews also collects real world driver reviews for the Continental IceContact 3 and Michelin X Ice Snow.
In total the Continental IceContact 3 has been reviewed 2 times and drivers have given the tire 71% overall.
The Michelin X Ice Snow has been reviewed 13 times and drivers have given the tire 83% overall.
This means in real world driving, people prefer the Michelin X Ice Snow.
In conclusion the Continental IceContact 3 performed better in dry braking, subj. dry handling, wet braking, wet handling [s], snow braking, snow traction, ice braking, ice traction, ice handling [s] and subj. ice handling, while the Michelin X Ice Snow performed better in subj. noise and rolling resistance.
Interestingly, both tires performed equally well in subj. wet handling, snow handling [s], subj. snow handling and price, showing that they are closely matched in these areas.
Which tire is best for you depends a lot on your driving style and situation, plus what you want from the tire. Comparing all the data in the tire reviews database, on balance Continental IceContact 3 seems to be the best tire overall.
However, it's important to note that both tires have their strengths.
Remember, the best tire for you might depend on which of these factors are most important for your specific driving needs and conditions.
Overall Winner: Continental IceContact 3
This page has been developed using tire industry testing best practices. This means we are only comparing tests which have had both tires in the same test.
Why is this important? Tire testing is heavily affected by things like surface grip levels and surface temperature, which means you can only compare values from the same day. During a tire test external condition changes are calculated into the overall results, but it is not possible to calculate this between tire tests performed on different days or at different locations.
As a result you will see other tests on Tire Reviews which feature both the %s and %s, but as they weren't conducted on the same day, the results are not comparable.
Lots of other websites do this sort of tire comparison, Tire Reviews doesn't.