Hit the Trails on Sunday, Commute on Monday With Continental's New TerrainContact A/T2MotorTrendMatt CrisaraWed, September 9, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTCAdd us on GoogleContinental TerrainContact A/T2 First LookContinental TireContinental's all-new TerrainContact A/T2 follows the "road-biased all-terrain tire" approach we've seen several tire manufacturers adopt lately. Although we love a burly, uber-capable set of all-terrain rubber as much as the next enthusiast, Continental (and many of its competitors) are realizing that those tires are usually complete overkill for the situations most folks experience in day-to-day driving.Prior to attending the official launch of the TerrainContact A/T2, we learned from a carefully crafted press release that Continental believes its latest all-terrain tire delivers "confident performance both on and off the road," and "versatility without compromise." So, how'd they pull that off in real life?What's New?Like the press release, much of the launch briefing we attended involved a less-than-careful walk through a tire marketing buzzword minefield. However, we're pleased to report that the evolution from Conti's TerrainContact A/T to the new A/T2 looks to be more than just a new badge on the side of the tire. Here are the highlights you need to know:AdvertisementAdvertisementBraking Performance: Same dry performance as before, with a claimed 3 percent improvement in wet braking.Enhanced Snow Performance: The Three-Peak Mountain snowflake rating reportedly improves snow performance by 10 percent.Improved Durability: Arrives with a 65,000-mile limited treadwear warranty—all while being just as quiet as the old tire, according to Continental.Continental TireWho's the TerrainContact A/T2 For?As you've probably guessed by now, Continental's new all-terrain tire isn't designed for pre-running the Baja 1000. It's been developed for the weekend warrior who commutes during the week and adventures off pavement on the weekend. Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained also gave a presentation during the launch event, helping to demystify the thought process behind how the tire was designed and manufactured.It's important to note that tires aren't made of magic fairy dust, able to take you anywhere or do anything on command. "There's a lot of different aspects of a tire for where it should perform well," Fenske said, "and that's a difficult compromise engineers are always having to solve." That of course made the new TerrainContact A/T2 a very challenging tire to design and produce, requiring a delicate balance between off-road performance and on-road manners. As always, there's no free lunch: A bulletproof tire that's built for extreme trail running will be dreadfully loud and uncomfortable on the road.Continental worked hard to come up with the right mix of herbs and spices, producing a tire it says outperformed its competitors from Bridgestone, Michelin, and Goodyear. More specifically, Conti says the TerrainContact A/T2 features improved wet braking, cut/chip resistance, snow traction, and noise signature.Everything Else You Need to KnowIf you're interested in buying a set of TerrainContact A/T2s, you're in luck because they're on sale right now. The tire is designed for light trucks, midsize and full-size SUVs, and covers a wide range of fitments from 16 to 22 inches. We shopped around at major tire retailers and saw prices as low as $231 for replacement rubber for our Ford F-150 Lightning.