Continental are fine tires, but most cars come from the factory with all season tires which give good treadwear and good foul-weather traction, but aren't very sticky on dry pavement. You can get tires with more agressive tread patterns and softer rubber which will handle a lot better, at the cost of tread life and a little bit of wet/snow traction. This is what Rip and I did. Rip went with Yokohama AVS ES100 which are Yokohama's second highest performance tire, and I went with Pirelli P-Zero Nero which is Pirelli's highest performance tire. In MN you are probably better off sticking with all seasons because of the rain in the warm months. But then again with AWD you might be just fine on max performance tires.