Wet and dry grip are generally well liked on the Continental Eco Contact 3, with 16 and 15 favorable mentions against three and five criticisms respectively. Tread life is the most discussed issue but almost evenly split, with 13 positive comments and 12 complaints, around a quarter of owners reporting disappointment. Mid-life and end-of-life accounts include long service, but also shoulder wear and one report of reduced confidence as the tire aged. Comfort earns eight favorable mentions without criticism, and noise has more praise than complaints. Steering feel is evenly divided, so it is less settled than basic grip. The 73.5% average across 45 reviews reflects mostly positive or neutral experiences, without follow-up reviews establishing a shared ageing trend.
What owners mention most counted across 44 reviews
Had the tires for 12 months and with around 250 miles per week on them between Watford and Oxford they have been worn bold below the legal limit. Wet grip is good considering the price of the tire online and it being an 'eco' tire. Very dissapointed at the wear rate however and this has been a regular comment from fellow continental tire users.
87%
Member
Peugeot
185/65 R14 T
60,000 miles
A Combination of Roads
Average
Perfect for my driving style and my car. I been using Continental Eco Contact 3 for the last 8 years without any problems.
Check out how the BEST all seasons tires perform against premium summer and winter tires!
on my car now for 3 years, may say its a good tire for my 1.4 lanos, front tires tread is half way so i changed front to back at the sevice station in Athens Greece and wow !!!! ... all 4 tires on the tread had peelings and missing tread, went to dealer and tolled him my problem, he wasn't surprised at all, told him i have a 4 year warranty he just laughed ... CONTINENTALS ARE NOT FOR ME ...!!!!
Which tires do you drive?
Researching the Continental Eco Contact 3? Rate the tires you actually drive - and help the next buyer choose.
Each of my cars has 165/65-14 fronts & 185/60-14 rears & is rear-engined with swing axles. Wet braking, wet lateral grip (damp not deep puddles) & predictable & talkative limit behavior are my priorities. The EC3s succeed well on those terms. I have no interest in how long they last or how comfortable they are & generally prefer softer, quick wearing, slick-road-competent, compounds. If they have a fault, then it's a fairly soggy structure. My cure for that is to run them with pressures in the mid thirties to gain the front end response I want & then adjust the rear to get the handling balance I like. Works nicely &, as their wet grip is better than anything much else I can get in the size in Australia, it's a small fault to compensate for. I'm a repeat customer although I've recently fitted Premium Contact 2s to the front of the 4CV (same comments as the above except crisper in turn in). Recommended.
Dry grip and feedback: Not good; feels like the road is wet even when warm and dry. Car never feels confident in a straight line and gets blown off course by crosswinds and while passing big trucks. Adjusting air pressures between Fiat's recommended maximum speed+load setting, then back down to standard pressures made little difference.
Wet grip: OK on wet tarmac is the best I can say about the Continental EcoContact 3. Tread has few sipes (tiny grooves) so winter grip is likely to be poor (another reviewer described zero braking on ice).
Progressiveness: I concur with the X19 driver about understeer, vagueness and general softness. Cornering grip starts low and deteriorates with squealing or grinding as the front wheels drift wide; at least the back wheels never break loose. The front-wheel-drive Panda is no sports car but I have driven several of this same model that feel much better with different tires.
Comfort: Smooth riding but very noisy above 100kph=60mph. Requires earplugs, killing conversation and music on long trips. Other tires on this make and model car have been much quieter.
Wear: If these had been on my own car instead of a rental, I would not wait for them to wear out; they would be replaced with better rubber. No, I would not buy them again and will advise others against their purchase.
Smart car drivers are either progressive or programmed purely for local town driving.
Either circumstances lend themselves to these tires.
Have driven on them since 2008, however suffered premature wear due to my Smart dealership, Smart Mercedes Benz Colindale, North West London, replacing steering components under warranty, and failing to re-track the vehicle. They admitted this offering £80 off next majoe service - no thank you!
Both front tires endured advanced inner edge wear at 23,000miles. Rest of tires had negligible wear at this mileage. Rear tires also negligible wear.
Conti are perhaps the best tires suited to Smart's.
Have driven car to within 100% of handling limits in controlled IAM Skills Day, and found the Conti's provide early warning of understeer, Smart's achilles heel.
Disagree strongly on previous postings on handling.
Have been using these on my Alfa Romeo 146 1.4 Twin Spark for 2 years now, I have to say the dry grip is very good, wet grip is slightly less than what you'd anticipate. They do provide adequate feedback and they are progressive enough; wear, after 15.000 km, is minimal - almost all the tread is still there. As far as comfort is concerned, they are good, but next time I'll go for the much improved ContiEcoContact 5 ones.
Great tire. Still have two of the original 4 set on the car, after doing 100k KM on them. They're at the limit now, but after 100k what more can you ask? Great performance on wet and dry, slightly noisy but only compared to high end, great fuel consumption/low resistance, not to mention the ultra low wear. Fishing for new tires now, and will stick to Conti, but probably will switch to it's younger brother the EcoContact 5 if the price is right. Highly recommended for the value for money.
Have these tires on my Aygo, an 800kg car, very light.
After just 12k miles I'm down to around 3mm of tread and not that impressed with the wear, even given my heavy right foot.
Also had a terrifying moment on ice with these tires at 10mph where I slid for a few hundred meters, up onto a raised cross-road, across and down the other side. They offered no braking what so ever.
Having said that, they do cope surprisingly well in the dry and rain. I think ice is a bit too harsh condition for them.
Will certainly be looking into alternatives when replacing them, or at least looking into winter tires.
