Best Tires for the Smart Fortwo passion

I ended up with the r1r because the larger rubber blocks on the inside of the tire really makes a huge difference in stability on the rear with the smart car having I thing a -3° camber in the back. I put 11.5k miles on in 3 years driving year around in the PNW. Tires were confident building on the street and was able to get to a pace in the dry that the tires started to get a little greasy. And in the wet, cold and with wet leafs these r1r cut through like butter… I was quite surprised that the wet traction felt close to the dry. The tread pattern also did decent in the snow, never did get stuck. Towards the end and getting close to the wear bars, the tires did start stepping out on me and less predictable in the wet. These tires were on the car sitting outside for 3 years in all the weather being driving weekly. So yes, they were definitely weather abused. I had these 195’s on 5.5” rims and the tires are too wide but I can’t find any quality 185 tires. So these are a bit pinched in. I’m sure they were be even better on a proper setup.

Like others on here I have a smart fortwo 450 which means you are somewhat limited in choice when it comes to replacement.

Once you are outside the realms of budget tires in the UK I'm essentially down to a choice of Sincera 110 ecoruns or a mixture of Continental ecocontact.

The Continentals carry a hefty premium over the Falkens - even with a 15% discount from my supplier I'm still paying £65 more for 4 tires than I would should I choose the none discounted Falkens. ( £345 v £410).

Not only that but I'd be having a mixture of ecocontact 3 and 6 which seemed odd that I would be paying a hefty premium for a tire that was essentially 3 generations old - research on this site showed me the ecocontact 3 was initially released in 2003!

But, more expensive equals better, right?

It would seem not.

The reviews on this website for the Continentals appear to be less than glowing, certainly compared to the ecoruns which I already have on the car.

I've been running the sinceras for a couple of years (since I bought the car)and about 15k miles. As it's a Smart car there is virtually no tread wear as the car is so light but the tires are starting to perish as they date back to 2015. Overall, looking at the MOT history and the tire dates I would guess they've done no more than 20k miles.

Ordinarily I would have replaced them earlier but as the car rarely goes above 20 mph in London I haven't really had to worry about high speed blowouts. However, I had to do a longer trip on the motorway last week where I made a promise to the tire gods that if I didn't die in a fireball I would replace them this week.

In the time I have had the car with the Sinceras I can say I've been impressed.

I run an slk 55 as a weekend / summer car and have Michelins on that.

I would imagine that people want different things from different tires and different cars. I don't expect the Sinceras to offer up the same level of grip as the Michelins but on the Smart my priorities are different - my prioritied are excellent wet weather grip - I don't want to be acquaplaning in a car with such a short wheelbase and noise and comfort rate high too.

In this respect the Sinceras score highly - I will caveat that with the fact that I am in the unusual situation whereby the tires have plenty of tread left but are no doubt a lot more brittle after being on for 10 years and exposed to UV light all that time with the concomitant degradation.

I would certainly expect brand new Sinceras to be even better.

In short, they are an excellent tire for your regular family type car where wet weather performance, noise and ride comfort are more important than outright on the limits grip - and they are certainly better than some tires that are more expensive

I bought these tires after reading a review on this website. As that gentleman said, a Smart ForTwo has odd tire sizes and therefore a limited choice of quality tires. The main choices available were Bridgestone Turanza T005, Continental ContiEcoContact 3 or these Falkens. Having had the Conti's on another car, they were rejected for their awful wet grip. The Bridgestone's were very expensive and I had these on a hire car and I was not that impressed as they seemed quite loud.
After fitting the Falkens, I was immediately impressed with their low noise, comfort and dry grip levels. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to their wet performance, however, they were way better than expected and I've grown to be confident in their abilities and they have tamed the Smart's tendency to understeer. It's too early to rate their wear, but as the Smart is so light, it tends not to be an such an issue. Massive improvement over the dreadful budget tires it came with. Overall, I'm really impressed, especially as all four tires were £280 fitted.

Purchased 4 of these SN110's to replace the tires on my Smart Fortwo. The existing fronts were 8 year old Bridgestone B100's (155/60/15), still with half tread left (after 37k!!!), but extremely noisy, uncomfortable and downright lethal in the wet etc. The existing rears were 5 year old Khumo ES01 (175/55/15), loads of tread but noisy and just unremarkable in every way. Anyone with a Smart Fortwo will tell you that tire choices are limited due to rather odd tire sizes, off the shelf options were realistically Bridgestone, Continental (rubbish) and the Falkens.... Local tire fitter suggested the Falkens as they are getting complaints about noise from the T005 Bridgestone's. To start with the Falkens are notably cheaper than Bridgestone/Continental offerings, but don't let that put you off because these tires are good, really good. They are super quiet (even on a Smart car), super comfy (even on a Smart car), super in the wet (even in a Smat car), and work well in the dry to (even in a Smart car)!!!! They as others have mentioned they are soft, so I don't expect them to last long, but to be honest I really don't care......especially at the price paid..... I am far happier having a cheap, reliable, grippy, comfy, quiet tire that I have to replace say every 5 years, than a noisy, crashy, uninspiring tire that lasts for 10 years (but costs half the price). Before someone else says it, my other car is a BMW that I happily shod with Michelin Primacy 4 run flats (that I also love), so I am not some idiot that 'likes cheap' without a thought about safety etc, i'm just not an idiot that 'likes expensive' because they are expensive.... Well done Falken.....the SN110 is a cracking tire for an everyday car.

I have the latest version of these tires the YH18 but there is no category for these at the moment. Didn't know how to rate these tires on a 1-10 basis so left all categories as NA. I've had them fitted to the rear of my car for just over a year now and have had no problems with them. Don't know what else to say really they are just tires and keep the car rolling on the ground.

Didn't know how to rate these tires on a 1-10 basis so left all categories as NA. I've had them fitted to the front of my car for just over a year now and have had no problems with them. Don't know what else to say really they are just tires and keep the car rolling on the ground.

Quieter than original Bridgstones, a little less grippy in the dry but more progressive and predictable at breakaway.
Far better in the wet and in a totally different class once the weather turns cold. frosty mornings and sludge are no issue and it is fun going past 4X4's stuck in the snow.
have to watch out for how close the car behind is when breaking, tail gaters do not stand a chance of stopping if you break really hard

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.

dealer fitted pair of s1200 on rear of smart fortwo at 27k miles replacing orinignal conti's
bearing in mind the rear engine rear wheel drive and quirky handling of the motor (having taken in for test drive with original fitment) the Wanli' let me down dangerously on roundabout, entrance to supermarket in fact anywhere the road surface was not dry and perfect. Felt my new purchase and my life was at risk and continue to take the most care in all conditions. what i can save in underwear i am going to spend on proper tires