Rick

Tires.....you can stay with what you had, but change is also a good thing. You can go a little wider, with lower profile if your budget permits(225/50 becomes 245/40) without effecting speedo calibration(overall diameter is identical to the .003 of an inch).

Things to be aware of:

Sidewall stiffness; low profile tires should be stiff, but you dont want to sacrifice ride quality

Temp rating; should be a concern, lower profile tires run hot so A/A is in order

Treadlife; the higher the number, the longer they last...dont set your sights too high or you toast performance for a few thousand extra miles

viper

If you don't really need a performance summer tire try looking at the Michelin Pilot all-season tires. At least you won't have to change to snow tires in the winter and they should wear a lot better as well.

RedC230K

Thanks, gents. I knew you'd have some insight for me.

Love this board.

TimmyC230boy

I agree with Lynn. The Kumho's are good tires. the s0-3s are great but $$$ so are the OEM Michelins. But if you call LUKE at the tire rack he will help you out in deciding what type of tires will best suit your needs. Just make sure to tell him youare from MBWORLD.

o2bsurreal

I looked around and finally bought 4 of Michelin's Pilot Sport A/S tires. They are similar to the Pilot Sports except they have a 400 tread life vs. 200. I like sticky tires as much as the next guy, but rack the miles up quickly and most of them are on the Interstate. I figured it was worth the extra cost. I ended up getting them from my dealer - they quoted the tires as being a little bit more expensive than on discounttiredirect.com, but once I found out that the dealer's quote included labor and everything (except tax), then it worked out to be about even. It's already been another 12,000 miles and I haven't even had to rotate them yet (my others only lasted about 15,000 miles).

P.S. My OEM tires were Continental Sports. Also, my car has the 17" C7 wheels.

NANA

How often do we have to rotate the tires? My car has 3,500 miles now and would like to know if I should rotate the tires?

Rick

Michelin suggests 7,500 mile intervals. I rotate mine every 5k with oil changes....call it cheap insurance....

preyx

Yeah... considering the high camber on the tires, it's probably a good idea to change as often as is comfortable.

toki999

speaking of rotation,

i was in for A service last week, and i asked, again, for alignment..cause it still keep pulling to right and the steering wheel was out of center.

after the service i got a paper saying that they did a rotation of the tire...and the adviser was telling me that (which i was waiting sipping on coffee)

"we are doing alignment and ur car will go straight as an arrow when it comes out"

which they drove 5 precious miles off of my lease mileage..

straight as an arrow, my korean flat ***!!!!!!!!!

now it kinda pulls left and wheel is far more off center......i should go and kick his fat ***~..

i'll ask for one more alignment check next time..i should ride along and tell him that........

le848dave

I had the problem w/ pulling right, alignment done and now it pulls left...they took it back and switched the tires around for a while and said it's tire pull and I need to speak w/ the tire manufacturer. Haven't called yet, will post when I get some more info.

dave

xc240x

i used to mount tires for a year and a half... a million times the alignment guy would tell me to rotate tires on a car, b/c he aligned it and it still pulls... my opinion... to hell with all the alignment guys... tire rotation unless the tires are oddly worn or excessively worn are going to do nothing to affect the pull of the car... and yes the airpressure on the tires is correct and even... i think alignment guys just say to have them rotated b/c they are too lazy to actually fix the problem on the alignment... they must teach them that trick in ******* Alignment U.

MBNewbii

I just noticed that my new C320 Wagon has these crappy (I think) continental eco... tires - the same that are on the Volvo V40 that I just helped my mother-in-law buy!!!!

How can a $41,000 performance car have the same tires as a $22,000 family truckster?

Did the dealer switch them?

Is MB really cheap in this department?

I live in SoCal, so tires aren't THAT important, but even these seem pretty wimpy.


MBNewbii

shtatc

Continentals came on my C240 as stock - 16" - I believe ContiTouring CH95. They are decent A/S tires. I switched to Continental Sport Contacts when I got my 17" wheels. There are better tires and worse. They were the most affordable at the time. Nowadays you have a choice of a number of tires - but I would not be so upset with the stock ones, unless you drive aggressively.

aborwick

My C320 sedan came with Michelin MXV4 Plus tires.

BrabusCClass

I got these too. I heard that if you complain you can get your tires switched or something. I could be wrong but I could have sworn I heard about this.

mverboom

I got mine with Pirelli P-Zero Rosso's.

Before I ordered the car I told the dealer I didn't want continentals on the car. Fortunatly they didn't put on conti's at the factory. My collegue has the same car but he did get conti's on his (he got the 16" rims, I got dthe 17"). After a few month's we did a driverstraining with our cars. The grip in the wet was significantly better with the pirelli's (although I have wider tires).
I don't know if it's the same for all conti's but I really don't like them after seeing the difference in grip in critical situations...

just my 2c..

Mark

young

i was told by my dealer that cars don't come w/ tires from the factory. once they reach the US, they put the tires on at the dock. the guys at the dock do not care what tires you get; they just put on whatever rated tires you're supposed to get (for example, C7 gets ZR rated - some got michelin pilot sports, others got contis...)

if you really want, and the dealer is cool about it, they will give you the tires you want. good luck.

mverboom

ok, that's probably a difference between europe and the us....

Mark

viper

That is ridiculous. Can you see a boat load of MB's sitting up on concrete blocks on a ship during transit ? Just the logistics of doing like your dealer said is crazy and not cost effective.

young

now that you mention it, it does sound odd. i just emailed mbusa to check it out.

NiTeRiDeR_AnGeL

I had the cheesy continentals on my '01 C240. I just got new wheels today and put on some dunlops. I only have 25,000 miles on my car and the continentals are nearly bald. So yea, I was pretty astonished MB gave me some sorry tires. At the dealership in Raleigh, NC, I could have sworn I saw some '02 benz's with BF Goodrich tires. ?

Lynn

BF Goodrich is a subsidiary of Michelin.

young

here's what mbusa says:

Please be advised that both Michelin and Continental Tires are approved
tires for use on Mercedes-Benz vehicles, and the fact that some vehicles
are fitted with one or the other at the time of assembly is largely due to
factors such as availability in certain geographical areas.


well, not very clear... but it looks like they are installed during assembly so i think my sales guy doesn't know what he's talking about... again...

anyway, whatever tires you get, it's mb approved

SoCal240/6

LOL! It NEVER ceases to amaze me at the absolutely stupid things dealers will say.

Its hard to say if they are genuinely stupid, or they just think customers are stupid, and get a kick out of pulling your leg. (I can see them in the backroom after telling you that, "Hey, Jimbo, I just told some customer that cars don't come from the factory with tires and the guys at the dock put them on!" They all burst out laughing).

In your case, it must be the latter, because even the average dealer worker can't be that dumb (I don't think).

viper

Personal experience by most of us says that a box of bricks is smarter than some of the dealer employees.