Sportstick

I don't think Indiana has anything over Michigan when it comes to getting snow....Great Lakes, you know....Blizzak WS60 transform the car...my rwd C300 did fine in deep snow with those tires, but had been awful with the OE Conti's before I swapped. The only part of the car which touches the ground are the tires!! 4MATIC won't do much if the tires aren't great. Conversely, tires such as the Blizzaks with unique compound and tread, take rwd and make it VERY capable...check out Tire Rack...I got 17" rims at $99 each which look like MB OE and did not use the staggered setup for the winter tires.

BTW, the whole discussion on fwd vs rwd has to do with weight transfer. It can actually depend if you're going up or down hill! For flat surfaces (Indiana!) with reasonable driving (not shifting weight rearward excessively), fwd wins because more weight is on the driving wheels.

RLE

This subject is getting out of control and this question is a good example.

micropower99

len56

ok, but i didn't mean getting new rims :P, just keep the 18" AMG's and hope the Benz driver training course does the rest xD

<<lol @ all the toronto ppl being the experts on snow driving...>>>

lol, we tha experts here

len56

Why?
4000 for circular rubber with lines in it is quite a bit :P

len56

everyone is hatin

patrickkc

its not $4000 difference, read my post damnit

peabers

Why run the risk of damaging the rims and exposing those 18" ///AMG rims in the salt and snow? The 18" winter tyres will cost more as well.

patrickkc

I don't think anybody would, but I was just comparing that if he had run his 18" rims in the winter than the it might have been better to have bought the 4matic from the very start since 18" winter tires can easily cover the $2200 difference of the c300 and c300 4matic (assuming he has 18" and his c300 is auto)

peabers

Patrickkc -- I don't believe that having 4matic precludes the need for proper winter tyres. Just because the car can put down power a little more effectively does not mean that it has any better ability to steer or stop. So the ~$2000 for winter tyres and rims are still a necessary expenditure.

patrickkc

yep, you're right but with 4matic, I can assume you don't need top of the line winter tires unlike the c300 non 4matic.

sameer13

Top of the line tires or not, 4Matic or RWD, doesn't make a difference. Any cheap winter tire will provide better traction/stopping/safety than all seasons in winter for a good 30,000 KMs. In fact some provinces in Canada have made it a law to have Winter tires from Nov 15 to Apr 15.

I have driven all wheel drives, FWD and RWD and winter tires make a huge differences.

Also what's deal with winter already, look forward to summer and let's discuss this topic in October.

peabers

That may be true but when I saw some guy running on some Chinese brand winter tyres, I got thinking... if you spent $40-50K on a car, why are you skimping the $400-500 on a decent set of snow tyres. This is the only thing between your car and the snow/ice.

CrAZyVeGAsBoY

well to get back to the original question, i suppose its possible to add it but i doubt any dealer will install it for u and it would cost a hell of alot, in ur case the best thing to do is get some really good tires and some chains, of course next time it would be wise to do ur homework on a car before u buy, could of saved ya some hassel

aranu

HAHAHA your from Indiana and you think you need a 4-matic?

I live in Canada Saskatchewan, one of the place with the most heaviest snowfalls. Slapped on some good winter tires and that all I needed for my RWD. The traction control on the w204s is amazing, and I think you will be fine with a good set of winter tires.

All i did for the winter was buy a set of 17s from tire rack for 400$ then a set of blizzak tires and I was quite good for winter, even against other AWDs