You'all know this story. When I left for work this morning there was only a light dusting of fresh snow and not much coming down so I figured it was safe to go in. But of course the idiots were out in force for this first snow of the season and traffic was impossible. My normal 12 mile, 20 minute commute turned into an hour and a half ordeal. My NAV was highlighting traffic problems non-stop from the moment I hit the major roads and offering to re-route me every 5 minutes. So when I finally got to my office there was almost an inch on the roads and more coming fast. Needless to say I got my chance to see how the AMG does in the snow. You can sum it up with one cliché: like a fish out of water. Actually it wasn't as bad as I would have thought and I did make it home safely (knocking on all kinds of wood) but just barley! Everything was fine, just going very slow and leaving a lot of space when braking or going up/down hills, until I got to my office's parking lot. I pulled into the left turn lane which was blanketed in an inch of untouched fresh snow going about 30 and could not stop at all. It was 100' of ABS and prayers. When I finally bled off what little momentum I had and came slowly to a stop I looked in my rear view to see another Benz, a big W210 E-class, with his wheels locked and cocked ABS'ing right up behind me. And man was it close. I pulled into my parking lot and just kept going, right back out and headed home without stopping. I sent my team a Blackberry message from the first light I came to telling them not to expect me in and putted--very slowly--home. Well, now I know. Next time I'll take the wife's Quattro.

What do you have on your C55 right now, as far as tires go? Summer tires (e.g. stock tires on C32, C55, et al.) are WORTHLESS in any sort of cold, snowy conditions. They harden up into bricks, and with essentially no (or minimal) sipes, they just plain don't work. I think most people throw around a "45 degree" rule of thumb - meaning, don't drive summer tires if it's 45 or below, regardless of precipitation.

If you have a set of dedicated snow tires, along with traction control and common sense, you should be able to get around in 1" of snow without too much drama. That said, these high hp rear wheel drive sports sedans aren't optimal in these conditions (to say the least) - so if you've got an Audi w/ Quattro, you're right on the money... take that one instead. I drive my C230 Coupe in the winter here in PA (w/ snow tires), and I've rarely had any problems, short of near-blizzard conditions.

how does your nav recognize traffic????

I didnt know we have a traffic function?

Sorry, not stock NAV, I turned on my Blackberry 8820's Telenav just to see if there were traffic problems.
Stock Pirelli PZero Rosso's and yes, they are hockey pucks. H*ll, they'll spin freely all the way to 3rd if you got full throttle even on hot, dry pavement.

You MUST get bona fide winter tires or all season tires if you're going to drive in the snow. A good summer tire shouldn't even be used if it's COLD because the compound hardens up like a hockey puck. Good tires and a gentle foot will make the AMG passable.

Passable? With snow tires and LSD, the AMG tears up the snow. I find myself driving it during storms more than my Jeep.

What's funny is when the SUV drivers get all cocky in the snow then realize the hard way that although they can go up a snow covered hill better than a sport sedan, they don't handle well in the snow. I saw a guy in a mid-sized SUV do a 360 and side-swipe a lamp post today. He thought he could just whip out into traffic and go but his a$$ end kept coming around and he stayed on the gas. Then it was up over the curb and WHAM. His side trim ended up about 20' ovr the sidewalk. The SUVs might go in the snow but most they handle like the pigs they are. That's not counting things like the Cayenne.

Was wondering if I was the only one

With stock tires (not sure what kind, but 59k miles on 'em...) and no mods to speak of, let alone an LSD, I'm pretty much fine in the snow. Sure, accelerating is a bit tough on solid layers of snow, but otherwise the car is practically idiot-proof. Not only am I the perfect idiot to test it's mettle, but I haven't even had the car long enough to settle on the perfect seat position yet, let alone learn to drive it :P

My last car (2000 Audi A6 2.7T) had AWD but no traction control (same as my prior Audi 90Q). This gives you all the potential grip you need, but you need to control wheelspin and yaw. AWD without traction control does not eliminate fish-tailing or plowing; it actually lets you to both! Lots of SUV drivers don't get it. And a top heavy, ill-handling truck is still top-heavy and ill-handling in the snow.

Ive driven my e55 in snow on stock tires twice so far since ive had it, didnt really have as much of a problem as expected

Yeah, I just tried my C32 in the snow for the first time this season. Didn't work out so well. I'm now waiting on a new front lower control arm to replace the one that bent when the car slid into a curb.

Be careful out there! 'W' mode and ESP gives you a false sense of security!!

I used "C" mode for the first time today. It helps but it's no magic elixir or anything. Slowing down and anticipating (and a little instinct for counter-steering) helps more than any electronic gizmos in my book.

Small world huh...

Same thing happened to me on Tuesday. Had BF Goodrich T/A KDW's, made a corner doing 15 but there was ice on the ground, so I braked and the car just slid all the way into the curb. Dented and scraped my IForged wheel and now my drivers side wheel is slanted left a bit while my other side sits straight.

BTW, how much is it to replace the control arm? is it an easy DIY? I have an appointment tomorrow at 4:00pm, but don't want to take the car in if the charge $100 just to tell me the control arm is bent, and another $500 to fix.

ohh ****! I did this in my C32, except I had balding nitto 555's in the rear and I was driving like an *** with out the traction control and hit the curb sideways at around 10-15MPH. the wheels were sitting bent inward toward the bottom and it bent a whole lot more than just the tie rod ends or the control arms. the bill came to over 4K and it included the rack and pinion and both sub frames. These cars have very soft aluminum suspension components and get bent up very easily, and can keep your car from getting a perfect alignment until its all replaced. Just prepare to make a claim on your insurance, if the big $ parts start adding up!

This post clearly illustrates idiosyncrasy of our country. We make and enforce absurd speed limits under slogans of public safety, yet we fail to provide even the basic DE. What a disgrace.

GET WINTER TIRES!!! End of story. See this post for some tips. https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c55-amg-w203/217838-winter-tire-questions.html


BTW, car’s ability to stop has nothing to do with drive configuration (AWD, FWD or RWD). E-class was ABSing and skidding because of wrong tires and incorrect braking technique. Drive configuration (AWD, FWD or RWD) has no influence on static cornering grip. It only changes cornering dynamic. Drive configuration only influences acceleration. Holding everything equal, AWD will always out-accelerate FWD and RWD out of the hole.

Yoy have been lucky my friend...last season I used with the snow tires(Hankook Icebear's) three 70lbs sandbags in the trunk and with a steady foot the C32 went along fine....I was actually amazed by how well the car handled.

Egads! Get those things off of there before you kill yourself! No car will drive well with summer high performance tires like these. The tread is wrong for snow and the rubber compound is wrong for cold weather. The car will drive just fine with a good winter tire. It sux but you have to bite the bullet and buy dedicated winter tires if you want to drive these cars in the winter time.

I'm not sure how my post "clearly illustrates idiosyncrasy of our country" or a lack of education. If you read it, hopefully you'll notice that when I left for work it wasn't bad out and that the roads turned bad after I left. If anything my post clearly illustrates a lack of ability to accurately predict the weather--a failing that has plagued civilization since the dawn of time. Of that I plead guilty. But hopefully you'll notice my leveraging some rudimentary drivers education by turning around and returning home as soon as I realized the roads were getting dangerous for the vehicle configuration I was piloting. Now if you are saying I am displaying a lack of education every time I take my car with summer tires out when the ambient temperature drops below 45 degrees, then of that I am going to continue to be guilty.

or maybe he was talking about me too? Although my idiotic driving took place during the summer season with a newly acquired C32 with balding tires, which ironically, I was on my way to the dealership to have them replaced!
BTW, winter tires are not needed in Phoenix AZ

Drop-a-Daimler, do not take this personal. This was NOT a stab at you. Most drivers do not even know that there are various types of tires (summer, winter, rain, mud, etc.). Most do not understand that tires are the signal most important performance and safety feature on a car. All of the acceleration, braking and turning happens via tires. Well over 40K people die each year on our roads and most of these deaths can be prevented with better DE. However, our government rather scam its citizens with illegal, fraudulent and corrupt speed regulations, than educate us and thus prevent death and injuries.

You going home = common sense
You blaming C55 for poor snow/ice performance = lack of DE
E-class ABSing = lack of DE
SUV doing a 360 and side-swiping a lamp post = lack of DE

I just got mine back, the total was $580. Took about a day to fix. They replaced the lower control arm and the associated hardware. All it took after that was a good 4-wheel alignment. I just drove it for about 30 minutes and everything feels just fine. I can consider myself very lucky.

He mentioned that my back tires were shot, so now it's on to that issue. I might go with the Kumho ASX's again, they worked out pretty well on the S2000 as an Ultra-High Performance all season tire. Cheap too, they're only $110 for the back at TireRack.

Since I live downtown Chicago, I don't have to worry about getting dedicated snow tires, they do a pretty good job of keeping the roads clear. And on the other days, there's always a taxi...

do you have the part number of that piece? left or right side?
thanks.

I just canceled my appointment, they wanted $124 just to diagnose the problem.

No problem, no offense taken, but to clarify a bit more I was not blaming the AMG for her snow performance (thus my comment that she "... wasn't as bad as I would have thought"), just trying to impart what I hope was an entertaining story. I take her out everyday with a pretty good idea of how she will do in the current conditions and have no expectations beyond what your average high performance, well engineered, RWD sport sedan with summer tires should do. In fact she did better than I expected considering I have lightened her by 100lbs and added 20 hp so there is nothing to blame. Praise would describe it better. If I didn't think she could handle it I'd have taken the old lady's Quattro.

Yeah so today on my commute to school i was running late and although there was no snow on the roads it was 25 degrees out. Giving it throttle at anything below 35 caused my traction control to get angry with me