charliek

I'm nearing 20k on my car, and my front tires are worn down to the wear bars (I rotated too late... @15k) and giving off a horrible howl at hwy speeds. My OE tires were the Michelin Pilot Primacys (245/45WR17) that came with the Appearance Pkg (called Sport Pkg in '03?).

I was wondering if any of you guys have tried any tires other than the OE tires (Michelin Pilot Primacy or Bridgestone Potenza RE050).

If so, which tires and how are they workin out for you? Would you recommend? (spirited driving & no snow driving) Thanks in advance.



[I know... I prolly should've posted this in the Tire Rack forum, but I only wanted responses from the W211 owners...]

avb777

I;ve used many other brands of tires on my car.
The best way to do this is go to tirerack.com
They have many ratings and user reviews on every tire.
Just do a search by your model and year and they will give you all tires available by price , ratings and user reviews.

By the way I found this internet store to be very reliable and the cheapest out there.

Every time I need a new set tires I by from them. I bought about 7 different sets in about 6 years from them.

-Andrei

chairman

If you want good all seasons try Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. These tires wear very well and are quiet, they aren't the least expensive, but they are among the best.

I have used Tire Rack and can tell you that they are reputible and have the lowest prices I have seen.

vraa

If you give me a PM, I can check to see if the PS2's are avaliable in your size, and then I can order them for you. My sources are lower then Tireracks.

charliek

Yep, I've already checked Tire Rack and I've ordered quite a few tires there myself for my dad's S-class. The thing with those reviews though is that there aren't that many for our particular make/model, and some reviews don't seem reliable (ie. reviews posted only after a few hundred miles put on the tires). And I'm assuming that one particular tire may not perform the same for every make/model of car (ie. wasn't there a certain Michelin tire that tracked to the right on certain model Benzs?).

According to Tire Rack, the "Bestseller" for my particular car/wheel size is the Pirelli PZero Nero M&S (Ultra High Performance All-Season). But I don't need an A/S as I don't do any snow driving here in sunny southern CA.

Just wanted to check if any of you guys had any first-hand experience with an alternative non-A/S tire. Thx for the reply tho.

vraa

Pirelli's are nice, but they are known to lose their round after a while, which isn't something you want on a car.

Gregs210

I've not heard that about Pirellis before now.

I had a set of regular passenger Pirellis on my former car (not performance tires, they were P4000s I think) that, hands down, were the best tires I've ever owned. I can't wait until these miserable Michelin Greens wear out.

You might think about posting up in the tire forum for feedback as well; this is a common theme on the forum.

America's Tire (aka Discount Tire) is an all-round good tire & wheel shop as well and they will deal on packages (throw in a warranty, etc). I like Tire Rack, but the biggest problem with buying tires from Tire Rack is a limited supply of affordable places to get them mounted. I bought the afore-mentioned Pirellis from them, the cheapest of the places they recommended wanted $40 PER TIRE to mount and balance them. Eventually I was able to get them mounted for a decent price (after signing waivers!), but most places simply like to mount what they sell.

Take care and enjoy the new-rubber ride,
Greg

Dema

tirerack values high Kumho ECSTA ASX
however they are suspicious cheap

blaze1539

+ 1 for Michelin PS2's one of the best out right now.

uncle dan

FWIW, I bought 18" AMG type 211 wheels (staggered) and went with the Michlin PS2's. Luke at Tire Tack recommended the tires and I am very pleased with the ride, lack of noise and overall handling. I only have 2200 miles on the car so I can't comment on wear. I highly recommend the PS2's.

Frank Wiesmann

I opted for Goodyear Eagle F1 when replacing my Michelin Pilot Primacys at about 23,000 miles. They are great in wet weather and also handle good in dry weather. Only drawback is noise level when going over grooved roads and bridges. Another good choice would be the Pirelli P Zero Rosso or the Bridgestone RE 050 that you mentioned.

Randy B

I just put on Conti Extreme Contacts. Very nice tire, excellent in the rain. I do not drive the car to its limits in turns however in straight lines it does see spirited runs. Nice price from the Tire Rack as well.

Randy

RJC

MICHELIN PILOT SPORT'S OR PS2'S

DunninLA

I'm on my second set of Pirelli P-Zero Rosso, not staggered. Very quiet, good in rain (yes, it DOES rain in Socal sometimes), and last for me about 23,000 miles. I have them on 17" AMG wheels. Softish ride, which are a good complement to the Eibach springs and Koni shocks.

Dvinn

Dunlop SP9000 is a nice tire. I had it on my old Lexus with great results, pretty quiet lasted and about 30k miles. I will be switching to 9000s when my oem Conti tires are worn out.

alewifebp

Yep, that is the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S's. Besides the tracking to the right issue, which I experience, they are overpriced in my opinion. Although they have been wearing well. And there is also the Star Bulletin that explicitly states that this tire is not supported.

benzboy

Can you give me a reference on that Star Bulletin? I mounted a set of Pilot Sport A/S about a month ago and so far they have been terrific. No pull to the right, quiet and handle like a dream! Maybe I just got luckey?

charliek

Thank you guys for the tips!

Unfortunately, Michelin Pilot Sport 2's aren't available in my wheel size (245/45WR17 - not staggered). (I was actually very curious to see what all the hype was about on that tire.) I was never really a big fan of the regular Pilot Sports as my dad had them on his S-class, and it had a mean tendency to track along grooves on the fwy (in my area at least), which made driving in the car pool lane a white-knuckle experience at times.

Apparently, the Pirelli PZero Nero M&S (Tire Rack's "Bestseller"), has the same tendency to track along the rain grooved fwys here in Southern CA also. Bah.

Conti Extreme Contacts I know are an awesome deal. Tried those on my father's S-class before, but the road noise became extremely loud as they began to wear. The tire shop I go to, said it was because of the design of the directional tread. Maybe because of the heavier load of the S-class also(?) and the grooved fwys in the area.

Hmm, hadn't even considered Dunlops... I'll look into those next time.

I was thinking about either the Goodyear F-1 GSD-3's or the Pirelli P-Zero Rosso's. Although I like to push the car (especially in turns w/DDS on), I began to think that maybe a "Max Performance" tire would be overkill for my E320. Now if I had the bigger engine (zoom zoom) of the E500, it'd be a very different story...

So ultimately I decided on an "Ultra-High Performance" tire... Bridgestone Potenza RE750's. Getting them mounted tomorrow. Supposedly good performance, with pretty good tread wear for a performance tire. Stiffer/harsher ride and more noise though. But at least the Bridgestones have a 30-day test drive warranty. Has anybody tried these on a W211?

fubar

I had three sets of the Protenzas on my CLK 430. They were quiet, wore better the the PS's, and performed quite well. They were a good deal as I recall too.

Good luck and keep us posted.

pratas

my OE tires were ContiSportContact 2 (CSC2) with 18-inch wheels and staggered-width tires — 245/40 in front, 265/30 in back for my E350.
quite excellent in the rain

Kirk04

I installed Avon 550 A/S, 360 treadwear from Tire Rack. Great price and reviews. Just put 1k miles on road trip. Low noise. Run 33 PSI front 36 rear. The stock Contis had 20k on them, the rears were worn and not worth another rotation.