3Diamond

I have a general question about winter driving and my new E350 Sport with 4Matic. The automobile is equipped with Michellin M&S tires on the stock rims. Because the auto is a 4Matic the sport package came with non staggered tires. My question is, should I pursue getting a true winter tire set. The dealerhip indicates that I will be fine with the stock tires. Friends say I will be OK for the first year. The owners manual leads me to belive I should get a set of winter tires. We do drive up to ski country on occasion and frequently are on our way to work well before the snow plows are out and about. A dedicated winter wheel set would prevent winter damage to my stock wheels which is a good thing I suppose. Any comments would be appreciated. Tire suggestions etc would be appreciated as well. I have investigated the Tire Rack website for information and selection.

Barry45RPM

For what its worth, I've never put winter tires on my cars since the advent of good, expensive steel belted radials. My MB wheels have not shown one iota of Salt/Sand winter damage. Of course, its not a cop car or an ambulance, so I use my judgement as to where I am going to go when there's snow on the ground. If you MUST go no matter what the weather, then snow tires will be a must for you. Bear in mind that you DON"T have really big clearance under the belly of the car, like an SUV or a Van would have, so you're likely to get hung up on the same snow that I would... just a few feet further in.

jimbo1mcm

Look for a set of OEM wheels on ebay, or try TireRack. TireRack will ship everything mounted and balanced. The wheels can look pretty good. My experience with the Michelin M+S is that they are not really good in the snow at all. If you are going into snow, my recommendation is to get a dedicated set. I take my Michelins off in the winter, clean them and put a couple of coats of PoorBoys Wax on them. They stay great during the rest of the year. I use Bridgestone Blizzaks. They are very quiet and perform quite well. The advantage of dedicated snow tires is that the rubber compound is "sticky" in the winter. That is where you get most of your traction, not the tread design. Make sure you take them off in early spring. The warm temperatures will cause them to wear at an accelerated rate. Good luck.

PS If you get OEM wheels and tires separately, make sure you get a Benz dealer to mount, balance and use the Benz OEM weights on them. Those weights stay on. The old lead, or stickums come off after a while.

slk55lvr

Nothing makes as big of a difference driving in snow as a set of dedicated snow tires. If you have a lot of snowy days where you live, I would definitely recommend a dedicated set for winter. You'll probably get 3 good winters out of them, and what they provide in additional driving safety is priceless.

2MANYCARS

Like what the othes said, winter tires are for, well, snow and ice, no all-season tires can match or outperform them when it comes to severe weather. I put snow tires on my "can be driven in snow" cars every year, because I feel safe driving with them, plus I feel much more comfortable when I am doing stupid things in the snow.

This winter, as some of you LI , NJ, and NYC residents might notice, maybe not be as bad as the last couple winters we had. 60F in November!? In Tri-State!? Too good to be true.

sosh

On my 05 E 4Matic I have never had to even think about putting dedicated snow tires on it. Nor have I experienced the least bit of wheel damage. Around here we get a good amount of snow. The only limiting factor on the E is ground clearance and the only thing that will fix that is another vehicle. Never gotton stuck and had easy going even with many other cars stuck off the side of the road.

klenbore

For what it's worth, I'm going on my third Montana winter without snows, and I've been in some real crappy conditions and storms. The 4matic did fine. Being native to these parts probably helps, but if you drive the condition and use your head you shouldn't get into trouble.

That being said, if I wasn't comfortable with winter driving or if it was my wife's car I would without a doubt put winter skins on.

Good luck.....Bill

uberwgn

3, how severe are the driving conditions you'll experience? If not "severe", you might get by with M&S rated tires. If the car was equipped with summer/hi-perf tires, you'd be taking a chance 4MATIC or not.

Two winters ago our neighbor wrapped his nearly-new 4MATIC around a telephone pole at low speeds, his little girl was hurt, car was totalled. Don't know what tire he was running, they were not snow tires as he said he doesn't need them.

We keep dedicated snow tires/wheels for all cars that will be driven in bad weather and we've got a steep drive that you'd never climb without winter tires. The fair weather cars keep summer tires all year round.