AMGAffalterbach

Many tire testers and even Ferrari, now shipping them OEM on the F12 Berlinetta, believe that the Michelin Pilot Super Sport is one of the best ultra-high performance tires out on the market right now. From the things I've read about it and the owners I have talked to this is absolutely the truth. Now the W211 is considered more of a "luxury performance car" by 2007 standards, and is definitely not reaching super car performance levels anytime soon, but my hypothetical question is if the Super Sport would be appropriate for the W211 as well? Would it be a waste for a 221hp-507hp(AMG) sedan?

Has anyone run them on an E-Class? I'm curious as the W211 is a heavier car and I don't know if it would REALLY benefit from that type of tire or if it would be a waste of money/performance hindrance. I am happy with my Michelin Primacy MXM4s, very grippy for all seasons and good in snow, but this is just a hypothetical. Thanks.

irondad

I have them and they're amazing. They cost a little bit more, but wear MUCH longer and grip FAR better than anything else by Michelin or Continental that I've had on the car. If you go from the MXM4's or ContiProContact... i.e. the OEM tires... it will feel like a much higher performance car handling-wise.

Robaustin

I have them on my 2007 E550. I find them to be quiet, long lasting, and have no complaints about handling. I won't buy anything else in the future.

AMGAffalterbach

Wow they do work on this car then, never expected the great reviews. When I go through these tires my next set will definitely be the Pilot Super Sport or their nearest equivalent. How many miles do you expect out of them on this car?

m103-w124

They are standard with my 08 Cayman S, very happy with them.

BlackOmega

No good tire is a waste on any vehicle.

I've had several different sets of Pilots on several different cars, I've had nothing but excellent results with all of them. Even their truck tires are great IMO.

Michelins are top tier tires, however, if ride comfort or performance are a must, there really isn't a substitute.

Critter

Got the Super Sports on my E63 after searching tire qualities for weeks, Ordered them from Discount Tire, they are in my opinion top of the line. They are about 1 1/2 years old now, no abnormal wear. Last summer ran from Mobile Alabama to Erie Pennsylvania 1200 miles/ average 69 miles /hr 25-26 miles per gallon, fully loaded trunk and back seat, no issues but a couple of sad faces when this fully loaded cruiser flew by them. would prefer if the car did not lower after 70 miles per hr but that is AMG, Love the car. Love the tires and no extreme camber wear LOL

AMGAffalterbach

I've heard they are even decent in light snow by some accounts, but good review I am glad to hear they have such great wet and dry traction as well as reasonable wear. How many total miles you have on them?

AMGAffalterbach

@BlackOmega That's one thing I will never cheap out on: tires. Michelin is by far top of the line in all of those categories, just check out their consistent first place ratings on Tire Rack. Obviously some might argue one Conti does x or y job better on their car, but as an overall in most categories Michelin is #1.

BlackOmega

For sure. I used to sell tires and I've tested a bunch of different brands/models.

Every brand has a good high performance tire. Most of them you can't simply walk in and expect a tire store, even high volume ones, to have them in stock.
Some are slightly better than others, but they're all fairly good.

AMGAffalterbach

Yeah definitely I know Hankook, Continental, etc has some "max-performance" tires that have really high marks in each area. From a general perspective though I really trust Michelin over most other brands. Heard Goodyear is - for the most part maybe minus the Eagle F1 - junk. My dad used to have a set of Triple Tread Assurance Goodyears which were highly rated at the time and they were the worst all-season tire he's had since the Yokohamas he tried.

BlackOmega

I'm not sold on Hankooks. They seem to ride really rough, lots of noise, probably the worst grip out of the bunch.
Continental has some decent offerings. Their DWS tires are awesome. My brother bought a set for his Lexus, he said they were almost like snow tires. No problems in 5"+ or any other adverse conditions either.

One brand I've found to give really great performance, especially at their price points, is Kumho's.
Put a set of all seasons on my ex-wifes Saturn. She drove on those until we sold the car, approx 17k. We rotated every 6k (third time @ 5k), and they were worn completely evenly, and still had 7/32" left (10/32 is new).
Last time I bought tires I decided to give them a go for my Benz. I bought their max performance summer tire. The dry traction on these is actually damn good. Can easily accelerate through 90* corners exiting @ 55-60. Their wet traction is actually very decent. Only on accel is there any issues with them. Wet cornering and stopping is phenomenal.
Only real gripe about these is tread wear. They're treadwear rated at 260 which , I believe, should be in the neighborhood of 20k; I'm down to 4/32" on the rears after only 11K.

Was thinking of going Bridgestone next time around. Some Ultra high performance all seasons, like the RE960 Pole Position.

AMGAffalterbach

Good info, heard a bit of the same on Hankooks but the person I know who runs one on his SL55 has super low profile tires anyway as he's fairly low but that's another issue all together.

I think the Pole Position has had almost equally positive reviews as the Super Sport but remains slightly inferior to the Michelin in a few objective tests. Bridgestone seems to make really quality tires but after the issues with Firestone tires a few years back before their restructure/sale, I can't get over the fact that they've had those issues. Valid concern? No, but I still don't trust the nameplate as much no matter how skewed that might be.

lsbrodsky

I am surprised that Pilot Super Sports are favored tires as they are summer tires, with less grip in cold weather and no grip when it is really cold. Most of us drive sedans as transportation cars, not performance cars. I am sure they are great summer tires but I would want All Season tires on any sedan I owned.
Having said that, I had a thread about the Michelin PS Plus A/S tires on my E350...never again. I am very happy, so far, with the Conti DWS tires I put on about 1000 miles ago.
Larry

AMGAffalterbach

I would consider certain iterations of the E-Class to be luxury performance cars at least as of 2007 if you look at the performance numbers even in comparison to the E55. So I can see how/why this would work. I am not really looking for tires at the moment as I have a set of Primacy MXM4s but this might be a nice summer tire especially when I do a mountain drive/rally this summer up to Aspen.

BlackOmega

Actually Firestone and Bridgestone are two different companies that are not affiliated with each other in any way. Bridgestone is actually a Japanese company. From what I've heard is that some Japanese guy, way back, went and visited the Firestone factory and was so impressed that he decided to make Bridgestone in their likeness.

As far as the tire issue years ago on the Explorers, it was actually Fords fault not Firestones. At the time I worked at an auto care center where our techs performed a lot of the recalls. Not only were the customers issued 5 new tires (including the spare) our techs also had to remove the door sticker which displayed the tire size and inflation.
It turns out that Ford wanted the tires run @ 26PSI, which is WAY under inflated. Couple that with the tire, a Wilderness A/T (all terrain), which has a very aggressive tread pattern, that would equal in a lot of heat being produced and, subsequently, tire failure. Top that off with how tall the tires were, approximately 8" from rim to road, and rollovers were bound to happen.
One of the techs there had the same size tires on his truck. He used those recall tires for a long time and didn't have any issue with them at all. Only difference is that he kept them inflated @ 35PSI. They wore perfectly fine. No blowouts, not even so much as a belt separation and he drove like a bat out of hell in that thing.

Very true, summer only tires lose a lot of traction below 45*F. It's very noticeable too. With my Kumho's which are max performance summer tires, if it gets below 45*F they get really hard. When I would drive it in the morning after sitting all night, I swear it feels like my tires have flat spots and causes a very noticeable vibration. I have to drive them for several miles to warm them up, then the vibe goes away.

Good choice on the DWS's . They're great tires. My brother loves his set.

AMGAffalterbach

Thanks for all of the feedback man! I was curious about that incident on Ford vehicles, I had no idea that the two companies had that relation. Good to know! Moral of the story is proper vehicle maintenance and logic are the largest safety consideration one should focus on.

Critter

Black Omega makes a valid point about the two companies and thats thee reason i will never run a firestone or bridgestone tire on anything but a toy wagon. Had a Firestone blow out on the front of my car years ago at highway speeds, just instant shake then boom. The bridgestones since have a lot of sidewall cracking as well as between treads since the joining of companies, Just junk. As far as the Super Sports they are not what I would run in the winter as the cold temps make them harden up, I only have about 4000 miles on mine but they look as new, wet and dry adhesion very good, car not winter driven. Wife has Yoko S drives on her CLK63CAB they seem to be good so far also from Discount Tire. Like their warranty plan although never had to use it.

lsbrodsky

Firestone was once a customer of mine so I used to visit their factory occasionally. After seeing the mess they called production and the never-ending Union problems, I would not put their tires on a toy wagon. Just my bias. When my OEM's wear out, or even before, I find what I want from Michelin and now Continental. Until my problems with the PS Plus AS tires, I trusted Michelins on any vehicle. Now I will be more careful and only install tires that have good reviews for many miles.
Larry

AMGAffalterbach

"mess they called production"

Doesn't surprise me, I've honestly never seen Firestone as reputable company. Bridgestone on the other hand has a very streamlined sale/production/testing process it seems from what I've researched about them and to be honest now that I've heard user reviews, I would buy them.

BlackOmega

No worries. I'm very knowledgeable when it comes to tires. I'm even Michelin certified in all their categories of tires.

And you're absolutely right. Never let some recommendation overrule your experience or common sense.
Tires are tires. While sure there may be some slight variation between brands, rubber compounds, and so on, they are all subject to the same things.
Your tire failure, most likely, wasn't caused by poor workmanship of the tire. More than likely you picked up a foreign object (or already had one embedded in the tire)then at freeway speeds it was flung from it, then subsequent failure. Tires blow out mainly due to under inflation. The increased surface contact creates A LOT more heat. And it's actually the heat that causes the blow out due to material disintegration.

While it's easy to attribute the failure due to the brand, I think it's more that you're mind is already made up about the brand and your disdain for said brand makes you blame them. I honestly don't think brand had anything to do with it. Having worked at a tire shop, I can tell you that we'd get customers all the time blame the brand of the tire for a blowout. Upon further inspection, if enough of the tire was left, we'd almost always find a nail, or screw inside of it.
Regardless of brand, all tires are subject to the same weakness.

For what it's worth, I was in charge of a parts department where I was the sole person responsible for acquiring tires. And we used Firestone and Bridgestone a lot. We hadn't had any issues with any of the tires on our customers vehicles.

I've also run Bridgestone Turanza EL42's on my old daily driver, and didn't have any issues with them. They rode well, handled great, and wore predictably.
I put a set of Bridgestone RE960's on my brothers BMW 3 series coupe, and he said that they were an excellent tire. Excellent all around traction, and surprisingly good traction in the snow and especially on ice.
He told me about when he was driving from work on a very cold and icy day, he passed an area where he felt a slight shimmy from the rear end, he looked up in the rearview, and the two cars that were behind him spun out.

Also bear in mind that you get what you pay for. Don't expect a $100 tire to perform as well, or last as long, as a $200+ tire.

Could you elaborate about Firestone's mess?

Critter

The firestone tire that I had issue with was in fact on a recall list for steel core separation in the belts, Firestone replaced all 4 tires with new ones at no charge, install and balance. Sold the car and never had a Firestone on any car since, but I am **** like that. But then again I never run Shell gas some people swear by it. LOL But each to his own.

BlackOmega

I was like that with Citgo for the longest time. When Iw as 10, I had a motocross bike. Went up to the nearest gas station, a Citgo, put gas in it and off I went. Well sort of. Got about a 1/2 mile from the gas station and the bike kept stalling. Finally made it home, drained the gas and let it settle. After a few hours it separated and it turned out there was a bunch of water in it.

FF a few years later, had a high HP Mustang. Very finicky car with fuel and oils; fluids in general. Was super low on gas had to stop at a Citgo. Put a gallon in to get me to the next gas station. Once again, made it about 1/2 a mile and my car stalled. Hard to restart, but eventually got it to the Mobil down the road, filled up and ran perfectly. Went back to the Citgo and told them they sold me some bad fuel. The guy behind the counter was like "you were never here!"


As for the tires, it's weird that they didn't send out literature about the recall to you.

AMGAffalterbach

What do you think about Hoosiers BlackOmega, when I get this Miata racing car project up and running first thing I will change out is the tires and I was looking at a set of Hoosiers

Critter

Do you remember the Firestone 500 steel belted radial? They replaced a lot of defective tires. Being young and stupid I thought as long as the tread was good and deep the tires were okay, well the rest is history. Funny my old 70 Challenger had a passion for high test fuel, when I put in reg one day being short of cash the engine would idle around 525 RPM, topped it up soon after with the 94 octane and the idle went back to normal 750 RPM, was it the gas or just the car having a bad day?