mleskovar

I don't see this as a tire problem. I don't know of any tire that has a tread pattern 100% quiet on all road conditions. Just returned from a trip to Las Vegas and there's a couple of stretches that literally made my ContiPro Contacts 'sing'. Move one lane over and they were quiet.

Continental Pure Contact. 60K mile tires with AA traction grade. If you can get them in your size. Just switched my wife's RF for these on her BMW and am very happy with the results. I'd get these for my E350 but they don't make the staggered set up I need.

Khan28

Bridgestone Turanza Serenity Plus are good or the Potenza RE760 Sport which are the tires I have for my summer setup. They have a nice firm sidewall so cornering is good and they're quiet on most roads. Funny enough the quietest tires are my winter tires, Sailun Ice Blazers WST1, which are cheap Chinese tires. Grip like hell too.

E Classy

yep. i don't have a problem with my MOE tires. the anti-RFT sentiment is overblown these days. i think maybe BMW gave them a really bad rap due to their insanely harsh E9x suspension setups.

it would be the biggest waste of $1000 AND perfectly usable rubber, to immediately upgrade your tires. at least wait until the "free" ones on your car are used up.

DerekACS

The issue here is not just non-RFTs vs RFTs, but rather the specific brand supplied by MB for the E250BT. Apparently, most US bound E250BT have Bridgestone EL400 (MOE) installed @ the factory These tires are classified as 'standard all season' tires and they are the worst rated #23/23 in their category, based on collective driving experience that exceeds 13,000,000 miles (source: Tirerack.com). In other words, these tires are very inferior and they do not belong on a Mercedes-benz !

If my car arrived with these tires installed @ the factory, I would first ask my dealer to swap them for better quality tires or trade them on day one for a set of Michelin Primacy MXM4. Fortunately for Canadian purchasers of E250BT, MB Canada does not accept the EL400.

E Classy

they are actually the EL400-02. on TR there's not that many reviews of them (19 total) and what is there are mostly from 2011 toyota sienna owners.

what i'm trying to say is that they aren't that bad to me, after 3600 miles. others who have the US E250's are reporting that they enjoy the car as well.

OP did 6000 miles safely, without issue except for the noise - which might be more due to the w212 booming chassis with sport suspension and bad US roadways than the tires.

if mine fall apart soon, or even before the expected lifespan, i'll be the first to admit that they are worth replacing preemptively.

DerekACS

Thanks for the clarification on specific branding. However, EL400-02 are still RFTs or as MB describes them, 'MOE' = Mercedes Original Extended.

From my prior experience with RFTs on BMWs, these tires typically result in a noisier and harsher ride than non-RFTs. BMW has suffered much criticism for continuing to equip its cars with RFTs since they were introduced in 2005. On various BMW forums, I had yet to read of one owner who regretted making the change from RFTs to non-RFTs. In each case, the owner reported a much improved and quieter ride after dumping the run flats.

IF you decide to make a similar change, I have no doubt that your car's ride will be quieter and more forgiving of bumps, potholes and pavement strips.

michael61

> and bad US roadways than the tires

Actually, the noisiest pavement I've experienced has been relatively new. One section of I-70 west of Columbus was recently rebuilt (they made it six lanes) and one stretch of it is very noisy.

I assume it because of the surface texture of the the pavement. Very loud! (And no noise when I travel it in our other car)

GregTR

I had Continental ContiSportContact 2 SSR RFTs on my E90 xDrive for almost 50k miles and they were fine. They were the best wearing tires I've ever had in my life to boot and lasted 40k miles. I replaced them with the exact same ones as I was perfectly happy with them.

I'm really glad that my E-wagon came with Continental ContiProContact as well, I hope to get the same mileage out of them and the ride and traction seems great.

Substance

I spec'ed out an iridium silver ext. Black leather/walnut int with all options except park assist. Msrp came out to $68200 including delivery charge. The dealer couldn't locate one with these options so it has to be ordered. Turntime was quoted 3-4 months. The dealers quoted % 3 off from msrp of 68200. So final is $66500. I was thinking % 6 percent from msrp is common on these cars.
Should I counter offer % 7 off? Then maybe settle on % 6?

Right now mb is offering $2000 off on e but since mine wont arrive before march I will miss iy.

Squeegee

I had to special order my E250. It had lots of stuff - about $63K list and paid $56.5K. 10% off of list, which I thought was pretty good. Delivery took almost 2 months exactly to California.

mikemargolis

More on the run-flat's:

My 2011 came with Turanza, and they're great. Not loud, not hard riding, not only do I not hate them, but I actually like them.

When I switch to my non-RFT snow tires, there's no noise or ride difference.

Substance

Hi squeegee
How did you get % 10 off?
I thought % 3 off from this dealer was almost insulting. He said he gave the best price maybe other dealers would best by 100 or 200 dollars but no more. On gasoline he said it is possible to get % 6 off but not on diesel.

I think thats bs. Truecar returns nearly % 7 off for recommended price. Average sale is under that.

Squeegee

I requested an online quote for a car in stock. Also ask for the Costco member discount. I saw that the Costco discount on a diesel was minimal, but the sales guy gave me a really nice price that was surprising to me, too. In the end I also bought an extended warranty and service plan, so the dealer probably made out OK.

So far loving the 250E. I think it is a bit noisy when idling and I miss the "rumble" of my old 7-series. But the mileage is pretty astounding for a high-end vehicle of this size - about 33 MPG of mostly city driving.

Substance

I configured it to my specs, turned out $69,820 including $920 delivery free. All options except panorama roof. I emailed 8 dealers within 2 hours drive. Some replied with BS but few replied with their best price.

I have one offered $61000 even (on $69820 msrp) this is %13 off. She said she has 1 sport open for march built which can be delivered late april. Should I take this or I can stretch it to $60000?

Khan28

I guess they improved on the Turanza. I happened to test drive a 2007 BMW 328i with brand new Turanza EL42 RFTs when I was looking for my Benz and not only were they harsh they were also very noisy at highway speeds. It almost sounded like the car had bad wheel bearings. Turns out many E90 owners felt the same way but they liked the ContiProContact RFTs and the Bridgestone Potenza RFTs for the sport package BMWs.

Weirdly the Turanza EL400 non RFT on my Mom's sentra rides very good and is quiet and the Turanza Serenity Plus is highly rated.

E Classy

i'm not sure they would kill a sale for an extra $1k off. based on my experience late last year with another (tougher negotiating) mfgr and what i've read on here you can certainly negotiate down a bit further if you have the patience.

but if you are happy with $61k and that fits your budget and planned expenditure, then there's not much point in prolonging the process.

for example, a 60 month financing plan usually translates into about 15-20 dollars per month per thousand - in other words, the difference in the case of a 60 month loan payment between $58k sale and $61k sale is around 50 bucks a month. i think the "deals" threads are more for bragging rights