willycapu

Somebody please help....

I purchased a 2019 GLC 43 Jan 2021. When I bought the car I asked for all weather tires explaining that I go to Lake Tahoe in the winter. When I asked if the car I was trying to buy had all weather tires the saleman said they had no GLC 43 in stock with all weather tires. The car I chose had 21" wheels and I accepted it assuminjg that down the road I can switch to all weather treads when I decide to travel to Tahoe. Well that time came abiut a month ago and I was shocked to learn that no tire company makes all weather or snow tires for my 21' wheels.

I know all the solutions so I am not in need of advice about the tires. The reason I'm posting this experience (with Mercedes of San Francisco) is that at the moment I expressed a need for special tires, the saleman did not alert me that no one makes them instead of saying that his dealership had no cars equipped with them. I reahed out to the dealer and they blamed me for not "doing do diligence" on the car. Here's my beef; I have owned 4 Porsches, 3 BMW M series, an Audi s5 and a RS and all had all weather tire options.
Am I naive to assume that the high performane GLC 43 SUV would also have them available? Do you all agree the saleman should have been aware of that highly unusual limitation? I am now burdened with the expense and bother of buying new wheels because of a dealerships ignorance about the car they sold me. BTW the owner of the dealership said that many high performance cars do not have all weather tire options which is simply not true. Please let me know your thoughts so I can share them with the worst dealership I have ever dealt with.

Highline-Autos.com

I typed 21 in winter tires and got 16 matches on tirerack.com, the first non Ad in your google results.

superswiss

Honestly, no, not really for the dealership to make you aware of this. Larger wheels may not have winter or all-season options. BTW, all-weather is a whole different category of tires. Here in the SF Bay Area especially, since unless you go to Tahoe one can drive on summer performance tires all year, which is what I do with my C63S coupe. There are also not really winter tire options for the 19/20 wheels of the C63 just to give you another example. It's really up to you to do the due diligence or ask the dealership/parts department specifically for winter wheel/tire options for the car you are planning to buy if you plan to take it to somewhere with snow.

chassis

Dealer salesperson not responsible. Caveat emptor always.

superswiss

Just one thing to add that my dealership made me aware of and even actually made me sign a waver, and that is to not put chains on my car as they may damage the suspension. So I had to sign a waver for my C63 to acknowledge that I was made aware of this. That's a requirement from MB, because putting on chains would void the warranty.

Bloom_Phaze

My GLC 63s has 21” summer tires and 20” winter tires…done. The only problem is you need to by a cheaper set of 20” for the winter tires but trust me, it’s FAR FAR easier to change tire sets than it is to change actual tires from the same wheels.

willycapu

Thanks to all of you that responded to my *****ing and moaning text regarding winter tires for my G 43. I understand the the relevance of Caveat Emptor in this situation, however I am 80 years old (no wisecracks like what am I doing driving a hot car) and have purchased more cars in the last 60 years that I care to mention and have never heard of car that couldn't wear them. . Among them were four Porsches (two of them 930 turbos) an Audi S5 and a RS series Audis all of which were capable of all-weather tires. In fact with my discussions Tire Rack every SUV that competes with GLC 43 has the ability to be fitted with all weather the tires (regardless of the wheel size). This begs the question; since the CLC 43 21" has this very unique limitation...shouldn't the salesman have known that and warned me, particularly when I explained that they were important to me? For the record the AudiS5 BMW x5m, the Bentley Bentayga all Porsche SUVs and the Jaguar F pace all have all-weather tire options regardless of their wheel size.

So if anyone in the Bay area wants to buy my 21" wheels ...I will give you a great deal.

E55Greasemonkey

Not the dealer's responsibility.

willycapu

None available in the size my GLC43 calls for............ front 255 40 21 rear 285 35 21

I will have to go with 265 front and 295 rear but the problem with wider tires is that they tend to "float " more in deep snow. In my thread I was just complaing that it is highly unusual thatno tire company makes an all weather tire in the size my car calls for. I am aware I can go a size up in width

chassis

Please post a pic of the GLC when you get the new rubber.