KristenGood

Hi everyone, I have an 08 GL450 - I just took it in to get State Inspection and I need 4 new tires! The car has 19,120 miles on it. Dealer price for the Continental 275 55 is $1460. My husband has suggested the Hankook Tire. Does anyone have suggestions??? Any other good tires for this car?

mbmama

I got continental 275/55/19 for $1250 out the door from Discount Tires. Most tires will last not more than 35k miles on this beast.

KristenGood

wow, I am thinking that tires only lasting 19K is crazy! Did you research any other brands? How long did yours last before you had to replace them?


It seems as if this tire issue is similar to one that occured with the S class years ago... super soft tires on a heavy car.

43221B

It is a combination of things that cause them to wear like they do. Weight is certainly part of it. Try standing 20 or 30 feet behind your GL and look at the camber and toe angles of the rear wheels/tires.

http://www.lancerevoclub.org/faq/handling.php

lkchris

Oh, not at all.

This isn't a Camry, it's an Autobahn-ready Mercedes fitted with high performance, 130 mph safe tires.

Your mileage is typical for this combination.

dougpark714

How many miles are folks with 20" Goodyear Run-flats experiencing? The Goodyears are expensive at $500 each. I was debating if I should get the 19" standard wheels (tires cost half) but the 20" wheels look much nicer IMHO. Plus, the added security of Runflat is nice when driving around with kids. The appearance package at $1400 is a bargain considering the price of the tires.

I test drove a GL with the 20" and the ride was very nice.

43221B

I've got just under 17,000 on mine and they should be good for another 8,000-10,000. They are still very smooth and relatively quiet. My plan is to replace them before next winter. Probably late summer.

You are correct, they ride very well, particularly at high speeds. That is what you are paying for.

Fourdiesel

19K miles is almost exactly how much I got from my 19" Contis on my '08 GL320. I also had rather nasty hydroplaning problems with the Contis at speeds as low as 50mph. As soon as they wore out I bought a used set of 18" OEM wheels on ebay, bought 4 Michelin Latitude (OEM) 18" tires from Tire Rack and put them on. Now going on 30k miles on the Michelins with about 20% more tread left. No more hydroplaning. I won't TOUCH Contis again. The Michelins ride and handle better at higher speeds than the Contis' anyway!

JohnAMG

My lease returned 07'GL450 tires last about 19,000 miles also and wasn't terribly surprise. I bought the replacement from Tirerack for less than what the dealer charge.

John

MomsBenz

I got 14,500 miles out of my Run on Flats. Loved them but didn't want to pay that much again. Went with Yokohama's this time and got about 15,000...looking for something else

Waiting-4-550

I just changed all 4 tires on my 08 GL550.. Got almost 35K out of them.. Dealer says I did pretty well.. Got 1 tire under warranty on count of flat.. Guess warranty was not a waste.

The new tires have returned the new truck feel. The beast is back and dare I say better

Fourdiesel

What brand were your original tires? And the size?

Waiting-4-550

I had 21" Continental Tires (OEM) - go for 433 bucks each on tire rack and dealer put em in at 445 each plus 75 bucks for install of all.. Oh they convinced me to get a 199 buck wheel alignment as well (said it was a good idea with 4 new tires - maybe that's why truck is better than ever now)... oh yeah there was tax too.. So 3 tires and alignment ran me in total around 1700 bucks.. Lucky for me I saved about 500 bucks for the flat that was repaced under warranty.....

dougpark714

Are the 21" Continentals run-flats?

dawgenstein

Ha consider yourself lucky. Our 2008 GL320cdi equipped from the factory with Continental tires were down to the legal limit of 3/32 tread depth at 12,000 miles, after 9 months of service.

One of my tires had a chunk of rubber missing at this point. We asked the dealer if the OEM tire warranty would cover the tire defect or the obviously horrible miles in service of the set of tires--they laughed at us.

So we drove over to Discount Tire and got ourselves a deal there, along with a real treadwear mileage warranty.

holtnow

Fourdiesel – I have long considered downsizing the wheels on my GL450 from 19” to 18” to access the wider variety of tire options (particularly off-road treads). Did the wheel swap require any vehicle changes to insure the speedometer & odometer remained accurate? Also, alignment or suspension concerns? Thanks

Fourdiesel

I did nothing to the alignment and the handling remained the same - at least according to my 'seat of the pants' calibrated measurements
Same for the odometer and speedometer - I haven't noticed any discrepancies. I didn't calibrate either metric before the swap and both seem pretty accurate after also. I typically cruise at 72mph traffic permitting and haven't gotten even one ticket (although at that speed I certainly wouldn't expect that to happen). I guess I should get out my little hand held GPS, make a run and have IT tell me my speed independently. Distance too!

If you DON'T plan to replace your Tire Pressure Monitor senders with new ones (you will have to move your old ones to the 'new' wheels if you don't buy new) you should consider buying new valve stems and nuts from your local dealer. I found it impossible to remove the old ones without stripping the threads on the stem part - something that would have cleaned up nicely with the right size metric thread die - but a size I just couldn't get without a special order.

fmr

I had the Pirelli's on my 08 320 with 19" rims. got around 25k on them and decide to replace with same model vs going with continentals whihc ar ethe only other options in that size.