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Recommended Tires for W221 S550 BASE 19 inch Staggered Wheels?
Got tired of my standard 18" wheels with all the curb rash from my fantastic parking skills so I got a set of 19" 20 spoke wheels from Craigslist that look like this...
I know nothing about switching wheels, so is this going to be plug and play or do I need spacers? What the heck are spacers??? Also, what tire brand/model would you recommend for a 19" staggered wheel setup? Car has had Continentals and now Yokohama Avid Envigors on the stock 18" wheels. The Yokohama are disappointing because of short tread life (probably going to get 20K miles at most)...no more Yokohamas. I'm Michael Schumacher on winding mountain roads, but most of the time I cruise down the highway. Looking for low road noise, comfy ride, driving mostly on dry pavement in sunny weather. Thanks for your input.
They will be a direct fit. In fact all S Class from 2000 forward share the same widths and almost identical offsets. I highly recommend the Michelin Pilot Super Sports for summer driving. I've run a lot of different tires over the past 10 years of S Class ownership I've never had a tire that rode or handled better or lasted longer. Silky smooth and ultra quiet. Expensive but worth it.
They will be a direct fit. In fact all S Class from 2000 forward share the same widths and almost identical offsets. I highly recommend the Michelin Pilot Super Sports for summer driving. I've run a lot of different tires over the past 10 years of S Class ownership I've never had a tire that rode or handled better or lasted longer. Silky smooth and ultra quiet. Expensive but worth it.
I just put them on my E55, and I ran a Michelin XLT on my Escalade. Agree that they are quite, smooth, and you should see at least 40k miles out of them.
Mike's right about Michelin Pilots being the best, I've had them on a Honda CRV, a BMW 7 and a VW Touareg and they are my favorite tire so far.
I just got my S350, it had Falkens from 2013 with 80% tread left, and they just separated on 2 tires, so no more Falkens for me, that's BS.
So this time I decided to try Nitto Motivo's @ $140pt, as the Michelins were $240 pt at Discount Tire. They seemed to have good reviews, and a 60K warranty, which I'll be happy with 30. So far, they do sound quieter than Falkens, but louder than I'd expect Michelins, and for 20 inch wheels they ride and handle well in the 2 days I got to test'm. Thumbs up from me if you're looking for a cheaper option.
Then, I found out my AMG rim is cracked and I'm still working on the replacement, or getting Mike to sell me one of his newly acquired set! So can't REALLY test the tires, yet. I'm mostly a 40 mile per day commute guy, but on weekends like to hit mountain roads and avoid the highway patrol. Will report back later if they do that well.
Thanks, Mike, that is a darn fine example, much finer than this one!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DAP-W221-MERCEDES-2010-2013-S-CLASS-20-X-8-5-5-SPOKE-AMG-ALLOY-WHEEL-DAMAGE-2B-/121478635320?hash=item1c48b0df38&vxp=mtr
But I'm still trying to figure out the difference in MB codes, mine is same code as this mangled one, A221 401 2402 (I'm still trying to get a pic of the inside of my rim to confirm that's the 8.5 inch width, while the one you show is A221 401 4502 (does that mean 9.5 inch width?).
I don't know yet whether my (new to me) car has all 8.5 inch widths, or what most seem to have as staggered 9.5 in back, 8.5 in front... too dang hot in Phx to get on the ground and take pics, or jack up my car to take the wheel off and see!
Until I hear back from Discount on whether their Rim doc can fix mine, I'm considering just buying a whole diff set. Thoughts on this chrome set?
You can also try the Hankook Ventus S1 Noble2 tires. They are rated pretty much identical to the Michelins, are extremely quiet, handle great, and are significantly less expensive. Customers rate them as highly as the Michelins Pilots too.
I've had mine on for over 2 months and love them. Much better than the Contis I had on my M5.
I couldn't get myself too worked up over chrome either for some reason, and figured I'd make an offer of 900 for the set to see, but I'm waiting until I find out on repair. I do really like the 5 spoke look and the painted aluminum color best, it's understated and the 5 spokes look a lot more solid than spindles to me.
Just buy a new set of reps and be finished at least they wil all be new and not bent. Tires id go with conti's, I just got a set of dws= dry wet snow and there pretty smooth so far. In the 15 miles Ive put on them!!!
Buy the least expensive tire that rides and wears to your liking but don't get the Pilot Super Sports first. You'll never go back and they ain't cheap.
Well to finish off my story about rims and tires, I'd been waiting since Monday to see if Discount Tire's rim doc could fix my cracked rim. Went in after a long day of work today, and the manager recognized me and said he wanted to show me the fix. I had not gotten any call from them since Monday, and mentioned that casually and said "but I'm trying to be patient". He apologized, then said the rim doc had sent them back once, they weren't up to their standards, and Discount sent them back to re-do.
Then he showed me the rim, which used to have a hairline crack about an inch long from the inside bead. No more, it's absolutely flawless, took us a while to even see where it used to be, and only reason we could tell was by how clean that area was. So I was pretty happy right then.
But then he said, my co-manager and I talked it over, and although it usually costs $175, we're going to cover the costs, since we should have recognized it was cracked when we mounted the tires, and it took a week to fix it. So I was extremely happy right then!
So needless to say, Discount stepped up about 10 notches on my list of favorite companies, they are always proud of their customer service, and they just won my tire business from Costco with that move!
Thanks for all your responses. I've had issues logging in to this website with my computer...
I'm a Michelin guy as well. I wanted to see if there were alternatives that worked just as well. I've had MXV Energy tires and MXV Energy S8's on my Lexus for most of its life and previously had Michelin Primacy's on my S500. The Michelin S8's were expensive, but worth it because they ride quieter and have better handling than other brand tires. I saw the good reviews on Tire Rack for the Hankooks and I may consider that as well. Thanks for all your feedback. Can't wait to use up the current Yokohamas and get the new 20 spoke rims put on!
So finally came time to replace the Yokohamas and the 18" standard wheels on my 221. I bought Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3's from Costco since they have a Michelin $70 rebate. Had them put on last week and OMG what a difference in ride. Quieter, smoother, and handles better. It's Michelins from now on for this car...
Mike, I don't know how much different these are from the Pilot Super Sports, but they still weren't cheap. I paid $1,200 before tax with installation. I looked at the Hankook Ventus tires and the Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06 from Tire Rack, but by the time you add shipping and installation cost, I think there was only a few hundred dollars difference from the Michelins. Best part about the new tires is having the 19" Mercedes 20 spoke wheels. The new wheels with the iridium silver body make the car look so much more classier and taller. Thanks to all of you guys again for your input on the tires.
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