"If you like your run flats you can keep your run flats"

 

Gave me a good laugh before heading to bed. lol

 

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but the 2015 dealer ordering guide has a 20inch tire that is not runflat. It's option 53R. Perhaps that option is not available with the sport package. Tom
11 Days to Stuttgart

 

That would be great if true.

 

Last ditch effort, going to try to reason with my service adviser and let him know that if this is going to end the way it is ending, magazines which have been monitoring the forum will get the go ahead to pursue the story.

I am not a jerk, but I'm also not going to be pushed around. And neither should any of you either.

 

My S.A Louis DeMarco asked me to put into an email what I am going through - and what MBUSA is telling me.

They are going to see if there is something to be done in house. Lou thinks it is ridiculous what I am going through.

 

MY EMAIL TO LOU:

Hi Lou,

Thank you for taking the time to speak with me today and hear my serious concerns.

In a nutshell, my situation is as follows. I took delivery of a beautiful 2014 S550. I love absolutely everything about the car, and I see each generation just gets better and better. When I drove off with the car, I noticed the ride was slightly harsher but assumed I had to figure out how to put the car in comfort mode, and knew that selecting the 20" Wheel/Tire combination with the "Sports Package Plus 1" option - I would have to compromise a bit on ride quality, to get the looks, and drive.

A few weeks later, as you know, all 4 of my tires had bubbles, some with 2 or 3 bubbles PER tire. Luckily, I paid for the tire and wheel warranty at purchase time, and the tires were replaced without a problem and I was back on the road.

The harsh ride continued, and although I was driving in comfort mode, with the Magic Body Control activated (a $4500 option) - the car still sent jarring feelings up my spine, and passengers in the back seat were very surprised how poor the ride was comparing it to my previous there Mercedes S Classes.

To compare, I have ALWAYS HAD 19" Tires on my previous S Classes. They were summer dedicated, NON RUNFLAT tires. I now have 20" but they are with RUNFLAT.

I am a member of several Mercedes Forums, and am seeing many people with the same complaints. A few have taken it upon themselves to switch the run flats for 20" Bridgestones and could not be happier. I have seen on other car manufacturers forums the same complaints about run flats, the ride quality, and bubbles appearing.

I reached out to MB Manhattan who passed my information on to MBUSA and I was contacted by Robin at MBUSA. She said she would investigate my situation. A few days later, she got back to me, basically saying, if I selected the 20" option I am out of luck and must stick with what I have. They would not authorize any switch of any kind to this size because "It was not up to their required standards". I advised her that the tire I saw on Tire Rack that matched my car was not only half the price of the tires MB Manhattan had to continuously replace on my car, but it was the same tire sold to me, by MB Manhattan for my previous S Classes. I asked her how a tire sold to me last year and the year before, was suddenly not up to their standards. Robin did not really have an answer besides "We are only authorizing runflats on the 20" Size".

She went on to tell me another option would be to "size down" to 19" and we would have more of an option for me with tires but would not clearly state whether or not that meant I could have a non runflat tire. On top of this, I really do not want the 19" wheel that comes with the "regular sports package".

My most IDEAL and simplest wish / solution would be the following:

Please take these 4 run flat tires off my car, and replace them with non runflat Bridgestone potenza S04 Pole Position tires which were used on previous S Classes and sold by Mercedes Manhattan to me on many occassions. Please extend the warranty I originally purchased on the more expensive run flat tires to the less expensive non runflats. I do not want any money back due to the cheaper tire. Just extend the warranty.

My less but still ideal and workable solution would be:

If Mercedes NA says they don't want to authorize switching to non runflat tires, I would go 50/50 with the dealer on replacing the runflats with the Bridgestone non runflats. I would still want the warranty to cover the tires. If this can't be done, I would want my money back from the warranty company and I will warranty it elsewhere.

I am in a position where I am driving on a rough riding car, and the problem is absolutely the tire. It is not the suspension, or the size of the wheel. A non runflat tire on these 20" wheels would drastically reduce the harshness of the ride, as seen by the few people who took it upon themselves to change the tires.

Attached is the tire from tire-rack. You can see it is literally half the price. Mercedes would be saving 50% everytime there was a problem.

I hope there is something someone can do for me. It is very discouraging to have received the replies from MBUSA to this point. I am a repeat customer and hope for another 5 decades of driving S Classes.

Yours

Bradley Reisman

 

Welcome to the world us BMW folks have had to endure for some time now. Luckily you are not facing the massive tire shortages like we did 2 years ago. At one point our local dealer ran out of loaners because there were so many cars laid up with bad tires. There was a 6 week waiting list for them. Not only do run flats bubble at the mere mention of pothole, but they drive like bricks, steel hardened bricks that is. I am running my 750 on snow tires now and when spring comes I am switching out the run craps on the stock rims to Michelin SS's. In the winter I have the snows that handle potholes much better and an awesome tire for the summer (one that should have been stock). I don't often use my trunk so I will bag up and leave a snow in there as an emergency spare along with a jack and wrench. It just really sucks that one part of the automobile that has worked so well for over 100 years (spare tires) is being tossed out at the major expense of the driver....

 

Oh, and thank God my GL came with regular tires and a legit spare!!! Even though the dealer was adamant that there was no spare and they were run flats. Even after I showed him the spare under the floor, he shrugged and got confused lol. I'm always astonished that I know more about the cars I own than the people that sell them....

Look what comes standard in the CLS63:


It looks like the tire is just really low profile but it's not just that, it is not fully attached to the rim, it floats over it. I've never seen anything like it before....

 

Awaiting my guy's reply.

It's really incredible though - you can spend $125k on a car and they tell you tough S H I T.

They really do feel as you described - Steel hardened bricks.

 

Chucky, has Tire-rack mentioned anything being better than the Bridgestones as far as comfort-wise?

 

They said by far, the Bridgestones were the most comfortable option and stressed to go with the summer dedicated, not the all season.

 

Excellent.

 

Dedicated performance tires are always better than all seasons since those are ultimately a compromise to fit multiple weather conditions.

If you plan you drive in snow however you will be going nowhere with summer performance tires. Tried that. Just FYI.

 

Chucky, I'm a bit confused. Since you live in NYC, why wouldn't the all season Bridgestone be the better option for you? NYC does have winter weather (though nowhere near as bad as here in the Midwest). Do you not drive your new S in the winter or do you go with snow tires? In my case, if it turns out that the RFT's on the 18 inch wheels suck as suggested here, I would need to go with all season non RFT's.

 

Wolfman, your post beat mine by 2 minutes and you basically answered my question.

 

I asked that question. I was told:

-Less comfort with A/S
-Less grip in dry and rain with A/S
-Only benefit is more grip in snow. (but I go with dedicated winter tires)

 

Since my build is 4Matic, I would go for the A/S tires I would think. Besides, I hate changing tires twice a year. I was doing that on my LS and couldn't stand it. I vowed to never purchase a car with RWD ever again.

 

The Bridgestones have been ordered.....will arrive at my house Monday. I'll let you guys know how the ride improves....

 

In the meantime, I've reached out to my previous service adviser who is now at BMW Manhattan. He's well aware of the freakout going on over the runflats since he's dealing with it there too.

He's got a very close friend very high up in MBUSA corporate management. He's taken my correspondence, and is forwarding to him for resolution above and beyond what they have already said.

Keep u posted.

 

+1
Best way to go with dedicated snows.
Did this on the SL where I actually use staggered snows on stock 19" rims. Even those are smoother than RFT's

 

Look forward to hearing how the ride changes for you!!

 

Me too. What he's doing is exactly what I am pushing MB to let me do.

 

Here is my opinion on this fwiw.

Just like you, I bought a car and purchased the warranty on wheels and tires.

Now this warranty is extra coverage for what the tires and wheels came with the car you bought. Fully Covers damage to the wheel and tires no questions asked which normally only mfg defects would fall under normal warranty.

I understood this, you understood it or at least should have.

I don't know how many cars you've bought where you have the option to choose the tire brand and model tire type and I'm going to guess none.I replaced one tire already with the insurance and chucky got an entire set brand new. All because of a visual defect.

This is what we paid for, looking back its kind of a rip off but its what we paid for. It was an option you could choose to go with or not go with.

It is unreasonable to demand a set of tires that aren't even available or spec'd oem for your specific model/year/config, meaning exact tire specs , moe extended etc. etc.

Lets be honest, the ride quality may not be what we would like, but it really is not that bad. If it was then you would have raised the issue when you test drove it and decided if it was enough for you to not buy the car.

Lets just face the facts on this issue, we got upsold. I didn't even test drive it before laying down a deposit and first time was when I got the keys. When you factor in the warranty cost with monthly payments I don't even notice it.

I love this car, everyone who has one feels the same. I even dropped 12k on a set of wheels.
Should I get a refund on the policy or have them warranty something that was not on the car when I bought it ? Absolutely not nor is it even reasonable to.

lol reading this thread it is as if kratos and chucky are getting eachother all riled up. I love the enthusiasm though.

 

Condescending posts are not needed.

I wholeheartedly disagree with what you wrote.

I, too, did not test drive the car before I purchased it. I did not test drive the one before that. Or the one before that. Prior to that, I did test drive a 1999 S500 and loved it and knew any future cars would only be improvements upon this vehicle. Naturally, I loved the S500 from 2002 which replaced the 1999. I loved the S550 from 2007 which replaced the 2002. I ASSUMED I would love the 2014 S550 which would replace the 2007, especially with the Magic Body Control and updated ABC.

I have never had a car with runflat tires before. I was not told in advance that the ride would be very different. (yes....very different). I had no way of knowing. On Mercedes website, the 19" wheels are noted to have Runflats....the 20" wheels are noted to have high performance tires. We were given ZERO warning.

I purchase the insurance on the wheels and tires because in the past, I popped tires over pot holes and wished to sleep well at night knowing I was covered.

After having to replace all four tires, and having a much harsher ride, I am asking Mercedes to see my side of this, and take the runflats off the car, and replace them with non runflats so that the rest of my years with this car would not involve me feeling the jarring experience of hitting a bump, pothole, or twig.

If you are happy with your car, I am thrilled for you.

I am not, and I think spending $128,000 plus warranty gives me the right to air my grievances out with the Mercedes dealership and corporate offices.

Reading your post without reading the entire thread, one would assume Kratos and I wanted to move heaven and earth and turn this car into something it is not.

I'm really not sure where you deduce that we are just bitter or trying to rile each other up when the problem extends to not just S Class drivers, but to other class drivers, and as documented above, other manufacturers such as BMW and Mini.

I'm not declaring these runflats to be defective. I'm declaring them to be too stiff to offer a comfortable boaty ride, which is what the S Class is known for.

With that said, I am glad you are entertained...that is the second reason for this forum's existence, only after its beneficial public spot to figure out solutions to problems.