SL/R231: Driving home from dealer with summer tires
01-25-2017, 03:38 PM
#1
Driving home from dealer with summer tires
I have a question regarding driving in the winter with summer tires (temporarily). I'm in the Northeast, planning to buy from a dealer several hundred miles away and drive home. The car is CPO and the dealer is claiming that there are no OEM Benz-approved all season tires he can put on the car for me without compromising the CPO status.
How bad would it be driving the car back home and swapping the tires out? I don't really want to throw away $1200+ of sports tires by giving them away to a tire shop close to the dealership.
How bad would it be driving the car back home and swapping the tires out? I don't really want to throw away $1200+ of sports tires by giving them away to a tire shop close to the dealership.
01-25-2017, 08:32 PM
#2
Member
I'll tell you a little story and you can decide if you want to drive on summer tires or not. When the E Cabriolet first came out in 2011, it was a replacement for the CLK. I'd been driving CLK Cabs since the early 2000's, but bought a new E350 Cabriolet. I picked it up on New Years Eve (December 31st), at about 11 AM. It was snowing, with about 3 inches of snow already on the ground. Stupid me, I went anyway. I live about 12 miles from the dealership, and have to take I-84 from downtown, Hartford, to my exit in West Hartford. I live on Avon mountain, which is about 800 feet in elevation above the floor below.
Once I got the car on the highway, I was slipping and sliding, almost uncontrollable. I managed to milk it to my exit, all the time thinking that I'm never going to make it up the hill, to my house. Sure enough, as soon as the road started climbing, probably a 3 or 4 degree incline, I knew I'd not make it up. I didn't. At the bottom of the hill, I made another mistake and called my wife to tell her my situation. The very first words out of her mouth were: "I told you not to pick up that car in this snowstorm", to which I answered, "Thanks, your response was exactly what I needed."
I backed down the 100 or so feet until I was on level ground, turned around in someone's driveway, and drove about a half mile to a McDonalds where I called the Mercedes dealership. They sent out a tow truck, which after waiting for an hour or so, arrived, hooked me up and delivered my brand new car, into my garage. It was the end of the year, and Town Fair tire didn't have any winter tires that would fit my car, as they said that the manufacturers stop producing winter tires sometime toward the end of the year. I went on the internet and ordered 4 winter snow tires from Tire Rack. They arrived on January 2, and I had them installed. The car was fine after that.
So, to answer your question, if you want to drive the car home, directly from the dealership, make sure the weather forecast is for clear and dry conditions. If there's any snow in the forecast, I'd postpone taking delivery
Once I got the car on the highway, I was slipping and sliding, almost uncontrollable. I managed to milk it to my exit, all the time thinking that I'm never going to make it up the hill, to my house. Sure enough, as soon as the road started climbing, probably a 3 or 4 degree incline, I knew I'd not make it up. I didn't. At the bottom of the hill, I made another mistake and called my wife to tell her my situation. The very first words out of her mouth were: "I told you not to pick up that car in this snowstorm", to which I answered, "Thanks, your response was exactly what I needed."
I backed down the 100 or so feet until I was on level ground, turned around in someone's driveway, and drove about a half mile to a McDonalds where I called the Mercedes dealership. They sent out a tow truck, which after waiting for an hour or so, arrived, hooked me up and delivered my brand new car, into my garage. It was the end of the year, and Town Fair tire didn't have any winter tires that would fit my car, as they said that the manufacturers stop producing winter tires sometime toward the end of the year. I went on the internet and ordered 4 winter snow tires from Tire Rack. They arrived on January 2, and I had them installed. The car was fine after that.
So, to answer your question, if you want to drive the car home, directly from the dealership, make sure the weather forecast is for clear and dry conditions. If there's any snow in the forecast, I'd postpone taking delivery
Last edited by jetjok; 01-25-2017 at 08:36 PM.
01-26-2017, 12:49 AM
#3
Point taken. My drive home would be over 600 miles through the Midwest. I'd rather not take the chance, but they're making it difficult to swap the tires.
I'll tell you a little story and you can decide if you want to drive on summer tires or not. When the E Cabriolet first came out in 2011, it was a replacement for the CLK. I'd been driving CLK Cabs since the early 2000's, but bought a new E350 Cabriolet. I picked it up on New Years Eve (December 31st), at about 11 AM. It was snowing, with about 3 inches of snow already on the ground. Stupid me, I went anyway. I live about 12 miles from the dealership, and have to take I-84 from downtown, Hartford, to my exit in West Hartford. I live on Avon mountain, which is about 800 feet in elevation above the floor below.
Once I got the car on the highway, I was slipping and sliding, almost uncontrollable. I managed to milk it to my exit, all the time thinking that I'm never going to make it up the hill, to my house. Sure enough, as soon as the road started climbing, probably a 3 or 4 degree incline, I knew I'd not make it up. I didn't. At the bottom of the hill, I made another mistake and called my wife to tell her my situation. The very first words out of her mouth were: "I told you not to pick up that car in this snowstorm", to which I answered, "Thanks, your response was exactly what I needed."
I backed down the 100 or so feet until I was on level ground, turned around in someone's driveway, and drove about a half mile to a McDonalds where I called the Mercedes dealership. They sent out a tow truck, which after waiting for an hour or so, arrived, hooked me up and delivered my brand new car, into my garage. It was the end of the year, and Town Fair tire didn't have any winter tires that would fit my car, as they said that the manufacturers stop producing winter tires sometime toward the end of the year. I went on the internet and ordered 4 winter snow tires from Tire Rack. They arrived on January 2, and I had them installed. The car was fine after that.
So, to answer your question, if you want to drive the car home, directly from the dealership, make sure the weather forecast is for clear and dry conditions. If there's any snow in the forecast, I'd postpone taking delivery
Once I got the car on the highway, I was slipping and sliding, almost uncontrollable. I managed to milk it to my exit, all the time thinking that I'm never going to make it up the hill, to my house. Sure enough, as soon as the road started climbing, probably a 3 or 4 degree incline, I knew I'd not make it up. I didn't. At the bottom of the hill, I made another mistake and called my wife to tell her my situation. The very first words out of her mouth were: "I told you not to pick up that car in this snowstorm", to which I answered, "Thanks, your response was exactly what I needed."
I backed down the 100 or so feet until I was on level ground, turned around in someone's driveway, and drove about a half mile to a McDonalds where I called the Mercedes dealership. They sent out a tow truck, which after waiting for an hour or so, arrived, hooked me up and delivered my brand new car, into my garage. It was the end of the year, and Town Fair tire didn't have any winter tires that would fit my car, as they said that the manufacturers stop producing winter tires sometime toward the end of the year. I went on the internet and ordered 4 winter snow tires from Tire Rack. They arrived on January 2, and I had them installed. The car was fine after that.
So, to answer your question, if you want to drive the car home, directly from the dealership, make sure the weather forecast is for clear and dry conditions. If there's any snow in the forecast, I'd postpone taking delivery
