Greetings-
Haven't seen too many examples of the W212 riding on other factory wheels besides those that come as options. Took a flyer on a brand new set of take-offs from a 2016 SL550. I'm a fan of the 5-spoke look, so I'd been going with the 19" Forgestar CF5 for a few years. Had 2 sets on my W211 wagon, and now a set on the W212. Why 3 sets of Forgestars? They break. They break bad. I have had a wheel break on each set of Forgestars I've mounted on the E-class. In my experience, they simple do not work. Whether the E-class is just too heavy for them or they are poorly made is up for discussion, but either way, I would caution perspective buyers. To be clear, I'm not mad at Forgestar. They build a nice-looking set of $1500 wheels. I tried getting them to throw me a bone the second time a wheel cracked, but as you can imagine, 'broken wheels are the fault of customers,' not wheel builders. That being said, I've never had a problem with the 3 sets of factory rims I've used on the E for winter driving-- which is typically when the roads are worst. Never.

I'm sure the Forgestar parts are appropriate in a wide variety of applications. Unfortunately, the E-class might be a bit heavy for those wheels. Which brings me back to factory parts! These staggered SL wheels fit perfectly. No spacers or any modifications required. The only difference from the regular E-AMG wheels that come standard is a 4mm wider rear track on each side. So minimal that there is no visual difference.

I've left a couple pix of the latest broken wheel showing 2 cracks in separate locations, and no tire damage or damage to front face of the rim. I can easily see how the wheel could break with a heavy impact...except there was no impact. There is no evidence of an impact anywhere. No pinched sidewall. No marks in the tire. No marks on either lip of the rim. Again, this is not intended to be a Forgestar-bashing thread, but rather a long-standing forum member whose experience may save you some headaches.

 

The Forgestars are a sub $1500 set of rims, I would expect the quality etc to be in par with the price. You get what you pay for.
Once a side note OEM MB 18" and 19" E55 and CLS55 rims are known to crack on the inside also.

 

But damn... They look good

 

couldn't agree more!

I haven't had any of the OEM wheels fail, so I didn't know it was common for those to break. But yes, certainly no argument to the cost/quality relationship.

 

Yes the rears are know to fracture on the inside. The tires don't leak air but when the tires are dismounted you will see the cracks.

 

I also had not one but two OEM MB CL65 wheels crack. I still can't believe they put cast wheels on a heavy car that had a $180K+ original MSRP. But they looked good...

 

Thanks for sharing OP, it's important to get this kind of information out there.

Wow! Are other sub-1500 rims also cracking (Stance, Vossen)?

 

Check out MHT wheels. Never had a problem with any of their wheel lines. I ran a very nice looking cast Niche wheel on a very heavy CL600 and no drama for the entire time I owned the car.

Forged wheels will break much like cast wheels. Forging allows the manufacturer to make lighter wheels but in so doing they are using less aluminum. Plenty of examples on the forum where some high end forged wheels met the same ending as the op is mentioning.

 

those look nice and fancy.

 

Used Niche wheels and they bend not break. I think I have actually cracked one in the last 3 years, but bent multiple. Upped my tire pressure to 44psi and haven't had a single issue since