Faast

Bought the wagen as a multipurpose vehicle and for occasional snow days. However, the current conditions are pretty snowy but with Ice too. Son wrecked his vehicle ( coming down the street and skidded and hit neighbors mail box), friend had his wreck too and this morning driving very carefully I went off road when i hit an ice patch ( 6 am) and went off road. Luckily i was driving my E55 and not the E63. Snow I can handle in my E55 ( all weather tires) but Ice is pretty tricky. Would driving the wagen, help me get any extra traction on Icey roads with all season tires? Being in KY, we rarely get more than few days of snow and rarely ever any Icey conditions? E55 is fine though, untouched.

I was driving this road at 6 am in the morning and at 10 am the ice is still there.

maxusa

In the order of traction on compacted snow/ice:

1. Studded tires.
2. Sticky snow tires.
3. 4matic
4. "Chains"
5. Extra weight over RWD axle
6. All-season tires
7. Taller and softer tire sidewall.
8. Underinflated tires.

Even with the measures above, driving a performance sedan/wagon on snow/ice is undesirable and takes skill. The W212 is too heavy, too low, too torquey, and too long wheelbase for any soft snow or sand, which technically is an off-road use.

Mojo20032004

also use manual mode to downshift and let the engine do the braking early instead of you having to touch the brakes. this helps slow you down without locking up the tires. ive been doing this for years now on my daily that is a 6psd stick with winter tires and have had 0 issues at all.also upshift early when accelerating, start off in the highest gear possible to minimize spinning

NoVAe63s

This has been written a billion times but a FWD or RWD with real winter tires will vastly outperform an AWD with all seasons. Tires are the key, not the vehicle.

If icy I wouldn't take any vehicle out and certainly not my E (or wagon). It would depend on the type of snow but I use my beaters for those days, no point in risking damage to Merc if you don't have to. And that includes other people sliding into you as well.

thesaintusa

Winter tires and AWD are all you need for MOST situations.

On ICE, studded WINTER tires are helpful.

E63 rolls on Nokian R3. If I didn't park on a 'finished' garage floor I would use a set of studded Nokian Hakka 9 or the new Hakka 10. The power is definitely rear biased, and on icy corners, the car has the tendency to want to oversteer until traction control kicks in.

My Jeep Wrangler rolls on studded Nokian LT3 winter tires. On SOLID ice / black ice it is still slippery and dangerous, but definitely better than with non-studded winter tires. The Jeep parks outside. Problem with studded winter tires is that you often don't realize how dangerous the roads are until you see cars around you slide into the ditch

On my Subaru STi I have used studded Nokian Hakka 4s, and it was fantastic in all conditions. The lack of traction control/stability control made for a more predictable driving situation, with out having the power suddenly being cut once wheel spin was detected.

All seasons on ice are not much use even with AWD. Once you start sliding it take a long time to have the tires get grip. A winter tire will 'grab' traction once it starts to slide much sooner, but there is huge variability between winter tires in this behaviour. My wife's X3 has Pirelli Sottozero 3s, and once they lose traction they take a LONG time to get traction again, not much better than an all-season in my mind. But they are excellent on dry cold pavement, and decent on packed snow.

A premium winter tire is a game changer, and a studded winter tire is even better on pure ice. But the conditions rarely call for a studded winter tire (black ice / ice / HARD packed snow), but we do enough winter driving on highways with icy conditions to warrant them.

Oliver Liu

Trust the driver from Canada! I live in Syracuse, NY where we get an average of 120" of snow each winter. I also had a Subaru STI with Blizzak winter tires (amazing), which, in the snow, would be better than my E63 purely because the AWD system was more advanced and could achieve a 50-50 split in front to rear (where the E63 is a permanent 66-33 split with a bias to the rear - more fun, though!). I probably wouldn't make an investment in wheels and tires if I lived in KY though.

Agree with all previous posters. Without dedicated tires (snow or studded or even chained up), you can't stop or turn effectively. The AWD will only help you get going faster than 2WD, but without that mechanical traction of dedicated tires, you are still just just as bad off as everyone else. There are benefits in stability with AWD, but I don't think you will realize those on ice.

When I was in TX, everyone advised me to stay home for a few hours when they predicted ice.....sounds like you have a longer cold spell than is typical, so I'd try as best I could to stay off the roads with that nice car. I drive a Dodge Caravan with Blizzak snow tires in the winter now (they spray so much salt and brine on our roads that they turn light grey in color and the highways have a cloud of salt dust in the air when there is any traffic.....safe, but hell on cars.

Bilal Dinc

must have been one hell of a mailbox to wreck a car lol