coolcamden

We sold a couple of true blue 4 wheel drive SUV’s before we got the wagon. Although we live in mild NorCal but we do go to the snowy mountains in the winter. May spend quite a long time in Idaho, eastern Washington. How’s the wagon going to perform?

bobblehead

With proper winter tires, you are good to go virtually anywhere

coolcamden

I gotta change the tires out? Damn… I figured I would have to, but what a pain for some infrequent trips.

HBerman

Welcome to the world of high performance summer tires. I've changed out my Michelin PS/4 tires for Michelin PS/4 all season. These have M+S designation and should be good on moderate snow. I've never understood why MB insists on installing only Summer tires with no all season option. You should be fine in SF with the all seasons. Added benefit is lower tire noise and better ride quality. For reference, I had Bridgestone Potenza 980/AS tires on my 2018 W63S sedan and drove in moderate snow here in NC mountains with no issue.

signes

As noted above with snows it will go just about anywhere until ground clearance is an issue (the biggest advantage of SUVs). Do not try snow with the stock tires...

cyclrder

you can go squared sizes matching the fronts on the staggered rims (I bought a second set of OEM wheels for just this setup)... I've installed Dunlop 3D winter sport tires and you can go anywhere until you run out of ground clearance (remember you can raise the car with the air suspension too...

HBerman

Why bother? You can get Michelin PA4 winter tires in OEM sizes, but the issue is not to have to change the tires for just a short time. Dedicated snows are an overkill.

bullmrkt

Well, Michelin PA4’s are dedicated snow tires, I have them mounted on a second set of OEM 20’s and they’re sipy and soft as pencil erasers. They’d probably last about 2000mi in warm dry conditions on our heavy/powerful cars, but work great in the cold stuff. Dedicated snows might be overkill in NC, but for example, I’m a bit north in Ohio and PS4’s would be deadly December-March. “Snow” is also a misnomer because the problem isn’t snow so much as ice, black ice, slushy, cold/wet, and just cold surfaces that don’t mesh well with summer performance rubber. However, I also don’t want to give up the PS4’s for the other (majority) months of the year, so the easiest thing for me is to bolt on the second set of wheels. It takes 30min or so to swap out twice a year and off I go, no biggie. If you’re driving a $140k über wagon, then cost isn’t either, so why not? It’s safer and the car will perform as intended—I bought this car to perform.

As for the OP’s situation, yeah that’s tough to satisfy without two sets of wheels on this particular car. You’d probably be fine with some Continental or Michelin all seasons, but with compromised performance in both scenarios. Not sure I’d want to sacrifice PS4 performance for a few trips to the mountains. Rent an SUV?

Carac

I've been running Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS all-seasons for over two years now, my Pilotsports are in climate controlled storage. Not only is the ride smoother and quieter, but I've driven through two snow storms where many cars were pulling off the road with no issues. It was snowing thick enough to cover the distronic sensor, disabling adaptive cruise but I never felt a loss of traction or felt to be out of control at any point. I live in an area where if I HAD to have snow tires then I'd just stay home, but in those edge cases where I'm caught out in inclement weather, the Bridgestones don't result in me basically driving on wet glass when the weather turns.

HBerman

Totally agree with your conclusions. Also, the summer tires become start to lose traction below 45 degrees and become downright dangerous when it is raining and below 40 degrees. Michelin also explicitly states not to use the tires below 45 degrees.

W205C43PFL

Probably because it is an AMG and performance is the main focus, who knows what MB might be thinking. I believe non-AMGs are (all?) fitted with all seasons? My friends' E450s have Goodyear all seasons RFT for example.

Probably a good idea because then you can do a full tire rotation instead of the half tire rotation limited by the differences in size of staggered tires (unless the tires are used to track all day, which rotation obviously doesn't matter since tires will be changed way sooner anyways). In fact, MB even sells squared setup winter tires on their site. (At least true for MB Canada)

I.T. Guy

Also tire speed ratings

HBerman

Speed rating on the Michelin all-seasons is "Y" vs the summer of "Z". Doesn't make a hill of beans difference in the real world of normal (or spirited) driving. Also, the all-seasons are rated MO which they can be driven flat for 30 miles vs an RFT rating which is 50 miles.

Alan Smithee

That is absolutely NOT what MO means in regards to tires for Mercedes. Only tires designated as run-flat tires should be driven deflated. The MO designation means Mercedes developed that particular tire model with the tire manufacturer (‘Mercedes Original’).

https://www.mbusa.com/en/owners/part...original-tires

HBerman

I omitted the "E" in the designation. I meant MOE.

Tires branded with MOExtended or MOE on their sidewalls identify them as being specifically tuned for Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The Extended portion of the name identifies they feature run-flat-like tire characteristics by offering temporary extended mobility.

I.T. Guy

Sorry I was thikning of my dedicated snows. When they are on I have to remember not to melt them lol.