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Question about wheel & tire fitment for C350 (W204 chassis)

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Old 12-05-2007, 07:05 PM
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Question about wheel & tire fitment for C350 (W204 chassis)

Newbie here to MB. Will be purchasing the C350 Sport Sedan w/ 18" AMG factory option. I understand that the wheels are a staggered fitment. I'm looking to replace the wheels with an 18" fitment that is not staggered.

A question (for Luke @ Tirerack):

1) Will I run into any issues with running a regular fitment vs a staggered one? The reason I want a regular fitment is I'd like the ability to be able to rotate my tires to extend tire life.


Thanks in advance for your help!

Last edited by W204; 12-06-2007 at 05:34 PM.
Old 12-06-2007, 07:59 PM
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Mercedes made staggered wheels for the C350 for a reason, we highly recommend you keeping the staggered setup, due to the fact that it can affect the driving ability and braking.
Old 12-07-2007, 09:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Wheel Power
Mercedes made staggered wheels for the C350 for a reason, we highly recommend you keeping the staggered setup, due to the fact that it can affect the driving ability and braking.
Thanks Wheel Power, your response is much appreciated! I'll keep the staggered setup, then.
Old 12-08-2007, 06:15 AM
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Actually you can put on a non-staggered set. I posted a PDF link in the W204 forum showing MB approved wheel fitment. Have a look at it.
Now, will you be running into issues; maybe. Depends on your driving style. Will you notice those in everyday driving; highly doubtful. HTH
Old 12-08-2007, 09:24 AM
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depends on the weather
While, you can safely and easily use a non-staggered set up on your car there are several reasons that the staggered set up was used from the factory. The two most obvious are:
#1.) with a wider back tire a car has less of a tendency to have throttle induced oversteer.
#2.) the wider rear tire creates understeer which is deemed to be needed for safety.
with that said the use of non-staggered wheels/tires is perfectly acceptable providing you understand the change in the vehicles handling dynamics the cahnge created. I actually recommend non-staggered setups for winter use.
Old 12-08-2007, 09:26 AM
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depends on the weather
Originally Posted by Wheel Power
Mercedes made staggered wheels for the C350 for a reason, we highly recommend you keeping the staggered setup, due to the fact that it can affect the driving ability and braking.
huh ???
Old 12-10-2007, 04:30 PM
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Originally Posted by Luke@tirerack
While, you can safely and easily use a non-staggered set up on your car there are several reasons that the staggered set up was used from the factory. The two most obvious are:
#1.) with a wider back tire a car has less of a tendency to have throttle induced oversteer.
#2.) the wider rear tire creates understeer which is deemed to be needed for safety.
with that said the use of non-staggered wheels/tires is perfectly acceptable providing you understand the change in the vehicles handling dynamics the cahnge created. I actually recommend non-staggered setups for winter use.
Thanks, now I'm doubly confused If Mercedes dials in understeer as the predominant handling characteristic of the car, will running a non-staggered setup bias the handling from understeer-to-neutral ----> neutral-to-oversteer (depending of course how you drive the car, all things being equal)?

Would this be also true for BMW? Reason I ask is that the MB dealer is getting difficult to deal with and the gf & I are looking at BMW now. Thanks again, Luke, I did get your voicemail btw.
Old 12-10-2007, 04:31 PM
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Originally Posted by amdeutsch
Actually you can put on a non-staggered set. I posted a PDF link in the W204 forum showing MB approved wheel fitment. Have a look at it.
Now, will you be running into issues; maybe. Depends on your driving style. Will you notice those in everyday driving; highly doubtful. HTH
Very helpful, thanks much!

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