I have been trying to compare tires for my E55 and have had a hard time. Luke has a great comparison of tires sold by TireRack, but there are some other great tire choices out there. Below is a list I tried to put together to compare performance (and cost) of different tire options.

The costs are my estimate of total cost (tire, shipping, mounting) for my E55 fitment. Your mileage may vary based on location and tire size, but this gives at least a way to compare which are more and less expensive.

The first comparison is based on cost, so it's fairly objective. Lowest prices first.
The next is by performance (based most on normal, dry, street performance). Best performing first. These are my guesses. If anyone has experience or reviews otherwise, please post. I'm interested in opinions here.

Any thoughts? Any experience either way?

Please note that comments like "tire X has much better grip than tire Y and for only $100 more" are much more helpful to everyone than "tire X sucks" or "why would you put tire Y on a Mercedes."

 

Here are some of my thoughts based on reading and experience:

Michelin PS2
It seems a lot of people suggest the PS2 when the question of tires comes up. However, most head to head tests show the PS2 performing below tires such as the Dunlop Direzza or Kumho MX/XS. And it costs significantly more. So I excluded it from comparison as being a poor value and a lesser performer than other tires here. Unless I'm missing something.

Dunlop and Kumho XS/MX all seem to offer roughly the same performance at roughly the same (higher) cost. Generally, it seems Kumho is a better value, Dunlop a better performer.

Falken 615
I used to run these on my WRX, and the traction was amazing. Most complaints about this tire are the short life, but I never found this to be an issue. Nothing here is exactly "long life," and the Falken is a good price considering it's a top performing tire (particularly autox).

Vredestein
I have little experience with this tire, but all comments seem to be positive. Good price, good wear, and everyone reports good performance. That's hard to quantify, so I took a guess. Can anyone report how these compare to, say, the Kumho MX? I am very tempted to go with these.

General Exclaim
I have these on my rear currently. They're a pretty good price, handle fine, and the yellow traction control triangle blinks less than it did with Toyo T1R tires. I'm thinking of switching, not necessarily for better cornering performance, but for better traction on launches. If a different tire would keep the ESP from kicking in as much, that might be worthwhile.

Nito 555
I have very little experience with these, but price is good and some people really like the performance.

Nexen N3000
These are dirt cheap (notice the order of magnitude difference), and my local place suggested these as a good budget option. A lot of folks from the BMW M3 crowd seem happy with these, but it appears most Mercedes (particularly E55 and other high torque cars) report less satisfaction. My guess here is the Nexen has good lateral traction (i.e. handles ok on an M3), but poor front/rear traction (i.e. the traction control is always busy on a high torque car such as the Mercedes, although it might perform ok on the low torque M3). That would also indicate poor braking performance, if it's the case. I'm somewhat adverse to these, because I have a feeling I'll get annoyed at the ESP cutting power, but the idea of a cheap tire where you don't have to worry as much about burning them out is nice.


Any other takes, opinions, or experience? Or other options?

 

General Exclaims are lower-end tires and perform as such.

I LOVE BFGoodrich KDW-2's. They look and perform outstanding, but get noisy around 10k miles on the tires.

Nitto's are a good bet also.

 

KDW2 is a good choice. I ran those on my WRX before the Falken 615. They don't have the best dry grip, but they're not bad either, fairly inexpensive, and the wet grip was amazing (almost the same grip, wet or dry).

 

There's a tire not on your list that you might want to consider, the Sumitomo HTR ZIII. There are test results on TR, no survey results yet. There is an extensive amount of feedback from buyers on the rennlist.com board under the 993 heading. Do a search for "Sumitomo", that thread should pop up.

They are a great all-around tire even though they're rated as a high-performance summer tire. I drove in the rain going up Hwy 1 last year at a pretty brisk pace and they were great. I've got them on my 2 Porsches, a 96 911 and an 89 944 and plan on a set for my E350 in the next few weeks. They are smooth, quiet, have excellent steering response and are wearing very well. Absolutely fantastic tire. And a bargain to boot. By the way, Hello! First post here.

 

It largely depends on what you want to accomplish with the car. Personally based on what you've listed I would choose the Dunlop Star Spec. I would definitely concur with the above recommendation on the KDW2s.

Personally I'd exclude everything below the Kumho MX/XS other than maybe the General. I'd suggest also considering the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric tires.

 

I will continue to use the PS2 because they:

1) wear well
2) wear even
3) Quite
4) No issues with them

I pulled 2 full sets of tires that were "listed" due to cupping, and noise/harshness.

So I would not discount the Michelins as an option.

Perhaps that's why so many Mercedes owners will recommend them.

 

Luke recommended the Eagle F1 Asymmetrics to me, and I have them currently on my car. I'm a big fan of them. The PS2s are overrated, imho, and too expensive to boot - I'd choose the Asymmetrics over them, even if they were the same cost.

I also had the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3s, which were fine, but wore out VERY quickly. Less than a year and a half, and that's without using them in wintertime.

I'd really avoid the KD-W2s; the complaints about noise are way too prevalent for me to have ignored them. The other tires you mention I have no experience with, unfortunately.

 

you should look at the Eagle mentioned by Tommy ... it beat the PS2 in head to head testing and while not the all out dry performance like the Star Spec when combining dry, wet, ride quality, tire life and cost it is, in my opinion, the best value currently available

 

Take Luke's recommendations at your own risk, of course.

 

I have the Eagle, its the *****

 

Thanks for the comments guys. The Eagle F1 Asymmetric looks to be price wise between the Dunlop and the Kumho MX/XS. It also has a better wear rating.

I'm still up in the air, though. Need to research more.

 

My KDW2s are beautifully quiet, and have worn quite well over 15,000+ miles. I would personally not listen to a thing people are saying about them being loud tires. I've not only used them on mine, but put them on quite a number of customer vehicles.

 

Can anyone comment on the performance of the Nitto 555 or Vredestein Sessanta in comparison to any of these other tires? Am I correct in assuming neither are as good as the Kumho MX?

 

Ok, added KDW, Sumitomo, and Eagle Asymmetric to the list.

If you live in a wet climate, the KDW definitely offers spectacular wet performance at a reasonable price. In a dry climate, it looks like you can probably find a better performer at about the same price (although perhaps with less wear rating).

The Sumitomo looks like a really good value, too.

 

On my second set of Vredestein right now. I had F-1 GS-D3 and Yokohama Advan Sport before and Vredestein is better in every way.

 

UMMM wonder why the new S500 has Michelin Pilots?

 

Because they get a kickback?

If you went by what manufacturers do, all BMWs used on the track would be sporting runflats - I don't see it as a valid criterion at all. If that were true, I'd still be using Contisports. Ugh!

RedG - glad to hear that you've had bette results with the KDW2s. To me, the vast number of bad reviews was enough to scare me away from them, even though I love the tread pattern.

 

Ask 10 people and you'll always get 12 different opinions.

 

I think my biggest fear with putting Michelin tires on the car is that they're French. I don't have a Maginot line in my wheel well, and I don't need my German car trying to invade my tires.

My second biggest concern is what tommy pointed out. Michelin seems to get absurd deals with manufacturers for OEM tires. Continental seems pretty good at this game when it comes to BMW and certain other makers. The Michelin marketing book basically looks like this:

Step 1, Option 1: Make dangerously bad tires and sell them to Honda, Toyota, and others at a very low price for their budget cars (Corolla, Civic, etc.).

Step 1, Option 2: Make high performance tires and sell them to BMW, Porsche, etc.

Step 2: When someone needs a replacement, they are more likely to select Michelin since they are "OEM." Charge a premium price for the tire.

This isn't too say the PS2 is a bad tire, or that it doesn't have a good blend of performance, life, NVH, etc. But I simply don't like the marketing scheme that they effectively bribe Mercedes into carrying the tire (by selling it at a lower than market price) in order to pickup future sales, which they later sell well above competition prices. In economic terms, they basically dump the OEM market so they can have limited monopolistic power over the re-purchase market. Even if they made the "best" tire, I still don't like the idea of buying their product for this reason. Further, most objective metrics (such as the Tire Rack performance ratings) suggest tires costing half as much perform better. And after seeing how bad their budget OEM tires are, I am very hesitant to try any other products.

This isn't to knock anyone using Michelin, as they might make the best "all-around" tire for a specific driver, but for me the value/performance has never been there.

 

Saintz, I like the way you think.

I need to replace my P Zero's and am a loss for what to get. Was thinking the Advan Sports as I always ran Advan's on my EVO but unfortunately no tire will make my C63 handle like an EVO but that doesn't stop me from trying. Then I ran accross the Advan Neova AD07/AD08 and thought they might be a good choice.

My current thinking goes like this.

1. Advan Neova AD07/AD08 - probably just on brand recognition from my last car
2. Pirelli P Zero - yes I know OEM and they wore out at 6k miiles - but they did stick
3. Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec - don't know much yet just now researching
4. Potenza RE01R - don't know much yet just now researching
5. Eagle F1 Asymetical - thinking i may want a little wet traction and longer life and might give up some dry traction.

 

I'm looking to replace my Yokos 245/40R18s on my 2003 E500.........I was thinking Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus but after reading these posts I'm not totally sure. I want a basic good traction and smooth riding tire........I'm not a high performance driver, just want good basic traction for touring. But my highest priority is a quiet tire........it drives me crasy to hear tires start making loud road noise after just one year like my former Pirelli PZeros did. I replaced those Pirellis with Yokohoma ADVAN S4 bought from TireRack.com after only one year and 12k miles on them when they started making road noise and used that as an excuse to upgrade my OEM 17" wheels to OEM 18" wheels and get new tires. Which meets my needs for a smooth riding and long term quiet tire: The Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, Dunlop or what?

 

On the rennlist forum, the Sumitomo has 16 pages of feedback. I've got sets of them on two of my cars and they are smooth, responsive and very high on my list, they are quiet! A great tire regardless of price, being a good buy is icing on the cake. Below is the link to that thread.

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforum...light=sumitomo

 

Yes, I did read the reviews and they are impressive especially for the price. The reviews, of course, are from Porsche owners and those cars are much lighter and handle differently than a MB E500..........wish there were some MB owners who've had them on their vehicles for over a year that could attest to their qualities. I'll do some more research on these Sumo HTR3 and may go for them unless I find something negative from MB owners.
Thanks

 

I'm due for tires on my 350 and I'm trying to find a set of the 07-08 sport rims like yours. But either way I'll be going with a set of the HTRZIIIs since having such good luck with them on the 911 and 944. If anyone has tried them on a mb I'd like to hear their thoughts.