I have a 2002 with 25k miles. I bought the car with 9k, new rubber and a great smooth ride. The tires rapidly wore and the smooth ride rapidly deteriorated. These days highway driving is an unpleasant experience (steering shake at 60mph+is considerable), and foul weather driving an adventure. Apart from a sneaking suspicion that my dealer recycled a vehicle that may have had a front end misadventure in its past I hope to have the problems resolved and replace the worn tires. This gets me to my question.
Can anyone recommend a good replacement tire. I live in Colorado. Weather is generally mild and dry. Winters are, despite what most would think, mild and roads are generally snow free so the tires will be year round use. I don't drive the car aggressively and high speeds are not a concern.
The car will be in for service this coming week. Would also like opinions regarding buying the tires at Mercedes and having them handle the replacement from start to finish or going to a tire shop.
Thanks in advance.
Crash

 

I have these:

http://www.hankooktire.ca/uploadfile...t/uhp_k104.pdf



For me the fronts last 30K miles and the rears last about 25-30K miles. They are cheap relative to other brands (Mfg in China). The Fronts were $82 each and the Rears were $93 each for my SLK, installed! Great traction in rain and dry pavement. Not apt to pick up rocks in the treads. Not prone to flats. Great rain tires. They let you know when to replace them because they will make a lot of noise. Hope this helps.

 

I have a 99 E320 at 70k and have had to replace the tires twice...the OEM Michelins were great except they lasted only about 30k, very quiet and smooth. Being in LA (probably same weather conditions as you experience in Colorado) I tried Bridgestone Potenza RE90s at a good deal ($110 each) for the second set and got even better performance and traction in all weather but they only lasted for 30k also. Just switched to Bridgestone Traction T/As at ($110/each) and they seem to do pretty well although the ride is a bit rougher and don't look as good as the other two. I've only used my local garage for the tire installs and seems to be working out. I know the low mileage I get out of the tires is probably due to the short trip distances we put on the car since we only do about 10k miles per year on this car. I would go with the Potenzas again as they looked great and performed nicely except they are quite a bit more expensive even though I get all my tires from Tirerack.com.

 

I had a set of yoko's and michelin's once, both great but yoko's cheaper...

 

Stick to OE sizes and makes for the best overall compromise.

Low profile wider tires look great but wreck the ride although they do improve the cornering (if you use the roads like a race track)
FarEast manufactured tyres are cheaper and may be a good buy but so many aspects of tyre design impact performance that you cannot be sure they will give good performance until you have actually experienced them yourself.
MB spent lots of money deciding which tyres are best for each type of vehicle they make. Gain from their experience. You've already paid your contribution for this information in the price of the vehicle.

Just for information you cannot be sure that you are buying exact OE spec tyres (as supplied to the manufacturers) on the aftermarket even if make, size, pattern etc are the same. You buy tyres which are saleable quality but MAY NOT meet manyfacturers spec for parameters such as Radial Force Variation RFV etc. i.e. You buy tyres which meet an acceptable level of RFV but may not meet the manufacturers OE spec. RFV is the root cause of shimmy, shake, wobble etc. On the aftermarket these forces are removed by means of balancing them out which is not the same thing as reducing levels in the first place! Some cars are very senitive to RFV, others less so.

 

Bought my '98 E320 with 118K on the odometer. The Clearwater, FL MB dealership online wholesaler put brand new Fuzion HRI tires on the car. They looked okay and rode fine... for about 5000 miles. I played it off for a while, even got them balanced, but friends and family started asking, "wow...what's so loud?" They sucked. Rather than spend a bunch of money though I kept them on until 159K. They actually held up okay (except the noise and smoothness) until the very end. Then they went downhill fast, hydroplaning, scary handling, uncertain direction, the works. I pulled the 10 year old Michelin Energy spare out of the trunk and finally found a store that still sells them. They were discontinued about two years ago so they are becoming harder to find. Now I have 4 Michelin Energy tires on and the ride is exactly like it should be! (New Bilstein shocks at 119K didn't hurt too much either!) Stay away from Fuzion and know that you will get what you pay for with Michelin.

 

Pity you didn't read my post earlier!
Stuart.

 

michelin ps2's costco has them on sale at 60 bucks off the set of 4.
ohlord

 

The best tires I ever had, and the ones I will buy forever are Michelin Pilot Sport A/S, either in 16" or 17" rims. Low noise, great grip and long lasting. I will buy a set of 4, Zero Pressure ones (armored car) tomorrow. In Tire Rack they cost 218.00 each, here in Mexico everybody charges 350.00or more, what a rip off, but hey, these are really great tires.

 

Crash, I had the same problem in which I cant keep a new set of tires from humming or wearing out. The last set last me less than 15,000 miles. I then spoke to an alignment shop whom told me that even if the car was new, it needed an alignment because it was a sport pkg with larger wheels and tires. So, the alignment was done - 4 wheel. I was able to notice the difference right away as the settings were off from factory. On your car, see if the front tires are cupping on the inside? This is the cause for the humming and rough ride.