All C43 AMG owners - What shall I do?

[FSE23]

Would you have fitted winter tyres for the winter we've just had here in the UK?

Yes, I always had winter tyres with my BMW both RWD and xdrive. And I'm going to buy a set for next winter. I remember laughing out loud seeing cars crawling 15mph on 40mph road only becaus eit was covered by 1 inch of snow, while I safely got through 40mph on more covered unused lane. I live in Scotland so I don't take chances going to Highlands on summer tyres

 

[dejongj]

Yes, I always had winter tyres with my BMW both RWD and xdrive. And I'm going to buy a set for next winter. I remember laughing out loud seeing cars crawling 15mph on 40mph road only becaus eit was covered by 1 inch of snow, while I safely got through 40mph on more covered unused lane. I live in Scotland so I don't take chances going to Highlands on summer tyres

Fair enough out there, but here in the beautiful south it is a very different story.

 

[Tony Mac]

Yes, I always had winter tyres with my BMW both RWD and xdrive. And I'm going to buy a set for next winter. I remember laughing out loud seeing cars crawling 15mph on 40mph road only becaus eit was covered by 1 inch of snow, while I safely got through 40mph on more covered unused lane. I live in Scotland so I don't take chances going to Highlands on summer tyres

Have to say that south of the border it's been one of the mildest winters on record, pretty much zero snow here in the midlands and south. Talking to our local tyre specialist and their winter tyre sales have been pretty much nil. Never fitted winter tyres In 40 years of driving, and have never needed to in any other make or model of 4wd or 2wd car - certainly haven't needed winters in any other MB

I agree winters are necessary when driving in snow and ice - but NOT to disguise the crabbing and juddering fault at 10+ degrees

 

[Riverside Red]

Certainly not. But I would get winter tyres for cold weather especialy when driving in Europe during the winter, the same way as probably every C/E 43 driver will do in Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc.

The point I was really making was that I wouldn't want to drive a high performance car during the summer on tyres which are a compromise. (Doubt whether any winters or AW tyres would take VMax on the Autobahn of 155mph also).

I had two winters with an Audi S5 running winter tyres as I was working in Lincolnshire where the roads are pretty poor, so I get where you're coming from.

I toyed with the idea of winters on the C63, but it wouldn't have been worth it this year and as I've retired if it snows I'll just sit at home............However one thing I will say is that the Michelin PSS fitted are really poor in the cold, first thing on a morning and a greasy roundabout is pretty interesting and I think these supersport type tyres contribute to the guys issues with crabbing.

RR

 

[Riverside Red]

Have to say that south of the border it's been one of the mildest winters on record, pretty much zero snow here in the midlands and south. Talking to our local tyre specialist and their winter tyre sales have been pretty much nil. Never fitted winter tyres In 40 years of driving, and have never needed to in any other make or model of 4wd or 2wd car - certainly haven't needed winters in any other MB

I agree winters are necessary when driving in snow and ice - but NOT to disguise the crabbing and juddering fault

I agree about the ridiculous suggestion MB make about the tyres, the tyre, suspension and steering all contribute to handling at all speeds and the engineering should be right!!

However if I'd still been working in Lincolnshire this year I would have had the winters on whatever the car, they work great in wet and slippery conditions when ever the temperature is less than 7 degrees as it has been for most of the winter.

Seeing a Range Rover upside down in a ditch half full of water near Louth a couple of years ago certainly focusses the mind..........

RR

 

[grober]

Perhaps a timely reminder is required that "winter" or "all weather " tyres don't need snow or ice to outperform their summer equivalents - just a temperature below around 7degrees C. Now there may be pockets in the South of England where temperatures never fall below that figure but in the rest of the country overnight during quite a few months of the year air/ tyre temperature is going to fall below that level at least for a few initial miles, maybe more depending on road / pavement surface temperature. A concrete parking structure subject to overnight sub 7 degree tempertures and no direct sunlight is going to remain a pretty chilly place all day I imagine? Bit like popping your car in the fridge ?

 

[DRIVER200]

That was me. On Tuesday my dealer emailed me and said the new tyres for my C43 Coupe will be here in a couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Would be interesting to find out what code your dealership will use to record this expenditure as from the MB statement -below- they have identified a particular code that dealers should use when fitting the new AS tyres in the coming weeks.

This is the paragraph from their statement:
''For all the cases above concerning provision and fitment of All Season tyres, please submit a goodwill claim against damage code 2113800.
We will provide updates concerning any interaction we have with your customers, together with availability of the aftermarket All Season tyres and the logistics process involved. ''

 

[swale]

be interesting to see what tyres are given, looking at the all weather tyres on the market they look fugly cant bring myself to put them on my c43

 

[Tony Mac]

Perhaps a timely reminder is required that "winter" or "all weather " tyres don't need snow or ice to outperform their summer equivalents - just a temperature below around 7degrees C. Now there may be pockets in the South of England where temperatures never fall below that figure but in the rest of the country overnight during quite a few months of the year air/ tyre temperature is going to fall below that level at least for a few initial miles, maybe more depending on road / pavement surface temperature. A concrete parking structure subject to overnight sub 7 degree tempertures and no direct sunlight is going to remain a pretty chilly place all day I imagine? Bit like popping your car in the fridge ?

Agree, winters will make a car safer in cold conditions. But you are managing to miss the point - GLC owners suffering with this fault have between them had many, many different makes of car, but none of us has never been told by a manufacturer to fit winter tyres to reduce the effect of crabbing and juddering - NEVER!

Owners of competitive 4wd 2L diesel engined BMW, Audi, Ford, VW, Mitsuibishi, Lexus, whatever the brand name, do not have to fit winters to address a driving fault that makes the car uncomfortable, embarrassing and depressing to own and drive.

Yes winter tyres may make a car safer to drive in winter conditions, but not to fix a fault that occurs st 10+ degrees - or maybe I'm wrong?

Tony

 

[Tony Mac]

Would be interesting to find out what code your dealership will use to record this expenditure as from the MB statement -below- they have identified a particular code that dealers should use when fitting the new AS tyres in the coming weeks.

Has your dealer offered to fit free All Season tyres?

As the statement is GLC specific, I would suggest that some dealers will take a hit on supplying tyres in order to look after good and valued customers. We all know that looking after customers pays dividends in the long term, MB UK need to take a hard look at how they are handling this problem

 

[Riverside Red]

To be honest I wouldn't want an AMG product (C43 or GLC43) to be fitted with All Season tyres as I would have bought the product to enjoy the performance. Mercedes are expecting buyers to accept a massive compromise, if I was in the market to buy any used performance car and it had All Season tyres fitted I'd be really suspicious.

So for me if I couldn't accept the crabbing, the car would have to go...... ideally back to Mercedes for a refund. I don't believe changing the tyres is the solution, it's a sticking plaster, and as such I just wouldn't accept it.

I also believe that if people start accepting these tyres then the pressure on Mercedes to do something concrete or return AMG cars will be reduced.

RR

 

[Tony Mac]

To be honest I wouldn't want an AMG product (C43 or GLC43) to be fitted with All Season tyres as I would have bought the product to enjoy the performance. Mercedes are expecting buyers to accept a massive compromise, if I was in the market to buy any used performance car and it had All Season tyres fitted I'd be really suspicious.

Well said - but the problem actually gets worse.

MB UK have recently been testing all season tyres on GLC C43 AMG's and are now saying owners with staggered wheels - larger and wider rear - need to replace the rears with the same narrower front wheels and tyres. I believe MB will fit FOC

So you buy a performance AMG and have to drive it for 6 months of the year on smaller, narrower wheels with soft low performance tyres

Surely no one can agree that this is an acceptable fix from MB UK?

 

[whitenemesis]

Well said - but the problem actually gets worse.

MB UK have recently been testing all season tyres on GLC C43 AMG's and are now saying owners with staggered wheels - larger and wider rear - need to replace the rears with the same narrower front wheels and tyres. I believe MB will fit FOC

So you buy a performance AMG and have to drive it for 6 months of the year on smaller, narrower wheels with soft low performance tyres

Surely no one can agree that this is an acceptable fix from MB UK?

If you lived in certain countries (Germany?) you would have to do so to comply with the winter tyre regs?

 

[Tony Mac]

If you lived in certain countries (Germany?) you would have to do so to comply with the winter tyre regs?

And your point is?

We live in the UK, the cars are designed for the UK, we buy them from MB UK

If we lived in Germany, the dealer would price the cars with an extra set of winter wheels and tyres. They don't do this here in the UK

 

[st13phil]

To be honest I wouldn't want an AMG product (C43 or GLC43) to be fitted with All Season tyres as I would have bought the product to enjoy the performance. Mercedes are expecting buyers to accept a massive compromise

This is in no way meant to be provocative, but have you ever driven on high performance winter (or AW) tyres?

I'm currently driving my E63 on Michelin PA4 winters and the performance of those tyres is frankly astonishing. Ok, they don't have the final 10% of performance that top class summers do (in hot conditions), but if you're using that much performance on public roads you're liable to end up in a ditch anyway.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that the MB UK "solution" to the GLC problem is anything other than a straw-clutching effort, but please don't dismiss it out of hand based on some arbitrary view of tyre performance.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Riverside Red]

This is in no way meant to be provocative, but have you ever driven on high performance winter (or AW) tyres?

I'm currently driving my E63 on Michelin PA4 winters and the performance of those tyres is frankly astonishing. Ok, they don't have the final 10% of performance that top class summers do (in hot conditions), but if you're using that much performance on public roads you're liable to end up in a ditch anyway.

I'm not suggesting for one minute that the MB UK "solution" to the GLC problem is anything other than a straw-clutching effort, but please don't dismiss it out of hand based on some arbitrary view of tyre performance.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah I did drive an Audi S5 on Goodyear Ultragrip 8's for two winters, the tyres were great and I thought they were far superior to my Dunlop Sport MAXX OE summer tyres wet or dry, cold or warm, in fact I considered leaving them on for the summer.........mainly because the Dunlop's were pants.

I also drove my SLK55 on summer Conti 5P's from time to time during both winters and never had an issue either.

Tyres are a big thing for me after driving a Honda S2000 for 6 years with no ESP and the LSD constantly trying to throw you off the road in anything more than a shower, summer or winter.

But my point is you buy a performance car because it has certain attributes, I'll never get near the Z rating of my tyres, but I always buy Z rated tyres. I always buy SUL some people don't bother, I have a C63 and couldn't justify buying the S model for the extra power but a lot of people do......but would I out of choice buy a performance car with dumbed down elements like tyres... no way. Is AMG's motto to do things at 10/10 or not? I think it is and that's why I love AMG cars.

I think it's a real pity that MB are telling owners to either live with an issue or
dumb your car down.

RR

PS I don't disagree that All Season tyres and Winters have great performance now, but if they were that good why don't they fit them to all cars as standard from day one?

 

[swale]

the Michelin don't look so bad actually maybe ill go with a set after autumn

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Yeah I did drive an Audi S5 on Goodyear Ultragrip 8's for two winters, the tyres were great and I thought they were far superior to my Dunlop Sport MAXX OE summer tyres wet or dry, cold or warm, in fact I considered leaving them on for the summer.........mainly because the Dunlop's were pants.

I also drove my SLK55 on summer Conti 5P's from time to time during both winters and never had an issue either.

Tyres are a big thing for me after driving a Honda S2000 for 6 years with no ESP and the LSD constantly trying to throw you off the road in anything more than a shower, summer or winter.

But my point is you buy a performance car because it has certain attributes, I'll never get near the Z rating of my tyres, but I always buy Z rated tyres. I always buy SUL some people don't bother, I have a C63 and couldn't justify buying the S model for the extra power but a lot of people do......but would I out of choice buy a performance car with dumbed down elements like tyres... no way. Is AMG's motto to do things at 10/10 or not? I think it is and that's why I love AMG cars.

I think it's a real pity that MB are telling owners to either live with an issue or
dumb your car down.

RR

PS I don't disagree that All Season tyres and Winters have great performance now, but if they were that good why don't they fit them to all cars as standard from day one?

Interesting how we all see things differently.

At first glance, I could see me in what you wrote above. Even if I never use the full potential, for the small (relative) increment in cost I'd rather have the petrol, tyres, or anything else which offers the best (or smallest compromise on) performance.

However, for me that means fitting winter tyres, as I believe that they give me the best possible performance (or smallest compromise) in winter, compared to "summer" tyres. Whereas for you that means sticking with "summer" tyres as you be love that gives you the best possible performance.

Vive la difference!

 

[FSE23]

To be honest I wouldn't want an AMG product (C43 or GLC43) to be fitted with All Season tyres as I would have bought the product to enjoy the performance. Mercedes are expecting buyers to accept a massive compromise, if I was in the market to buy any used performance car and it had All Season tyres fitted I'd be really suspicious.

So for me if I couldn't accept the crabbing, the car would have to go...... ideally back to Mercedes for a refund. I don't believe changing the tyres is the solution, it's a sticking plaster, and as such I just wouldn't accept it.

I also believe that if people start accepting these tyres then the pressure on Mercedes to do something concrete or return AMG cars will be reduced.

RR

Well, I agree. I would take all season tyres to use as winter tyres equivalent, nothing more. I would not feel safe on them driving properly at the proper speed which actually is not allowed in this country so overall it shouldn't be a problem in UK.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Well, I agree. I would take all season tyres to use as winter tyres equivalent, nothing more. I would not feel safe on them driving properly at the proper speed which actually is not allowed in this country so overall it shouldn't be a problem in UK.

What's proper speed?

Germans use Winter tyres as a matter of course, and many cruise at much higher speeds than in the UK, so what is it that would make you feel unsafe?