GLC 63s Winter Tyres

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

captainkirk

Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
36
Car
2019 GLC 63 s White with 21" wheels
Hi All,

Not wanting to go through the whole crabbing discussion again, but need some advice.

I have had my 63s for about 5 months now and the crabbing issue has been a real ballache for the last 2.

Dealer/MBUK as expected have told me that I'm on my own - I will likely be going to the ombudsman for some support but I'm not holding my breath.

My question is this - if I am faced with changing my tyres for winters (at my own expense) to resolve this issue at least to some degree, which tyres are best?

The car currently wears Pirelli Pzeros 265/40 ZR21 105Y front and 295/35 ZR21 107Y rear.

I have covered 4k miles and fronts are already down to 4.5mm and expect that this issue is going to cost me dearly in if I just keep replacing with the same tyres again and again, so I'm hoping for some advice from you guys.

Ideally I'd want a set of winters that will not crab too badly when cold, and a set of summers/all seasons that won't wear too quickly so I can actually get decent life out of the money spent for perhaps 2 - 3 seasons.

Thanks in advance.

Sun
 
I’m not sure what would be the best tyre for your GLC 63s, but as a reference my E63s came with Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tyres and they also skip dreadfully in colder weather.
I’m using Michelin Pilot Alpin 4 winter tyres and they haven’t skipped once in any conditions.

MPS4s is a great tyre in warmer months. I’m currently on 12,000 miles with them and will probably get at least another 3,000-4,000 miles out of them, although I’ve been saying this since about 6,000 miles and they keep going.

I would recommend both these tyres if you can get them in your sizes, but maybe it would be best to hear from some GLC owners for there experiences.
 
Great choice of car, i was seriously thinking about a glc63s but ultimately opted for a c wagon . The glc is a beast.

I may be in the minority here but I'm one who has always expected tyre skipping issues in any performance car in the winter especially in an AWD car on summer tyres.

The tyre sizes will fit a few notable tyres, especially the king of winter tyres, the conti 860s, you can also get the staggered set up that fits the stock rear rims.

265 40r21 Tyres | Order tyres online today – Click & Fit at Blackcircles.com

Once your summer tyres go, I would consider swapping those pirellis to MP4S which I can say with confidence will last longer. Even on my michellin PA4 winter tyres , I abused them for a good four months, covering around 5k miles and have 7mm tread remaining l. The mpss tyres have been heavily abused for 12k miles and still have around 5mm left at the rear which is incredible given how I drive.
 
Thank you both for the replies. This is exactly the advice I was looking for.

MrRight - I am getting my head around this as an engineering decision by car manufacturers, but not having experienced it on any performance car I have owned previously (Nissan GTR, Audi R8 to name a couple) I must admit that I was pretty p***ed off by Merc's initial response to basically tell me to bu**er off. But after much research, it appears that Merc are not alone in having this issue afflict their cars, and the basic laws of physics ultimately cannot be denied. That and these awful Pirellis which will definitely go as soon as they are worn (which based on the wear I am experiencing won't be too far in the distant future).

Research has indicated that when MBUK was swapping customers tyres FOC on non AMG and GLC43 models they were opting for Vredestein, which I have no experience with and was a little reluctant to just jump in and order. I am not going back to Merc for their recommendations because frankly I cannot get my head around giving them even more of my hard earned cash based on how rude they have been to me, so here I am.

Are the Conti's really that good? I have never bothered with Winter Tyres before so my experience is limited to my love of MPSS on pretty much every car I've had and a general hatred of Bridgestone road roar and crappy Pirelli wear patterns (YMMV of course).
 
Very fair point and merc dealerships can be as useful as chocolate tea pots at the best of times. I've had many sub par interactions with a few dealers and have decided it may be worth using only MB Brooklands from now on.

Mercedes Benz vehicles have unrivalled safety attributes and I really dont see them making unsafe vehicles. So this tyre skipping is an annoyance at best. I've had it happen on a few cars to a lesser or greater extent but cant for the life of me see it as an issue except as an annoyance. I even had an AWD performance amg and in winter it skipped like a 5 year old in a school playground at recess . The counter argument is the car still managed to operate on summer tyres in - 10 degrees when I had to take a heavily pregnant wife to hospital and then bring back a newborn child home and frequent trips back and forth between home and the hospital while the doctors and nurses prodded and pricked my family over a period of a few days. The car may have hopped and skipped on near full lock , but it was extremely sure footed where it mattered, ie on icy roads in very cold temps which is why I am somewhat biased regarding whether or not I think merc have screwed up. I dont honestly think they have.

There is good news and bad news I suppose . Good news is there are lots of tyre choices for your beast of a vehicle. Both winters and all seasons.
It i worth looking at the all season tyres that fit your car. As it may be worth sticking all seasons for the winter and they may even be fine to keep on over the summer too...

The contis are the bees knees for winter but I worry about their longevity vs michellins. I'll do some research and see if any of those allseason options would be useful in warmer temps.
In the lake district last month, I drove my car like I stole it, or like I was Lewis Hamilton. Alas , I ate up the brake pads and by the time I got to record my exploits on go pro , I was unfortunately well into the check brake pad wear warnings and a few hundred miles from home so had to completely tone down my recorded drives . But the temps were like 0 to 2.5 degrees and also it was raining and the winter tyres at around 60mph speeds were very competent at cornering when I had brake pads vs the following video where I was maybe 30 to 40 percent more conservative due to being concerned about running out of brake pads
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
. This should hopefully highlight the potential traction offered by uhp winter tyres. I dont think the right type of winter tyre is a gimmick.
 
My GLC63s (bought used) is doings same with 20" Continental tyres (summer). Its going into dealer on Monday (to do the recall to do with oil cooler protector) and they are going to look at the tyre skip.

I had a previous non AMG GLC with 19" and that was fine, although I did take advantage of the free tyre change to all-season once they were worn - they did vibrate slightly differently though ...

On the 63s its serious tyre skip - the stuff that makes people around you jump thinking you hit something - much worse in the cold - not a problem in the warm

On non-AMG GLC there are new suspension parts ...

Let me know how you get on - Im thinking of all-season or winter tyres.

R
 
@MrRight - thanks for the kind comments about my car - it is definitely a beast! I love the car so much, it soured things a little when I started to experience this phenomenon, but I'm adjusting my perspective to it more and more each day. Winter Tyres are definitely on the cards.

I am struggling to find some all seasons that fit the 295 width though.

Am I missing something? Camskill have "Radar" tyres (who on Earth are they) at 295, nothing anywhere else, and for the fronts there are Pirelli Scorpion Verde cant find the same for the rears. They are available in 295/40 ZR21, but not keen on increasing profile as that will throw the speedo out and maybe even have issues with insurance cover...
 
Hi Richard - yes I’ve seen posts about the Scorpions but they’re all from the US and we don’t seem to have both sizes here in the UK
 
Vredestein together with Nokian were among the first tyre manufacturers to employ silicone and tread siping in their winter tyre manufacture. They may have been overtaken by the big boys now, but they were in the game while Michelin, Continental Goodyear etc were still thinking about it. I was running Vredestein Wintracs 20 years ago on my W124.:thumb:
In terms of wheel rim width and diameter / tyre aspect ratio it may be advantage to aim for a slightly narrower higher aspect ratio tyre to combat the tendancy of wide tyres to float on very slippery surfaces------all provided these can accomodate the larger brake disc/calipers of the performance models.
 
Last edited:
@grober - very interesting re: tyre profile. I have just read a post suggesting that the rear wheels can actually accommodate 275/40 R21s as they overall wheel size results in a less than 2% differential from stock, which is within spec. This would allow a wider choice of tyre, and indeed allow me to put a set of All Season Pirelli Scorpion Verde's on which from everything I am reading, are fantastic tyres. The research continues!
 
I expressed that badly. :doh: When I suggested running a slightly narrower higher aspect ratio tyre I really meant with a smaller diameter wheel to maintain the same rolling radius as far as possible
 
@grober not to worry - I think I've decided to stick to separate sets of winter and summer tyres anyway - prefer the idea of tyres being suited to a specific environment rather than trying to do both environments in a mediocre way.

Thanks to you all for the input.
 
True there aren't any all seasons I can find but you've got a couple of exceptional winter tyres , in 295. apart ,you've got the Goodyear ultra grip performance plus which may be even better than the conti in some respects
And you've got blizzacs too
And vredestein wintracs pro.

Ie spoilt for choice !
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom