W212 17" or 19"? Diamond or Alloy?

[oldhamm]

I recently bought a W212 facelift saloon that came with 19" AMG alloys (A2124014702 for those so inclined) which I managed to kerb twice and then hit a pothole on the A13 at 65 mph which made me think I'd hit a wall. I resolved to revert to a set of the original factory 17" (A2124015602) which I was able to do via eBay.
I've had the 19" repaired with a view to selling them, but Ben from Smart Tech (who did a great job on the wheels, btw) suggested I should hang on to them and use them as winter wheels, as the 17" are diamond cut and will deteriorate as soon as the roads start getting gritted.
Handling and ride issues between the two wheel sizes aside, any thoughts on which is the lesser of 2 evils? Keeping two sets of wheels or just making sure I keep the diamond cut cleaned and sealed over winter?

 

[st13phil]

Initial thought is that 19" winter tyres aren't cheap, or were you just intending to run them with the original summer rubber?


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[oldhamm]

Tyres that came with the car are still on the 19". It came with 3 Bridgestone run flat Potenza's on them. The 4th is a Accelera PHI. I had mismatched tyres on the back.

 

[st13phil]

Ok, understood.

As a general rule, used wheels don't fetch huge sums (and used tyres even less) so if you have the room to store a set then why not keep them? It also gives you an option to keep mobile if any wheels in one of the sets needs refurbing in future.


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[Flyinspanner]

Just put cross climates on the 17s

 

[Alf Barnet]

I have just put a set of Cross Climates on a W212, the size has only just been released apparently (245/45/17). They replaced a set of Continental sport contacts that were factory fit. First impressions? Better turn in, but lighter tail end, but not as wallowy as a true winter tyre (used to run Pirelli Sotto zeros). Noise no different to the Continentals. The tread pattern creeping up the sidewall makes the wheels look smaller too.

I also replaced diamond cut alloys with a shadow chrome powder coat (because hopeless MB main dealer previous refurb cut was too deep, so no further diamond cuts on the rim....) the pictures do make it look a lighter colour than in the flesh however.

Before:

After: