Best Tires for the Mercedes Benz 250D (1991)

WHAT A TYRE!! I couldn't think of better winter tire atm... Had Bridgestone Blizzak LM001 before that were good for aprox. 3000 miles, and after that they basically became hard plastic (all in same winter that I bought them and installed them on car)... Got TS860 because my friend recommended them for winter 2017/2018... As I have really really really really steep hill to my house, where even 4x4 car with moderate tires struggle on even a little wet road, just imagine what my 30 years old Mercedes with rwd and without traction control feels like... On that hill I am not only able to go without any wheelspin on wet road (which i found impossible with any tire before) but I can come to full stop at any point and start driving again like it is totally dry road, just mindblowing... Sometimes I feel that they even have better grip on wet road than ecocontact6 have on dry road in summer... I only had 1 chance to drive on snow and ice, as it doesn't snow in my area, and they performed fantastic... This set is at end of their life after cca 25-30k km (15-18k miles), maybe half mm until "minimum depth" mark, so I am going to buy new set in few days...

Until Continental launches new tire to replace TS860 I won't think of trying other winter tire... I can't even think how can winter tire be improved over this

I will never buy Continental again. Period.

The wear is ridiculous as stated by others here. Mine last 20k km whereas previous Michelin Energy Saver tires did 50k with more thread left. Given the higher price, the cost per kilometer compared to Michelin is almost 3 times. I could have bought new Michelins at 5 mm and still be cheaper off than the Contis.

The ride was smooth, but too smooth to my liking and actually a bit bumpy. Fuel consumption seemed higher, but my typical drive may be different then before so cannot be sure. No issues with grip, other than aquaplaning due to unexpected high thread wear left in too short a time. The tires did also wear on the sides faster, something I have not experienced with previous Michelins on the same car (200k km and 6 years, 4 pairs of Michelins, 1 Conti)

Very hard rubber made these tires very noisy at speed, and gave them terrible grip in both the wet and the dry.

In the end, I lost the back end of the car coming around a corner on an A-road in the wet. This was while following a Ford Fiesta (on Michelin tires) that took the corner with no problems. Car rolled over 1 and a half times. Thankfully it was an old Merc so I crawled out with no injuries.

I have learned my lesson - I will never buy cheap tires again. DO NOT BUY THESE - your life isn't worth it.