i put these on my 1987 560sec in in october 2002. replacing michelin energy mxv4's

initially they were quieter. they proved to be a superior handling set of shoes when compared to the michs throughout their life. but they became very noisy after 5,000 miles.

and they needed to be replaced after 18,000 miles. OK, i bought them from tire rack for $71[virtually half the price of the mxv4's].

replaced them with the latest version AVS dB S2.

i have been running them now for 2,000 miles. and i find them to be very mysteriously handling tire. anyone else come to that opinion. where the original AVS dB was spot-on and very true in its road feel[from the get-go] these successors are a mystery.

they communicate no sensation from the road. even in high speed, high g manuevers. very spooky. they clearly have good adhesion, but they transmit no feeling concerning their level of "sticktion". and they seem to require higher levels of steering inputs than i am used to. i would say that they are great in straight-ahead freeway travel, but i am not comfortable with them in the twisty-bits or in high-speed freeway, emergency lane changing maneuvers.

neither do they brake as well as their predecessors.

additionally, though they are very quiet in the straight-ahead on smooth concrete or smooth asphalt, they are really noisy on patched concrete and rough asphalt. that is in comparison to michelin pilot xgt's on my 560sel, dunlop SP SPORT A2's on my s500c, and the conti's on my e320cab.

i run 29psi on the fronts and 31 on the rears.

what has yokohama done to this tire?

Thanks for the info! I ran a set of the AVS dBs on my C230 several years ago, and they were pretty nice - better than the Michelins were in handling, noise, and comfort, but did get more noisey with age.

I was faced with replacing my 300 E's ES-100 tires last week - which were great in the dry and the rain, but got very noisy as they got down to about 2/32 above the wear bars. Still, I did get 20 k out of them, whereas most ES 100 people seem to get between 10-16k. Looking for something a bit more comfortable now that I am routinely transporting my 3 year old grandson around, I just put a set of the dB-2 tires on my Sportlined 300E. Had them a 2 days, during which one day was rainey, and the other sunny.

Your comments are spot on! Quiet and comfortable in a straight line, but no feedback from the road at all, and VERY twitchy, spooky handling at anything over 70 (When the G-son isn't in the car ). In the rain, there was no warning when they were going to break loose - they didn't stick as well as my worn ES-100s. In the dry at 75 the steering felt very floaty and almost like it was trying to tramline, even when there were no road grooves on which to tramline ! Playing with tire pressures just seemed to make things worse. I am going to talk to the tire people Monday about putting some ES 100s back on - pretty limited choices in performance tires in my 205/60-15 size.

I wonder if these tires were designed for optimal handling and performance on FWD cars, and suffer when put on a reasonably balanced RWD?

__________________
John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E