no, the 18" steel wheel and tire for the spare is diametrically smaller than the 19" with tires.

as i mentioned, the parts manager at one of houston's benz stores related that he was not surprised...and had no answers.

but i can tell you that the post-2000 benz management became somewhat derelict. and has imposed their dereliction on their customers. here is my favorite story....

in the 2006 cl series operator's manual, the operator[owner] is told that the passenger-side mirror can be programmed to turn-down to reveal the right rear tire, right rear quarter panel when the mirror selection switch is tuned to select the passenger-side mirror.

after acquiring a 2006 cl500[cpo'ed] in march 2009, i found that this feature did not function. i took it to the selling dealer for a repair. and it wasn't repaired[the comment was that this "option" was not fitted to this vehicle]. but this wasn't an option. the operator's manual identified it as a standard feature.

so, i complained to mbusa. the response i received from a flak-catcher was that though this was to have been a standard feature, it was not installed in production, therefore the manual was/is in error - f*ck you, mr champion.

so, i wrote the president of mbusa, ernst lieb. within hours of his receipt of my letter, i received a phone call from the area tech rep so as to schedule an appt at a local dealer of my choosing to correct that deficiency.

it took him no more than an hour to retrofit that "standard feature". i now have a passenger-side mirror that turns down when reverse gear is engaged.

this 2006 cl55amg was supposed to have this standard feature as well. but it doesn't.

the california selling dealer tells me that this feature cannot be fitted now.

this is the "party" line. but, i have communicated with my area's mbusa tech rep who tells me to let him know when i have the cl55amg and we shall schedule an appointment at my favored dealer to do what we did in 2009 - add that missing "standard" feature.

squeaky wheels, you know. sometimes they get greased.