As the title says, I was cruising South on Dixie Highway in Clarkston MI and there was a piece of ledgestone in the middle of the road!!!! Yikes, as soon as I saw it I knew this was not going to turn out good, so I swerved into the center lane missing the rock with my front tires and then BOOOOM! I nailed it with my driver side rear tire. It went flat imeadiatly so I pulled over. I took a look and realized this was going to be one expensive rock. The entire sidewall and center section of the 265 meat was terrorized. Then I look at the inside of the wheel itself and noticed that the wheel was not only stressed, but had suffered an extreme crack about the size of a dollar bill.
After contemplating the time I needed to get to my appointment, I decided to forgo the AAA road side call and the 1800MercedesBenz call to just change the tire with the spare. Wow what an ordeal. First, I realized that the spare was not inflated and that was why MB supplys an air compressor that seems like it took an hour to get the spare inflated to the reccomended 51 PSI. Then I realized how hard it was to install the spare with the male lugs(not a typical hub lug assembly)...but I got her done. The nicest thing of this was the plastic bag MB supplies for the dirty damged wheel, so no dirt or brake dust gets onto the trunk upholstry.
After searching Ebay for a couple of minutes, I tried the TireRack and they had the stock replacement wheel instock with the Sport Contact2 as well. The total for the hit was very relatively light, compared to the dealership quote. Final damge $698.64 mounted balanced and shipped to my doorstep in two days. Thanks TireRack for the great service! Sorry for the long post, but I hope this can help a fellow MB owner in the future. Laterz.
The state that I live in is a "no fault" state and fault does not matter in insurance claims here. Hopefully, the $700 I spent on the wheel and tire is less than the potential increase in policy rate and my rating as a driver...maybe an insurance guy can chime in on this.
You were able to get an OEM wheel from Tire Rack? That's pretty impressive.
What other tires have people tried with good or bad luck? I'm looking at needing to replace rears on my car at this point. Debating whether to go All Season or get a second set of wheels for summer/winter sets.
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