MY OLD BENZ SUV HAD THESE AND THEY SUCKED, SO I DON’T BLAME HIM: Dump the Dubs? Why I Decided to Ditch 20-Inch Wheels. “The handsome 20-inch AMG wheels and low-profile tires that adorned my 2021 Mercedes-Benz E220d wagon are gone. In their place are Mercedes-Benz original equipment 18-inch wheels wrapped in comfy 45-series rubber. Time to hand in my car guy card? Not so fast. After four ruined tires and two cracked rims—$4,600 worth of damage in less than 10 months—it was time to dump the dubs.”

My story was nearly as bad. I had 6 flat tires in two years — one from a golf-ball-sized rock that was slightly sharp on one end — after not having a flat in decades, and I couldn’t get anything better. The tire-store guy told me that this was a common problem with the low-rolling-resistance eco tires that came with the vehicle, and that nothing else you could put on it would do much better. Now I have an SUV with big, honking all-terrain tires with heavy tread and everything is fine.