AErcen

Before I bought my new car, a 2014 E250 BlueTec, I read just about every review, every road test I could. There were mixed reviews both in publications and in here and other forums as well, whether a 4 cylinder engine belonged in a two ton luxury car.

Sure it would have been nice to have a 6 cylinder sequential turbo in my car, but if you are not craving for that extra few mph at every traffic light, you will be pleasantly surprised to know the car is not a dog by any means. It is not an AMG, but it is as quick as the 2008 E350 I traded in. Maybe even quicker.

But I didn't buy this particular car to satisfy my racing genes. It was meant to be a comfortable car that gets good mileage.
Does it get good gas mileage? You be the judge

I realize claims of 45 MPG on the highway sounded too good to be true. I wanted to see if it would actually do it. So far all the reviews I read failed short of that claim. To be fair, every review I read, the driver was driving the car and enjoying it for what it is. They weren't doing what I did.

I went out to see how much MPG I could squeeze out of the car. It is not how I plan on enjoying the car.


Here are my findings.
LOCATION: Tests were conducted in Florida. Interstate(s) I-4 and I-75
WEATHER: Dry. Sunny. 80 degrees.
ELEVATION: Are you kidding?
CURVES: None.
TRAFFIC: Heavy. Isn't it always?
WIND: None except the truckers that blew by when I was doing the 1400-1500 RPM runs.


DURATION: Each test was carried out for exactly 10 miles. Cruise control was employed. If I was unable to drive 10 miles without braking or adjusting for traffic I repeated the test until I could get 10 miles uninterrupted.


EDIT: Above mileages were obtained from computer read outs. Initially for the first few miles the indicated GPM would fluctutate, but towards the 10th mile, it would settle down to one continuous reading. How accurate are those numbers. I don't know. You tell me.


At the end of above tests I pulled in and bought my first tankful of diesel. I drove it for 853 miles since I left the dealership and topped it off for this testing. When I filled her up today, it took 17.66 gallons. I had driven exactly 853 miles. City and highway. I would say it was 50-50.
Average fuel mileage for city and highway (admittedly, not your typical driving style for any normal human being) was 48.3 MPG.

I know there will be skeptics, I am willing to take that chance to get called a liar. I do realize people always lie about what they paid for their cars, and also what their MPG is. I am really telling the truth.
Many motorists were irritated with this test on Interstate(s) 4 and 75. My sincere apologies for screwing up the traffic at 1400-1500 and 1600 RPM runs.

GregTR

It's interesting that the car makes magical energy at 77mph. It's also very telling how much speed affects mileage. Maybe the reason why I'm getting 20mpg is because I like to go fast...

AErcen

I don't plan on driving like this forever. Just another tankful, to fill in the missing numbers to satisfy my curiosity. As soon as I get those numbers in, the car will be driven just like it was meant to. Who knows....I may even drive it at 75MPH one of these days.

Why I got better mileage with A/C on than I did with A/C OFF at 1800 RPM is curious to me too.
My best guess is I did the A/C on test today when the gas tank was almost all empty. I don't know if the extra weight of 6 or 7 gallons would have made that big a difference, but I think I will go check those two out tomorrow while the tank is full.

GregTR

The extra weight will most definitely make a difference. A gallon of fuel is 7.1 lbs so the difference between a full tank and an empty tank is like carrying an extra person. You could also have wind affecting your measurements.

DBV

Thanks and that is really interesting. I have been very curious about the mpg with the E250, as there is very little user accounts for it yet. Nothing on Fuelly yet either. 853 miles on a tank is impressive!

I would be really interested on what normal driving will be. Looking forward to your analysis. Have been comparing this car to the 535d and A6 TDI, but intrigued by the E250, because it has the potential to get lot better mpg.

fintail

Cool stuff. If I had any discipline, I could try it with the bigger heavier powerplant in my E350. I am curious to see if we'll actually get a C250 Bluetec - that one could be interesting.

BACnMercedes

I just drove go Disney and now I know why there was such bad traffic.

BenzV12

These are impressive figures under any circumstances , that car was not meant to be a racer either .I am happy to see you are satisfied with your car. It combines economy ,style and class

Shadow5501

Those are impressive numbers. I presume you acquired them getting up to speed on the interstate, pushing the reset on the fuel economy display, and then driving for 10 miles?

While impressive, they would overstate normal trip economy numbers. Steady state highway cruising doesn't take into account the cold start and warm-up of the engine nor the acceleration required to get up to highway speeds. Both these facets burn significantly more fuel than steady speed.

For example, I have a 211 bluetec. Resetting the trip fuel economy while running a steady 65MPH results in numbers in the very high 30s. However I never see trip fuel economy numbers anywhere near that; something more in the range of 32-34MPG is typical.

USCGTO

very good example.

I can hit 21 mpg if I feather my throttle on my C63 (lol) as long as I have a 65 mph rolling start on the freeway - for 10 miles or so.

However, if I account for the on ramp - very easy acceleration then it's more or less 18.5 mpg.

AErcen

Absolutely. The numbers were not meant to be real world driving conditions.

The engine was sufficiently warm and had been driven a while. The speed was established and has settled to where the car was basically coasting. After a few minutes of that, the cruise control was set and during the test 10 miles there were NO accelerations, NO decelerations or any other demands on the engine other than keeping the car rolling at those speeds. There were no hills to climb. I doubt the elevation varied more than 15 feet during the testing. This is Florida after all. Highest elevation is somewhere around 300 feet somewhere up North.

I don't expect others to get the same fuel economy. Hell, I don't expect me to get those same numbers myself again. Who drives like that!

I just did it to see what happens at different steady speeds. I was bored, had a new car and had no particular destination I needed to travel. What was I supposed to do?
The only number that really matters was the one achieved by topping off the fuel tank and driving 853 miles and then topping it off again.
That was an impressive 48.3 miles to a gallon.
Only about 200 miles of that was driving like described above to get the numbers I did. The other 600 miles or so were regular driving. City and Hiway with no regard to mileage. I have to admit, since the car is new what I mean by "regular driving" did not include the way most of us drive everyday. I was smooth, and easy and did not drive fast accelerate and slam on the brakes. It was a very subdued driving. It won't last long.


I am not trying to impress anyone with these numbers nor am I trying to validate my own choices in cars. I was just curious and wanted to know what the car would or wouldn't do, and then share it with others. This information was not available to me when I was reading up about the new E250 BlueTec. It seemed no one got any better than 42 miles out of it.
Well, I did. 48.3 to be exact.


Will I ever achieve those numbers? Probably not. I don't plan on agonizing over one or two extra miles at the expense of driving everyone on the Interstate crazy with my driving habits. Planning a longer trip to Dothan AL. soon. Three adults, baggage and real world driving that includes wanting to get there in a hurry. I may squeeze in the 2000 RPM and 2100 RPM and perhaps 2200 RPM numbers during the trip. Other than that, I will drive it like I stole it and see what the real numbers REALLY are.
Stay tuned.

E Classy

i have driven around 2500 miles since delivery and my average since i left the dealer (on the computer, hasn't been reset yet) is 37.9mpg from 9/14/2013 to today.

i went from san diego to las vegas starting with a full tank and drove how i normally would drive and was achieving 48.1mpg consistently. that is not a flat drive at sea level. when i got back to san diego i had 1/4 tank left. highway driving will get you 900 miles no sweat.

last time i stopped at a gas station was on 11/9/2013. i will need more fuel in the next day or so. on average, i fill up every 3 to 4 weeks.

the e250 is one of the best cars on the road. it really is. it does exactly what it says it's going to do. and it's not trying to be anything else but what it is (if you have the luxury model at least). if you are as confident in yourself as the car is in itself, you will be rewarded with a fantastic car ownership experience. i take way more care of this car than i have my previous porsche, bmw, cadillac, and so on.

AErcen

I am glad someone else chimed in with their own numbers. 48.1MPG


Your numbers include some elevation driving. Mine didn't! It validates my numbers as being what I honestly encountered, not made up to impress anyone.
If someone else before me had done what I did, I would have raised my "SUSPICIOUS" flag! The numbers looked too good to be true.


This is a 4400 car. It is not a small car. It is a large car. It is achieving mileage numbers close to a Prius or a Electric VOLT and certainly better numbers than the much smaller lighter diesel VW Passat.


There will be naysayers, and that is quite alright. It wasn't that long ago the idea of having anything other than a V8 in a car was blasphemy. It took me years to accept a 6Cyl. as a tolerable source of propulsion. Now this? A 4cyl? What is this world coming to, is what wondered.
This is where I would love to draw the line. 3 cylinder Mercedes Benz will be a hard pill to swallow for me and others I am sure.

Raymond Lee

E Classy
I believe your numbers. My E350 2012 Bluetec gets me 40 plus highway miles so your numbers should be much higher than mine.

mikemargolis

This is really good information, and I thank you for posting.

I must say though, that the dashboard computer is notoriously optimistic compared to the real world fill-the-tank/do-the-math method.

I highly recommend fuelly.com if you want to calculate and show your real world mileages. I've been tracking my car for 25,000 miles and 50+ fill ups, and it gives a true picture into what my averages are for the kind of driving I do every day.

I'd love to see some E-250 diesel on fuelly, and see what real tank mileages are.

E Classy

i should start to use that site. but, for the napkin math:

2535 miles / 4 fill-ups = 633.75 miles per fill up. i fill up when the tank shows around 1/8 left (sometimes a little more sometimes a little less).

so, i think the modern computers are pretty accurate. i assume 20 gallons of metered capacity, with 1 gallon in reserve. 20 gallons * 7/8 = 17.5 gallons.

17.5 gallons * 37.9mpg = 663.25 miles per fill up. i suppose the computer should read 36.2mpg total so far, based on my rough estimation. but i know i'm not putting exactly 17.5 gallons in the tank every fill-up.

michael61

Nothing so scientific here, but...

I drove from Ohio to Florida earlier this week (not I-75, but US-23, I-26, I-95) in my new E250 and wasn't trying for maximum mpg. I drove just under 80 mph most of the way when on the interstate, though there were a few small town segments. (I try to stay just under 10 mph over the speed limit - which served me well since I saw dozens of highway patrol cars and avoided any tickets - yay!)

The trip computer reported just over 40 mph (OK, it said 40.8) since leaving home.

I also have all the assist add ons. I really like how they make the long hours less stressful. I drove the whole way myself and wasn't really all the tired out, which I have been in other cars. Distronic-Plus is awesome!

ADDED: Weather was mild so no A/C. Plenty of mountain driving - though that's east coast mountains, not Rockies.

DBV

Anymore updates on mpg and how everyone is enjoying their E250?

E Classy

still going as good as ever:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/101887197@N08/11522947324/

Green E-300 DT

Amen to that.

As you and I both know, "the dashboard computer is notoriously optimistic
[when] compared to the real world fill-the-tank/do-the-math method."

On our trusty old W-211, my computer is usually off by at least three mpgs or more when
compared to the much more dependable miles traveled divided by gallons consumed.
I am not complaining mind you, simply stating fact!

One wonders what kind of tank mileage these new four-bangers will truly do?

One thing for certain, they will not and can not compete when it comes to performance
You will never see one of them run a quarter in under 15 seconds at better than 90 mph.

See my Fuelly below.

E Classy

turns out my last fill-up was 16.8 gallons when the meter read about halfway between 1/8 and empty. if i'm averaging 633 miles per fill-up and my last fill-up was 16.8 gallons (a little more than i usually put in), what does that make my "real" MPG? pretty darn close to the computer's reading.

DerekACS

I assume you are referring to the car's curb weight ? If so, the correct weight for the E250 BT 4matic version is 1845 kg or 4060 lbs.(source: MB Technical Details, factory order sheet, Gross Vehicle Mass = 1845 kg).The RWD version weighs about 150 lbs. less. Unfortunately, MBUSA has misstated the weight on their website and this error has been repeated by most US reviews.

Very impressive mileage numbers !!!!

Dema

Did you submit your results in Guinness World Records (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/) yet? Hurry up, other people can show better results.

DubVBenz

Considering my 07 E320 bluetec is rated a half second slower to 60 than a 211 E350 by mercedes, and the 2014 E250 is rated a full second slower than my 07 E320, I'm going to have to call BS on this one. My (chipped) car feels faster than it is thanks to the power delivery, but it's not.

billtang

This is an eye openner. Thanks for the detailed chart.

By the way, gas 2014 e350 may go 30mpg with non spirited drivings.