We are considering a E250 bluetec to go along with our 2006 E320 CDI and have a couple questions from current or previous Bluetec owners for the 4 cylinder version.
how reliable is the car overall and especially on long road trips? When issues come up do they tend to be minor like the E320 CDI? How reliable is the emissions system on the E250 if you do around 90% highway driving and take care of the system? Finally how good of fuel economy are you getting with highway driving and how’s the overall feel & comfort of the car?
Thanks for your thoughts & opinions

 

I had an 05 CDI, sold at 250k miles this car was comfy and mostly reliable. The 05 would yield 40 MPG on the highway. Now I drive a 15 E250 since new. It has been very reliable. I at 80 miles now. No issues. Pre-emission upgrade I could hit 50 mpg on the highway. Now after I yield around 45 mpg. Plenty of power. Most of the E250 have sport suspension. Much harder ride than the 05, but handling is better. The run-flats make the ride worse so I went to regular tires

 

I forgot about it in other thread, but using trunk space for DEF tank and deleting spare tire is the only wrong I see with Bluetec.
They could fit smaller tank and still fit spare, but looks like MB tried to make DEF tank to last between regural service intervals. My 2016 GLE has smaller DEF tank and fill next to fuel fill, so I can use it at any truck stop..
I bought the car with normal tires already and since I am putting long distances on desert, I bought spare wheel from W211 and am carrying it either in trunk, or behind driver seat, depends on need. I also carry small compressor and tire plugs.
The picture of waiting 3 hr on 130F desert for tow truck becouse of flat is not pretty.

 

My 2014 E250 has been a good car. I purchased the car CPO and purchased the Mercedes Benz extended warranty as well. The DEF tank heater failed, NOx sensors have been replaced and an induction hose has been replaced. A small oil seep was also repaired. All of this occurred between 45K and 70K. The warranty took care of all repairs except the hose. I am at 91000.00 miles now. I typically get 42MPG on the interstate traveling with my family. I will be taking the car in soon for the emission upgrade, Originally I planned to sell the car once the warranty expired but with the emission upgrade and the additional warranty that goes with it, I think I will keep the car.

I perform all of my own maintenance and change oil every 5K. I change the fuel filter at about 20K, and keep all other filters changed and clean. Transmission fluid is changed at 35 to 40K. Still running on the original brake pad and rotors, but I will probably go ahead and change the brakes at 100K. I am hopeful that over the course of the first 100K most of the weak parts and sensors have been identified. The next 100K I think could be relatively trouble free. I run the car to Florida and other trips frequently. I also monitor my DPF filter with a scan gauge and make sure I get a complete regeneration cycle every time.

I really enjoy the car and just had a set of Bridgestone Drive guard tires put on. It’s going to the body shop in a week or so the have the lower front cladding repainted due to rock chips and road rash. Hope this helps.

 

The E250 is a wonderful car. I have 110K miles on mine, and absolutely no unexpected issues.

The emission system has been reliable...but...Mercedes is recalling them and providing a 4 year warranty. So you'll have no worries buying one now for a while.

Fuel economy is quite good. I get 50mpg at 50mph. Less when faster. I averaged 41mpg on a 1300 miles trip with a single fuel stop (I had 1/3rd of a tank left when I got there) and I wasn't going 50mph... Highway cruising range is approaching 900 miles.

The car is very comfortable. I did that 1300 mile trip with a single stop. In just about any other car I would absolutely HATE the car by the end of the trip. I was still comfortable in the E250. It's not like you get in it and it's plush, but the comfort holds up to heavy miles.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. They are peppy for a diesel. Once you're on the highway, the car will drop to 7th gear and basically won't downshift because of the torque. This makes the car very civilized on the highway.

My biggest complaint is no LED high beams and no apple CarPlay.

The 4 cylinder is >>> than the 6 cylinder for reliability with better fuel economy and similar performance.

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You drive it too slow bro.
I did some test and it takes >60 mph for 7th gear to stay on. At this speed my computer was showing 60 mpg, although I only drove few miles at this speed and lost the patience.
Here is the picture taken last Saturday, coming back from mountain picnic.

 

Update: So we’re looking at E250’s with around 30,000 miles on them. They are still a reasonable price in this car market (shhhhhhhhhhh).
We plan to drive the car to 120,000ish miles and would like to hear from current & previous E250 bluetec owners on the comfort, reliability, and overall ownership experience of the car as we plan to drive cross country in it.
outside of routine maintenance and emissions equipment that’s covered under the AEM is there any issues we should be aware of about the car?

 

I would get a 4matic. On a drive across the country you will hit weather on a mountain pass or somewhere where you will appreciate it. In day to day driving the 4matic is unobtrusive.

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I drove to Hilton Head island SC last February between 2 winter storms in my 2006 CDI.
I don’t need all wheel drive as I am a very skilled driver and AWD gives a false sense of invincibility in a midsize car.
If I needed to drive through a foot of snow I have a 4WD GMC Sierra for that.

 

I have 06 E320 and love my car. We just bought a ML250 about a month ago and my wife loves the car. Ride is a little harsh but hoping switching from run flats to regular tires will fix the harsh ride...will see. My ML does have a spare tire and its 2015. I was shocked to see the full size spare in the trunk but its there. Just took a 1500 mile trip and the car ran 30mpg when pushed over 75mph. If you run 70 to 75 we get about 33. We have not done the diesel upgrade yet. My e320 is much faster accelerating at high way speeds. Seat Comfort level is very nice. So far, so good!

 

2014 E250 owner here. About 87K on the clock. No mechanical problems whatsoever. I've done all my own maintenance, including the tranny service at factory spec’d 70k miles (NOT 40k as previous poster mentioned—that’s the old 722.6 tranny spec).

You win at the pump and down the road with this car as it gets 30-40% better mileage than a gas E class while allowing you to skip the high priced premium gas. Win-win! It has super comfortable seats (full disclosure: The driver's seat was replaced under original warranty due to an upholstery issue) and the ride is good, but not great, especially with regular tires. The range of 815+ miles per tank is astounding! This is the best touring car I've ever owned considering reliability, comfort, range and cost of ownership--hands down. There is a reason that Consumer Reports scored this car a 93 out of 100 when it hit the market and time has borne that rating out. Now, on top of the many pluses of the E250, lucky owners are also getting $2600-$3500 back from Mercedes just for the pleasure of owning this terrific car. We are having our cake and eating it too! So rare in the car world.

Some thoughts if I were buying again: Avoid the 4Matic unless you live in a snow climate. It's more expensive to repair, decreases your gas mileage and also will require you to replace EVERY tire if you damage one tire irreparably. That's the dirty little secret of AWD cars...

Get the keyless entry--GODSEND--but avoid the NAV package as it's truly terrible. The Distronic package is a winner with adaptive cruise, lane keeping, blind spot monitoring and collision avoidance. Also I'd spring for the auto hi beam dimmer, that's another super handy extra that is underrated IMO. Speaking of headlights, they aren't great. It's a weakness of this model. Def look to upgrade them if you have poor night vision or just drive a lot at night.

Since the car comes w/o a spare tire and you want nothing to do with the OEM run flats, get yourself a tire repair kit (not the OEM one either) by Slime that comes with 12V air compressor, puncture sealant, plugs and plug tools (search it up on Amazon) for emergency roadside fix for your conventional tires. Or just get AAA or better still, the tow coverage you can bundle with your auto insurance---BUT only if you're always driving in populated areas. Otherwise, get the aforementioned kit.

I would also avoid the ECO feature (stop/start), if possible. It is basically inconsequential as far as gas savings go and requires a trunk-mounted auxiliary battery and an auxiliary oil pump to function, both of which add to the complexity of servicing the car and the cost of ownership. The aux battery in OEM form is around $175 and will need replacement every 5 years or so, which FAR outstrips any fuel savings seen from the stop/start feature. ECO mode was basically a means to an end to help MB get better EPA numbers on the city mileage, but is a real-world liability when taken on the whole. Skip it.

Consumables: Motor oil: Valvoline 5W-30 XL-III. It's 229.52 approved and dirt cheap when purchased thru Amazon (bulk 15 qt. orders) compared to OEM and spendy euro brand oils. Use MB DOT4+ brake fluid--spendy but worth it. Use Pentosin AT Fluid 236.15 spec (Blue). Mann oil filter HU 7010-Z. Mahle LX1833 air filter and KL913 fuel filter. Continental PureContact LS tires (NOT runflats). Use any generic gold (older) or blue (newer, but backward compatible) -colored HOAT antifreeze (Walmart brand cheapest). Use Walmart brand DEF--BUT check the manufacture date to make sure it's as fresh as possible. If there is no manufacture date on the container, there are often codes on non-OEM DEF boxes (BlueDEF brand for example) that you can decode using Google to see when it was manufactured. Don't buy DEF older than about 3 months especially if you're in a warm climate and/or don't put a lot of miles on the car. It can go bad on the shelf or in your tank.

Finally, one of the best purchases you will make is a good scanner. Buy the Walmart HT200. It's a great little bluetooth dongle smart phone scanner that shows just about everything on the car (about 42 systems in all IIRC) and allows you to reset check engine lights and other faults, check on DPF regen status, ATF temp for tranny service, sensor issues, airbags, etc etc, but it's brand specific to MB after registering so won't help with any of your other cars unless Benz as well. However, at $49 it can't be beat!

PS- The AP-200 is the exact same scanner but w/Autel badging and costs ~$10 more. Get the Walmart part if you can. The apps for your iPhone for these two scanners are labeled differently but can be used interchangeably. Again, they are identical except for badging.

 

My 2014 come with LED headlights and they are the best lights I ever own. Only the sensor can get annoying, keeping the low beams, only becouse on dark street it senses lights on house over a mile away. On my now sold W211 I had halogen lights and switching to this car I had to double check the lights are on as comparing to W212 the difference was night and day.
I bought donut spare from W211. to carry on my W212. Actually having 2 W212 I had 2 different spares, where diameter was couple of inches different, yet I tested them both and in 40 mph test I did not have any ESP lights, so the system is pretty flexible, at least on RWD model.
MB never made public announcement about ESP sensitivity, but common knowledge is that wheels with up to 3% difference in rpm will ride without any warnings. ,

 

Were your E250s both 4Matics? That's a pretty bold move using donuts as spares on them, if so.

The difference in headlight intensity might have been due to the "cataracts" that W211's lens covers were prone to suffering. Thankfully that's no longer a problem in the W212 and beyond. That was an ugly look! BTW, one of the few complaints that CR had when test driving and reviewing the E250 back in 2013 when it debuted were the headlights. It's a thang.

 

Both my W212 were RWD, however I have never seen indication that 4M have ESP/ASR more sensitive than RWD. Could be just another myth.

 

The 2015 model fixes the issues you mention with headlights and Nav. The 2015 comes with LED headlights (low beams) standard. They are very good headlights. There is an upgrade to a "just OK" but not truly terrible navigation system...

I'm not a fan of the Distrionic system. I would purposefully avoid that.

I really like the 4matic. It's unobtrusive, but I've driven the car to ski in some awful conditions and it's very poised.

I agree on the run flats. I ditched them and I've never looked back.

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