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I purchased my 2001 E430 from a Mercedes technician, not a mechanic but someone who works as a tech for a Mercedes/European shop. Because of this, the maintenance, the suspension and other big items were done. But I think that he tinkered with the MPG of the car for performance and the mileage in the city is between 7 and 10. I was ready for some consumption but not this bad.
I checked for puddles or leaks, none. I checked the air pressure, OK. Spark plugs, wires, filters, all recently done. To top it, I drive very conservatively.
Unfortunately, I can’t ask the prev owner so I gotta do this myself before I go bankrupt.
How can I confirm if he in fact made any changes that I can undo to improve MPG?
7-10 is way low for city driving. What kind of mileage was it getting before you took it into the shop? The tech can't really do anything that's going to make the car get **** gas mileage like that just from working on it.
How's the tire pressure? Colder temps mean lower pressures.
Strigoi, I didn't take it to a shop, I bought it from a guy who worked at a shop and I'm assuming that he tinkered with it because 7-10 MPG is just extremely low, because he worked there, because he did many other things to the car to improve it and because we talked about "programming chips for cars" when I bought the car.
I'm going to have the car checked by my Mercedes mechanic to see if he can look into it.
I thought it was something like the AC that I could read codes somewhere and see what's off.
The AC can show codes for the HVAC system IIRC. If you pick up a cheap OBDII reader and the Torque app (if you have Android) you can read basic codes. Personally, if someone started talking about "programming chips for cars" I would have left as fast as possible.
Check your tire pressure, that can cost you some MPG.
Strigoi, we're getting off subject but I'll tell you a story about leaving as fast as possible in the middle of a sale..... I live in NYC and after looking for almost 30 days and almost 10 cars, I found 2 prospective cars and they were both in Virginia. I went to see them and decided on this one based on factors I have listed before. I had texted and talked with this guy for a week. I drove to VA and I met him one night (another mistake, do not buy cars at night). We meet at a mall, my preference would have been to meet at the guy's home since I like to know a bit about the person that I'm buying from. This was another mistake. The guy knew I was coming with my family and children, so there was no security risk on his end.
I get inside the car and the volume is up. I turn the radio off because I want to hear any sounds and he starts talking about how the whole system was just replaced and wouldn't shut up, so I politely ask him to please NOT speak so I could hear the car.
The whole car sale conversation took about one hour and 40 minutes. The whole time the salesperson -- a guy who worked at the Mercedes repair shop but not the owner, he didn't disclose this until I got there -- he was lying like his pants were on fire. Like a 10 year old caught doing something not supposed to. Little bull**** lies like a used car salesman. The car had a dash cam and when I test drove it, I plugged it in (it had been unplugged). Well, I played the videos the day after the sale and I heard the salesperson calling the owner and telling him "if he asks what you do, just tell him you work programming chips for cars". They talked about other things too, but they are just too embarrassing (for them, two grown men) for me to repeat them here. The next day, I google the name on the title and it's the Mercedes repair shop. I wonder why did they lie but I when I emailed or texted him to ask him questions, there were no responses.
I had driven 5 hours in the rain from NY to Virginia and I was tired of looking at cars. My reasoning was that the car looked good and that a couple of thousand dollars was not a lot of money to me. I was paying for an empty garage in New York City (you don't wanna know) and I needed a car to run my errands on the weekends, so I went through with it. Lastly, every W210 I saw -- because of their age -- had something. It was time to settle and I did.
The good ending to the story is that my Mercedes mechanic looked at it thoroughly and confirmed about all major repairs and maintenance being done on the car and the fact that the car was cared for. If there's something wrong with the car, I haven't come across it yet. When it does, I'll fix it and charge it to the age of the car and not hate myself for all the aforementioned mistakes. Life goes on and I've learned NOT to let small money mistakes ruin my day, or my week.
By the way, I'm sure these guys read this forum because they are both active on Social Media and leave fake reviews for their own business everywhere. While they laugh about "getting me" and their little BS lies, I hope I never have to deceit someone on purpose for a couple of dollars. I sold two cars in the last 6 months, one I had for almost 4 years and sold it to the first person I showed it to for the amount I was asking, and another car I bought and sold 4 weeks later because I just didn't like it. I listed in the ads and opened both conversations with what was wrong with the cars. I've remained friends with both of those guys. One of them gave me a stock tip that I've made 2K on. The second, my friend is helping their kid with some medical matters at no charge.
To me this whole exercise has been about integrity and seeing how low people can unnecessarily go for a couple of dollars.
sorry to hear man. yea I dont leave the state for private sales. at night with the fam? your nuts leaves you open. chalk it up as a cheap mistake and maybe move on. hows the rest of the car?
Let's just say I took precautions about the safety of my family.
Aside from the MPG, the rest of the car is fine and I'm very happy with my purchase. I've been super busy and have not been able to take a nice set of pictures. Here's one I took after removing the window tints. The car is kept at an indoor garage.
About NOT leaving the state, I actually wasn't finding any good clean cars in NYC, which I could never understand since there's so much wealth in NY and tons of Mercedes everywhere. What I've noticed about the streets of NY is that there aren't many old cars and that junk yards are really busy places.
I found most of the W210s I saw in the suburbs of Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.
I was using a 500-mile ratio. At some point, and while thinking about a no-rust car, I extended my search to nationwide and then reduced it back to 500 miles. To me it was adventure and I'm happy with it, despite the BS. The part about the dashcam recording the salesperson is priceless.
2019 Dune Silver Metallic E-450 Mercedes Cabriolet NEW Mercedes 2020 GLC300 graphite gray SUV
First of all, if I'm buying used out of state I'm looking for an Arizona, California....at the very least, a Southern car in a less humid state. Our humidity and snow and salted roads wreck havoc on cars up here North. Second, at the first sign of a lie or bs., the potential sale is off in my mind. Lastly, a thermostat or tire air pressure can't account for such poor mileage. It will affect it some, but not that much! You have some air to fuel mixture problem if you ask me.
Last edited by rustybear3; 12-10-2018 at 01:33 AM.
You are not saying what is your daily commute.
For some time my wife had 1.5 mile commute on 45 mph highway. She was driving W211 at the time, but with 3.2l engine who was grandfathered from W210.
So even in California summer, where warming up period is not a big deal - the 7 mpg was good mileage.
Take the car for long trip at 70 mph and then tell.
Krzysztof, 90% of my driving is for short errands within a 10 mile ratio. In summer and on occasions, we do trips to Jersey Shore or camping upstate, but that's rare.
If the car does 20-25 MPG in the highway, that's great, but I'd like better mileage in the city since it's where I am all the time.
Nobody can evaluate it better than you do.
When you drive 10 miles 1-way, your engine is cold for at least 50% of the time. I know NY can have very cold places, so would not surprise me if after 10 miles drive you still don't have 80C on coolant.
Depends how long you stay at the destination, the cold run repeats more or less on return trip.
Bottom line, if your car shows decent mpg on the highway, city driving is what it is. For better mpg you need to get diesel with ECO stops, or God forbid- hybrid.
But even there, when my new 250 bluetec can make 60 mpg at slow-speed cruising, getting 30mpg in the city is good and my garage still stays in 70's F in the winter.
ECO stops at lights help, but constant braking and accelerating will never make good economy.
Last night I'm driving in the West Side Highway with at least 4 miles ahead of me. At a speed of 40 mph, I hit the reset on the gas efficiency screen and it comes back to 15.1 MPG. As I keep driving, it goes up to 16.2 MPG. All while doing exactly 40 mph. I think the efficiency at that speed should have been closer to 20 or even in the low 20s.
This morning I ask my brother for a picture of the same screen from the E430 4M I gave to him and over 719 miles, it shows an average MPG of 15.3 with an average speed of 16. He does the same driving I do, mostly city streets in the outer boroughs of NYC.
Frankly 24 mpg @ 55 mph is not good in my books.
When I was selling my E320 wagon 4M I wanted to show off for potential buyers and drove it on the freeway at 60 mph for 20 miles.
Clocked 30 mpg easy. That was the same wagon that was making 7 mpg on short commute. E430 should burn more fuel, but not by 20%
Frankly 24 mpg @ 55 mph is not good in my books.
When I was selling my E320 wagon 4M I wanted to show off for potential buyers and drove it on the freeway at 60 mph for 20 miles.
Clocked 30 mpg easy. That was the same wagon that was making 7 mpg on short commute. E430 should burn more fuel, but not by 20%
I think I'm closing in on having put around 10,000 miles on my 2001 E320 wagon since buying it. The best I've seen so far is 22mpg and that was after an hour at 70+. It runs perfectly and has zero issues.
12-09-2018, 02:25 PM
