rake55

Last week I posted a thread seeking advice on an E320 CDI. My dealer was kind enough to lend me one over the weekend for a trip from the Washington, DC area up to the New York area. As an AMG owner I found the acceleration to be adequate but not great. However; I was very impressed with the CDI on the Highway. My rout consisted of secondary highways and I was able to really push the car. I did a considerable amount of cruising in the triple digits and found the CDI to gather speed quickly on the highway and to maintain the speed effortlessly. You can’t compare the passing speed to an AMG but at cruising speeds the CDI is more comfortable than the AMG and not as nerve racking to drive. I managed to get about 600 miles from a single tank of gas and averaged just under 30 MPG. These numbers probably would have been higher had the engine been broken in (The car only had 9 miles on it when I picked it up) and had I not been driving so fast. The one thing I really did not like was the transmission, also a complaint of mine with the E55. At Highway speeds when you take your foot off the gas the car doesn’t really slow down and the transmission doesn’t downshift as aggressively as I’d like it to, which makes it really scary when you come up behind slower moving vehicles. Otherwise I was very impressed. Any feedback from other CDI owners would be greatly appreciated.

KosherBenz

cruising at about 65, you will average about 40 on the highway. The best I got on the trip from baltimore/DC was 43mpg.

Anything over 70, and the mpg is much worse.

rake55

That's really great milage! I'm really leaning towards selling the ML and getting the CDI. I'd love to get the new Toyota FJ and drive it in the snow. Thanks for your responses to all of my postings.

KosherBenz

next year a ML320 CDI will be comming out.