c230K415

Hey guys, I am just wondering on the average (in the city) how much MPG do you get?

I have a friend with a 2003 E320 (about 39,000 miles) and he's only getting 13 MPG in the city. Is this normal or is there something I should check? He informed me that prior to going in for service (about 1,000 miles ago) he was getting 19-20MPG in the city and then after service it just took a huge nosedive. Even switching between W(or C) and S modes there is no difference in gas mileage (assuming there should be). Any info would be great. Thanks in advance.

Benz-O-Rama

My 2004 E500 gets 18 city, 20 cty/hwy mixed, and 23-25 hwy.

Heck, even my R500 gets 16 city. 13mpg is way off the mark for an E320

ProV1

did he go to the dealer?? maybe they f##ked up his car..!

c230K415

Yeah...he went to the dealer...which is the exact one I told him not to go to. . Never had a experience with them, but was on the phone with them for 5 minutes...most rude and unwelcoming bunch of people EVER.

That's why I'm just wondering if there is anything I should be checking for...right now all my mind can come up with is incorrect oil. But other than tht....

rickyfanmdr

For strictly beach driving (most of what I do), I'm getting around 12. But with beach driving, you're mostly stopped rather than going anywhere. It kills the mileage. It takes 10 minutes to go 1 mile here. I swear I could walk faster. But I get 30 on the freeway when I go somewhere when it's not rush hour.

KyGuy

Picked my '04 E500 up in Cali the 1st week of May and headed north to Seattle.

Averaged 68 miles per hour on the trip. Averaged 28.9 MPG.

I love this ride!

Photos soon. Using the 6.3 as my avatar for now.

Ciao for now!

emilner

My E550 has averaged 16 mpg in mostly city driving (miles driven/pumped gas method). The few times I was on a parkway it was in the 25 range (as per the readout), with 5-600 miles on the clock. His mileage is way off, that is roughly equal to my old Escalade...

hiddenvalue

I am in the San Francisco Bay Area, too. I bought this car mainly for saving on gas (19 - 26 mpg claimed by MB). I spent about $70 - $80 per week on gas on my GL averaged 12 mpg for 15k miles now.

Mine is a 2007 E350 with about 1500 miles on it and my average mpg is showing 13.2 mpg freeway and city combined but now is a little better at about 14 - 15 mpg but never go up to 20 even on the freeway.

I think it is typical in SF area because of hills and traffic but still too low to justify.

edspider

I get 20-21 in the chicago burbs. I'm very happy with that, but will get Bluetec next time.

c230K415

Thanks for all the replies guys...I double checked back with my friend today. I noticed his tires were sitting a bit flat but I was completely shocked when I actually took a gauge to it...read out 19 PSI (this was the lowest pressured tire...all the others were at 29-31). So we went to a gas station and I pumped all 4 tires (forgot what brand of tires but they are the ones from the factory) to about 32 PSI (just wondering also...what PSI do you guys pump your tires to?). After this I sat in the car with him driving around in W mode (or C mode) and the best I saw was about 15.4 MPG. Pretty good I guess seeing that I didn't even take note of checking the tires before. I still think this is pretty low though....

hiddenvalue: Well my friend mostly does driving between the Sunset District and Richmond District (the car's just a DD) and that's pretty much it...the area between the two places are flat...not much hills. But when we do go out and hit hills...the MPG goes .

emilner

My front tires are set to 29 psi and the rears are 35 psi as per MB specs (I have the sport package, which has 18' staggered rims and tires). Look on the drivers door jam, it will tell you what the psi should be.

That mileage is way too low for flat driving, I would have the car checked out, something is certainly wrong...

hiddenvalue

Happy to hear that you got better mpg. I think that is normal in SF. Although no hills in Sunset and Richmond but there are lots of stop signs and traffic lights - almost every block. Check your avg. mile/hour. Slow traffice also contributes to the low mpg. It must be less than 15 mile/hour.

Please report your result here if you ever take it to the dealer for exam.

jmorgis

On my 2003 E320, i get a solid 22-23 MPG combined, with a normal drive to work (25 mils round trip)

On highway i get upper 20's

John

Double Eagle

On a recent trip I traveled 1100 miles in one day and averages 26.3 mpg at an average speed of 74 mph.This was a trip from CA to CO and went over four mountain passes. Got the same results on return trip.



Overall, for the past 10,378 miles (since my last service), I've averaged 21.1 mpg at an average speed of 43 mph.



I am VERY pleased with overall MPG for this vehicle

emilner

I hope my 550 proves to be the same!! As I just hit the 1000 mile mark it seems mileage is improving

c230K415

Wow, Double Eagle, your gas mileage is amazing (especially passing through 4 mountains passes.) Definitely seems like a problem I need to bring into the dealership. I will tell my friend to take it in (definitely not the one he went to) and will keep you guys informed. By the way, HIDDENVALUE, what dealership (if you do take it there) do you go to for service? Any suggestions?

Dema

How far does he drive in city? If he drives 2-3 miles only then 12mpg looks fair. Your engine has to warm up to show good mpg.
E500 - city short distance 12mpg
E500 - city long distance 18mpg
E500 - freeway under 20 miles distance 24mpg
E500 - freeway over 20 miles distance 26mpg

c230K415

What if he warms up his car prior to leaving for a location?

Just an update...for some reason now he is getting 16mpg average...and this is after the tire inflation...do they play such a big role?!

JRAMGV8

wow how did you manage to get 34.9mpg on an E500.

Untertürkheim

Tire pressure plays a HUGE role. In fact, the tire pressures listed are probably higher for winter tires, you can safely run the winter (higher) pressure rating if you want to get a bit better fuel economy.

KosherBenz

30-32 in the city, 37-40 on the highway

hiddenvalue

I live in SF so I normally take my cars to SF Benz on Bryand and 8th. Their phone # is 415-673-1700. But I still think your friend's car yelled the normal mpg. Stop and go burns a lot of gas and mile per hour is a good indicator of mpg - low mph leads to low mpg. I did ask one of the service rep. in SF Benz about the mpg and was told 14-15 mpg is about right.

Dema

Yes, tire pressure plays some role. I also noticed that well inflated tires give better MPG. However it was not so drastically different in my case, just +2. Tire wear can also be involved.

c230K415

Hiddenvalue, that is the dealership that my friend took his car into. He had a CD jammed in the deck and they messed around and just made it worse (the whole deck couldn't play anything...it would just be stuck at the "Mercedes Benz" loading screen) and then finally (for an extra cost) they fixed the problem. There is still an error that pops up that has something to do with his SOS phone but the dealership (on Bryant and 8th) said that if they try fixing it this will mess up the deck once again.. After that experience (my friend told me the whole thing) I highly doubt either of us will go back there for any service of any kind. My friend also mentioned that after getting service A there that is when he noticed his MPG started taking a nose dive.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, so I guess the mileage he is getting now is quite normal (he is averaging 15mpg after the tire inflation).

I also double checked his tires today (came over to my house to apply some Meguiar's PlastX on his headlight...someone pulled a 'hit and run' on him) and I noticed the tire that was most flat last time seemed to be losing air...I guess it's time for him to either ditch this tire (may be the cause of the MPG) or get the nail out (didn't find one yet though but I am assuming here).

Thanks again everyone for all the replies.

Double Eagle

I'm really happy with the mileage on the highway and around town. As you can see by my photos, I didn't drive slow for the 1100 mile tirp last month as I was by myself and made the trip in one day both going and coming to Colorado.

One of the benefits of the E-500 over the E-350 it appears, is that when you go fast with the 500 you actually seem to get better mileage; while in the smaller E-320/350 it definitely drops off as you speed up it. I had an E-320 for seven years with the old straight six (better, in my opinion than the first V-6's) and never got as good mileage with it on the same trip as I do on my E-500.

My past 11,000 miles has been about spilt between highway and city but it still has given me a respectable over 21 mpg. I don't baby it on accelerating to enter lanes or to pass either.