Bigslick78

So after filling my tank up for first time I am at like 375 miles with it just moving down to the line for a 1/4 tank. Mix of city/highway driving. Looks like I will be in the 25mpg range if not better, is this normal? I don't drive hard (anymore lol) but certainly not old ladying it every day. I had a peashooter 4 cylinder tiny rental car (brand new) for a week recently and couldn't get it over about 34 mpg no matter how much I tried.

rapidoxidation

Gas mileage sucks. If you want long legs, you want a diesel. 36mpg consistently, 40mpg if I'm careful.
I'm guessing your car's engine runs on gas? Your mileage sounds typical.

kajtek1

That's great mileage for V12 AMG engine.
But wait, we don't know what engine we are talking about?????
Don't assume mpg from fuel gauge. Even single fill-up leaves big margin error since the complicated tanks can have air bubble during fueling on pad slope not visible to bare eye.
I am not drawing any conclusion till I have run 2 tanks, preferably 3 and then calculate average.

vagt6

My '04 E320 with 91,000 miles averages about 21 MPG, mostly around town driving under 45 MPH. Not bad for a big sedan. I get about 28-29 at 70MPH on the highway.

Strigoi

Be glad you don't have an AMG.

Bigslick78

I got 436 miles out of it and put 19.9 gallons in so averaged 21.9 mpg.

I have never seen a gauge go from 1/4 to empty so fast. Usually it is the other way around.

kajtek1

That is how fuel sensors work. The float has it thickness, what will not allow to see last couple of gallons in the tank.
Than MB makes last 1/8 of the scale a reserve, so yes from 1/4 to reserve it goes very fast.
To add to it, I think to avoid lawsuits the gauge is very conservative.
Once I drove on remote freeway and had "50 miles to empty"
The map show 35 miles to next city, so I consider I am good, but turn out there was no gas station in the city and after driving 35 miles the cluster went from 50 to 0 range.
Long story short, I drove about 25 miles with "range 0" and still made it to pump with engine running. It was "eco" driving thought.

Bigslick78

This is my point, usually cars have gauges that are very generous when you get to the bottom and you have tons of miles left once it hits "E". They obviously do this so people don't run out of gas. You can usually go way below E with about 3 gallons left on most cars with the gauge that low. In the E320 I went from 1/4....to 1/8.....to empty....to barely a gallon left within 25 miles. I swear I might have driven 10 miles after the last line went out on the gauge and then was right up on only a gallon left incredibly fast. I was actually going to try to push it to see exactly how much I could get out of it but am glad I didn't. Never seen anything like it, you pretty much should get gas the second it hits 1/8 you don't have much left after that. I'd have almost a 100 miles left on most cars at 1/8

kajtek1

I am the first guy who will hate pulling to gas station with 8 gallons of fuel in the tank.
In the past I was testing newly acquired vehicle by running them empty, while having spare can in the trunk.
My 1980 VW diesel would make solid 150 miles with needle firmly resting on 0 fuel.
Newer diesels don't like to be run dry and I am not testing that part, but still I don't hesitate to drive 50 miles with reserve light on, or 80 miles when I drive with lower speeds.

Bigslick78

So I am oddly fascinated by this and took note of what mileage I had at what levels on this tank. I can't even believe this....

416 miles - hit 1/8th tank
440 miles - all lines gone, on empty
458 miles - Only 0.6 gallons left!

So when you get to 1/8th you have about 55 miles left, or right around 2.3 gallons give or take. That is nuts.

e350forme

I have noticed this too. By the time I light comes on you are running on <almost> fumes