GavJ

Hi, hope I am in the correct forum, i have a w212 E350 but have been looking at a 2014 E300 estate (w212?)

I drove the car last week for a short test run, but couldn't get the electric drive to work? Possibly user error but i don't think so. The garage reckoned that it just needed a run to charge the battery.

Went back today and they had given the car a run and it was working better, car would crawl on electric with no throttle.
could pull away (very gently) on electric and the diesel kicked in at about 10mph
Cruising at 30mph, foot off the gas and the engine cut out, very gently back on and the electric motor kept us going for a bit until we reached an uphill incline.
Tried the same at 60 mph on the dual carriageway, I could get the eletric to feed to the wheels but not maintain the speed, even on slight downhill sections.With a little more throttle the diesel kicked in.
A couple of time i seen the graphic power direction display go red momentarily..
Battery power ranged from 45% to about 60% during the run. After about 20 miles of motorway & traffic, all done gently we averaged 46 mpg.

Does this sound right?

ta

Mud

I would expect everything to work on a relatively low mile 2014. If you are set on this car suggest you have an independent inspection done.

GavJ

So would I, it has done 27k miles and is very presentable, couple of skuffs on the alloys but these would be fixed if I bought it. I drove my 350 gently today feathering the throttle as you would on the hybrid, with a variety of B roads, motorway and traffic I got 39.9 mpg.... I was expecting a bigger improvement from the hybrid, that's why I am wondering if its operating correctly..

Proeliator2001

I ran a 2014 e300 for about 18 months. MPG drops off a lot in cold weather. Mixed run of 50mph A road, 32 or so miles of motorway, 10 miles or so dual carriageway then in edge of small city (my regular commute) would get anywhere between 50 and 69mpg depending on weather and how much I broke the speed limit (and how much traffic there is, slowing down/speeding up doesn't do it much good). I'd break 40 even on short runs so it sounds either like it was never charged up that much, it's not working well or you're not driving it to get the most out.

From what you say of the charge, it sounds like it was low. Mine used to be up in high 80s, low 90s when starting my run, would be down to low 40s by end (and it never goes below about 42, switches to engine charging battery by then). So start of run home, battery would be recharging off engine and braking. If you started in low 60s you're hardly getting much user out of it. You'd get better with higher charge and so maybe would sail better at higher speeds as it's less likely to kick the engine in to recharge itself (light throttle on gentle downhill would give one or two miles of running).

It's only a tiny battery and tiny motor compared to 350 petrol hybrids so it's never going to give you much but I thought it have great mpg for the size and performance.

GavJ

Thanks Proeliator2001

Sounds like it may improve with some use, it has been lying about a lot for few weeks I would think. Dealer can't give a warranty with it so I think I will leave this one alone.....

Proeliator2001

Never had a single issue with mine, was on about 43000 miles when I sold it last year. Have heard facelift W212 are well sorted. Though I heard a replacement battery was utterly crazy price, something like 9 grand from Mercedes (some warranty claims were going on from battery fires and the like). One of the reasons I sold it well before warranty ran out.