Hello there,

I am a previous W212 owner from several years ago. I leased a 2014 E350 Gas, base package mostly, for 30k miles.

Now i know the interior of the E250BT is about the same as the gas models but i had a question about performance and services issues.
Is this car a big nightmare on maintenance? i.e Ad-blue filter et. al. and is the MPG good? im considering it as my daily driver and im looking for good gas mileage
Now im just preliminary thinking about this and not looking to pull any triggers at the time

Appreciate any replies

 

Check out my posts. I’ve owned a 2014 e250 since new—187,000 miles, 38.7 lifetime mpg, very few issues. Best commuter I’ve ever owned.

 

The OM651 engine is in 3 vehicles I have in my footnote.
I let you chew on the numbers. They have total of 580,000 miles combined.
I am not saying that dealing with new emissions requirements is easy, but hard to beat performance and I know I will die healthier

 

+1 to the above. My e250 BT has been the most reliable car I've owned. Only emission related item that failed was the adblue heater. I average 38mpg and get 45+ mpg on highway commute. Just be aware that the bluetecs are not immune from the common w212 issues in general.

 

66k on my E250, been good so far, Bio fuel could cause problems to sensors they say. Hard to find pure diesel in the midwest. My W211 I6 Diesel was also rock solid

 

60K on my 2016 E250...in the 10K miles I've driven it...we show 42ish MPG. Other than a crappy dealer "doing work" we later found out didn't happen...no issues.

 

I am curious about what MPH speed you are going on a highway to get 45+ MPG?

 

45mpg around 65-70mph, I get around 39mpg if going 75-80 unless it’s very windy

 

Checking mpg is my hobby and I was writing down each fill up long before cars had computers calculating fuel economy.
With E250 BT you can get.
60 mpg @ 60 mph
45-48 mpg @ 75 mph
40 mpg when you average 80 mph on CA freeway (dealing with lot of left lane huggers)
35 mpg in city driving, although each city driving is different so this is what I am getting. .

 

I seem to recall from another post that you deleted your DPF. Is that the secret to keeping these cars for a long time?

BTW. Mine has about 78K miles. So far (specific to OM651):
1. Turbo boot cracked and had to replace it (seems pretty common)
2. Engine/Transmission mount cracked and replaced it (seems pretty common around 60K to 80K miles)
3. If you don't rotate it, the rear tires WILL wear out in 10K miles. The torque band in these cars come on quite suddenly around 1500 RPM. Treads wear out quickly.
4. For people with sensitive nose (like me), there is just a faint (and I mean faint) smell of diesel. It's not like the 80's diesel smell. Nonetheless, it's there.

Non diesel issues:
1. Parking brake stuck - replaced the cable and the linkage
2. Panoroof kept on making popping noises (very common on pano roof - I don't recommend it anyway in So Cal's hot sun. AC works over time all the time). Had to visit dealer twice but fixed now.
3. One of the wheels cracked
4. MB Tex seat cushion cover tore on the bottom. - replaced it. (again super common on these. the MB tex is really not that great anymore)
5. Wheel alignment is super sensitive to pot holes and road surface irregularities. I get it checked quite often though I don't always get it aligned.
6. Main battery went out at 50K miles. Aux battery went out at 60K.

W212 issues that I knew existed but bought anyway:
1. Not enough headroom in the front (Pano makes it even worse)
2. No headroom in the back (I can't sit with proper posture unless my hair rubs the ceiling).
3. The back seats' backrests are angled inward towards the center making it super uncomfortable to sit in. I personally cannot sit there for more than an hour.
4. Seats are too low. It's not like the MB from the 90's where you sit on a throne.
5. For a car that is 193 inches long, there just isn't enough room (a run of the mil Honda Accord has more room inside)

 

The white car has DPF delete and as you can see in footnote - it shows higher fuel consumption.
That might be due the fact that white car has more city miles, but makes you wonder.
Also the thing we learn the hard way, the ECO recouping system, who constantly fluctuate battery charge is killing batteries while saving environment.
So expect new battery every 3 years.
I do not consider W212 uncomfortable, even black one is limo, where white is Sport model. Beside different suspension, on different rim diameters, they both ride similar
Than I don't have pano roof. .
What really made me smiling when I bought first 4-banger is the fact that it can burn 245 wide tires on dry asphalt. Even managed to take couple of corners sideway when I switched tranny mode to S.

 

So I guess going 80-90 MPH and getting 35 MPG is about right, considering the fact that I have 4matic.
Thank you all for replies, i was always wondering how the hell other owners of E250 BT can get 45+ MPGs on a highway

 

4M sure will shave couple of mpg, but to make 80 mph average, I need to keep 90 mph all the time and my RWD sedans will make about 40 mpg at those speeds.
That driving our frequent San Francisco - Las Vegas route with lot of hills and often strong desert winds.

 

On a warm day with no wind I have sustained 51 mpg on a long 5 hour drive, flat midwest highways.

 

I'd agree. For me my mixed driving results in 29 mpg and I live in a hilly area. For highway driving, I've never gone above 40.5 mpg. My car is 2wd.

 

This is showing off what car can do going down the mountain.



But this is actual drive from Reno to San Francisco. That kind of performance doesn't happen every day, but car does have good days.

 

Thank you for the responses everyone, very helpful!