This question stemmed from ghlkal's post in the used car thread and I did not want to ask this in that thread so it does not get side tracked.

You mention it has been below zero for some time in WI. I guess you have driven your E in this cold temperature. Have you noticed anything "weird" with the car. Like does it take extra long time to get warm air from the engine, or any strange noises etc.?

 

Connecticut here....car acts as it always does with the exception of when it's below 34, the check coolant level message comes on. Level is fine. Shifts are slightly fimer and with a little delay ( normal warm up programming)

 

It's been below freezing here for two weeks and nearly 3-1/2 feet of snow. The only thing I hear with my 550 is some suspension noise when I start out that goes away after a mile or so. It's a German car and I hear it gets cold and snowy in Germany.

 

If it’s below freezing my parking sensors like to randomly go off if there’s a heavy sheet of ice or snow on the. The troubles of not having a garage are quite frustrating

 

so far this winter here in MA my E is fine. let it warm up for10-15mins.

 

Im in the northshore area in MA. I do the same as you and then keep my rpms bellow 2k until operating temp is reached.

 

I drove my W212 in a blizzard with the windchill at -15’ before. Car does fine. Parking sensors get frozen with ice as well so I turn them off. It does just fine in the snow as I have all season tires and I keep it E Mode and drive carefully. Never had a issue. Front nose is a little low so watch for that.

 

I do notice a significant decrease in mileage. I measure my MPG by dividing miles / gallons at the pump, and not off the computer. But both show a drop of 4+ MPG in winter.

 

Interesting question. My E550 does not venture out in the snow and cold (have the old AWD Volvo for that); however, I did go to the garage to start it on Monday evening since we had -10F temperatures in CO. It started up right up with the squeaky belt (serpentine or another one) somewhere that went away after it warmed up. It is going to the MB indy tomorrow morning to check it out along with some other items I had on my list (transmission still lurches forward from stop even after reset, blower motor squeak, and driver's clunk from b-pillar at the seat belt, which is well documented on here).

 

I am gentle with the throttle for a long time. My BMW 135 convertible even goes so far as to say that I shouldn't make any boost until the oil temp comes off the stop at 160 degrees. That's 15 minutes.

 

Yeah, I let it warm up (some) and drive "carefully" for about 5 minutes.

 

This is the fault of the "winterized" fuel and is normal.

 

Winterized fuel probably has more alcohol in it to deal with water in fuel. Pumps say up to 10% ethanol but there are other alcohols that can be used so they can keep ethanol level at 10% or less.

 

There you go again making perfect sense!

 

Drove mine this morning in Alabama for the first time in about 5 days. We had 3 days of rain/sleet/freezing rain and then 6" of snow. The road finally dried up by this morning, but it was 12 degrees outside and my dash said the garage was 38. I started it......went back in the house and filled my coffee cup and grabbed my wallet. I sat in the garage til the seat warmed up and the water temp gauge moved. No squeaks....rattles or groans. Even the new Milestars I put on a few weeks ago didn't have cold/flat spots, unlike the Michelins they replaced. .

 

One of the E350s I test drove had milestar tires.. They seemed atrocious. You have good experience?

 

They probably were the "Sport" series. The MS932XP+ I bought are new'ish. Discount oreder my fronts and rears and after they installed them I noticed that the fronts were the "Sports" and the rears were the XP+'s. Way different tread patterns and specs. I actually drove around this way for about 5 days before the right fronts were delivered and installed.The Sports were noisey and I could actually feel the difference when they installed the XP+s on the front. I was a little like WTF when I took the car out for a drive until I checked the tire pressure. They had the rears @ 46 and the fronts @ 40. I had the pressure back off to 38 in the rears and 36 in the fronts. The hollow barrel noise from the rears was gone and compared to the Michelins I replaced felt a tad softer and quieter. YMMV.......I just can't see $1000 every 20 - 30 thousand miles for tires. I went thru that for 18 years on my CLK430. So for the short time...yes they are great!