justin.time

I have a 2019 W213 and experiencing a few challenges.

The gearbox refuses to change up to D9 unless travelling in excess of 75mph and then only on the level or doing downhill; even using the manual paddles - it will not change up. Consequently, getting appalling mileage. When I bought the car three months ago (ex demonstrator with 4500 miles on clock) I was told several times by various people at the dealership that I'd get the same or better fuel consumption than my W205 that I traded in (city: 38mpg, motorway: 52mpg). Because of driving at 75 in 8th gear I am getting: city: 38-42 which is fantastic but motorway 40-44mpg which is apalling

Just wondering if anyone else is having a similar experience.

Thanks

JTK44

What dynamic setting are you in?

If you are sport+ I do not think it will engage 9th gear.

Suggest you try either comfort or economy and see if your transmission automatically shifts to D9. If it does then try Sport.

BTW: I have never heard of 52 mpg. Are you driving a diesel?

Hope this helps.

ua549

He is probably in an area that uses an imperial gallon. It is 20% larger than a US gallon.

justin.time

ua549 is quite correct these are UK gallons in a diesel; best ever in my W205 was was 60.1mpg for 500 miles of motorway with an overall 55.5mpg for the 550 mile journey. For JTK44, car in always in Comfort mode; very rarely use Sport of Sport+; ECO mode test was no different car refused to change up to D9 and consumption was worse by 1 to 2 mpg. Tyres are inflated at factory recommended settings; have increased tyre pressure to fully loaded rating, but the road noise was increased for no substantive gain.

The car has already been back at the dealer who said they had upgraded the EMS/Trans and claimed it was changing up; but again no substantive difference. Just wondered if there was something obvious I was missing, if anyone else experienced something similar in a W213 or if I have the anomaly.

evd22

With the speed limit topping at 110kph here I hardly ever see the 9th gear. I can manually upshift when above 100kph ish, and the gearbox will keep it in 9th if there's no incline. So the experience you described doesn't differ too much from mine. I suppose the 9th gear is only ever useful on the autobahn or when risking one's licence.

Your economy is a bit worrying though: I have the V6 diesel with 20' wheels and I can still easily get <6l/100km (~48 mpg) on a motorway (granted with lowered body for better aero). With the usual UK specs of 220d and smaller wheels I would expect something noticeably better.

joesama

Just my observation on this..
I have been travelling on the freeway here in Australia and mine goes into D9 quite easily by the time the speed reaches 90km/h. (In Comfort mode)
I'm not sure if this is the same for other engine types though. I've got E200 with M274.
Not sure with the mpg, but I do quite regularly get between 8.5 to 9.5l/100km. This is a mix of city and freeway driving.

CarFan1

Mine regularly reaches 9th gear at speeds over 50 and with the 75 mph speed limit less than a 1/2 mile from my house I've never had any issue with the car getting to and staying in 9th gear for 50 - 60 miles at a pace. I'm not familiar with MB diesels so that might be a factor, but for the naturally aspirated engines 9th gear comes up easily and is easily maintained.

GeoffO13

I have just driven 270 miles, mostly on motorways (England) using cruise control wherever possible. I returned 58.7mpg but expected over 60. The reason, I think, was that the car didn’t engage 9th gear except very briefly on a couple of occasions. I tried up shifting with the paddle, to no avail. Can the gearbox memory be reset on a W213 model?