roughyear

about to upgrade my wife's ML500 to a CDI, because of the crazy cost of fuel, and noticed that the GL also comes in a CDI

how's the fuel economy with the GL CDI??? and is the 320CDI to little for the GL???

HoustonRider

i get more than 600 miles on a tank... sometimes 25 mpg on long trips.

its got plenty of get-up-and-go for me, moves like no other diesel on the road. I had a hard time telling it from the 450 (cdi is a tad noisier on acceleration).

I bought it for mileage though. When I did the figuring, Diesel was same as gas ($2.49 per gal)... now its $3.50 per gallon and I'm still doing better than if I would have bought the gas (gas is $2.85/gal now)

JDT1

I second everything houstonrider said. You can't go wrong with the CDI.

roughyear

is there a big difference in the 320CDI vs. 420CDI??? how's the fuell economy between the 2??

i haven't had a chance to go and test drive the GL yet and i don't want to try the 320CDI if it's gonna feel to anemic!!!

cablvr

Roughyear - IIRC the GL420CDI is not available in the US.

scottybdiving

Hey Houston. You are comparing diesel with regular unleaded. Around here, diesel is within .05 to .10 of Premium unleaded, which you must use in 450 / 550's.

We haven't hit the magical 25 mpg yet but have not had it out on flat highway, only hill country. She is getting 22+ in combined City/Hwy. Every time I drive it, I am amazed at it's power and accelleration. It pulls the hills and curves on the way home on cruise control and never has to gear down. It's all about the torque.

gas-man

I just have done a 1600 mile trip to new york and back to dayton ohio and averaged 24.4 miles/gal this is from the computer calculation. I have a full tank from dayton ohio and went to new york and still had 1/4 tank left this is for 614 miles.
Power... this car can move but do not expect to be drag racing with it though. It has enough torque

canvasback13

It depends what you are coming from. It's kind of slow, but not painfully slow. Its not a car you buy for speed. If you want speed, get a 550.

I bought it because i have a long commute and want to cut down my trips to the gas station.

I am very happy with the car

Wigwam

I have the GL 320CDI and I am getting 22.5 in city and 25 on highway. I traded in a big sedan that was fast (0-60 in approx 6.5 sec) and I have no problem at all with the 320's acceleration, pickup, or passing capabilities.

Last week on a trip from Dallas to Tyler, TX I was averaging 27.9 on the highway with the cruse set on 61 and the a/c off!

It is a great car/truck/suv...

HoustonRider

nope, when I ordered my truck in August DIESEL was $2.49/gal (same as regular unleaded). Super was $2.79/gal. Diesel went to $3.39/gal in Sept.

Today (01/02/08)
Regular unleaded is $2.87/gal
Premium is $3.06/gal
Diesel is still $3.39/gal

Diesel is about $.40 higher (over premium) per gallon here... Welcome to Texas !!

I suspect because everyone down here drives a 7,000 pound truck, Super is in very low demand.

N'AWLINS

Just completed a trip...averaged 24.6mpg. On flat straight aways, and at 68mph, got 27mpg instantaneous.
Plenty enough power for me.

BlownV8

From my experience, there is a huge difference in acceleration and throttle response between the 320 and 450. The 320 is down by 120 hp and you can without a doubt feel the difference. However, the fuel mileage with the 320 is a perfectly acceptable trade-off. Another bonus for the 320, since it's a turbo, is that it's easily tunable for a good bit more hp and torque so you can just about even the score between the two.

gordongl450

roughyear,

I had a 2007 GL450 for about 7 months before switching to a 2008 GL320 and I also now have the 2008 ML320.

The GL320 has plenty of power. The only difference that I can remember is that the GL450 feels faster/smoother at the start. But once the GL320 is rolling, say 10 mph, I don't really think the power/acceleration feels different. As the GL450 did, even when you are going 60 mph and you need more speed to pass, the GL320 has it, no problem. However, 90% of my family's driving is slow and around town with a lot of stop and go and we don't need to accelerate hard, so the GL320 is perfect.

The Ml320 is something like 600 pounds lighter and has the same engine. It definitely has more pep. It feels lighter. But to be honest, both my wife and I like the feel of the GL320 better. It feels so solid, just feels great!!

I don't think you will be disappointed with a GL320, especially with the way gas prices are headed. My wife use to get 12 to 13 mpg with the GL450 around town, her average speed by the computer would be 15 mph (a lot of stop and go driving). Now with the GL320 she is getting between 18 and 19 mpg around town. So the 5 miles more per gallon with a 25 gallon tank is an extra 125 miles to travel. For her that is a whole extra week of driving!

mortenmol

Regarding wether or not the cdi's have enough grunt for the GL, I would say it has more than adequate ammount of power, From drag-racing a lot of taxi's (where I live 90% of taxis are e-classes with 50% of them being 320CDI, and the young drivers like to race) i can tell you that from 0-100 mph theres no dif. between an e320cdi and a gl420cdi, at a 100mph+ the GL gains a bit, just enough for an overtake on the german autobahn.

the new c-class 320cdi is a little little bit faster, but only raced it once, didn't get the best start.

As for the fuel-economy

I drive a lot of heavy inner-city trafic, with tons of stop and go and when i'm on the freeway I drive around 100 mph, normally on my 200 miles trip i average 95pmph and 18,5 mpg. and in the city 16mpg.


I'm trying to see if there's more power left in the engine, going for a kleemann kd-box, which will be fitted once the car has had its service A in a week

And the car is definitely not underpowered, NO! without a chip it's as fast as my fathers ML55 and he has to rev the ML63 to get away from me. He said himself that it feels faster than the ML55, especially once the speed picks up. Looking so forward to that chip

Hope it helped, wrote the text to late last night...

LEOSOPHIE

I can't make any sense out of this, maybe it is me.

infamily

I agree..Hard to understand what the point was

GL Troll

Ditto. Might be a language problem here.
And:

Really?

mortenmol

Oh yes, can even film it for you the next time I'm at my parrents place, and we're talking about the 420 cdi with 300 bhp and 516 lb-ft of torque, which once the tuning-box is fitted turns into 400bhp and 660 lb-ft of torque

LEOSOPHIE

If that is the case give Rich Christenson a call at the Speed Channel and get a PINKS episode!

mortenmol

Don't know what the hell your talking about, who's Rich Christenson, what is Speed Channel and what is a PINKS episode?

Actually I live close to germany = Autobahn, meaning I can do this on a public road fully legit

And regarding the performance upgrade: http://www.kleemann.dk/site/Main/per...products/item6 , and don't worry it's in english

StevethePilot

Guys, guys, let's not start an international incident here! We're talking apples and oranges. The 420CDI is a very different animal, under the hood, than the 320CDI found here in the U.S. For you, mortenmol, "Pinks" is a reference to the fact that ownership registration in some US states is a pink piece of paper, or a "pink slip," which can be signed on the back thus opening the title to the the car up to the bearer of the certificate. When street racing, someone who is serious shows up with an open "pink slip," meaning he's willing to bet the car he's racing (usually on public streets - very dangerous, very stupid). My biggest confusion is, why would the person want the car they just beat? Would the winner of a horse race want to buy the loser?

Anyway, the added torque and HP of a 420 can add up to a lot, and when you Kleeman it, it can add up to even more. Which is why GLFahrer has been diligently working to keep the GL420CDI out of the US by convincing MBUSA that there is not market for it.

So before we start throwing down gauntlets, let's all step back and keep in mind the original question - to whit, is the GL CDI underpowered? I say, "no." Whether it does or doesn't, I say it feels like the pickup is better than my '99 LX470 was (fuel injected V8). And my mileage in the city is averaging 19+mpg, and between 21-32mpg on the highway (depending on whether I'm going uphill or down). (The LX was between 11-14, city/highway, on a good day.)

STP

G55K

I have a black GL450 (mine) and a white GL320 (wife). I actually prefer driving the GL320! Power is excellent and the fuel mileage is much better.

scottybdiving

To clarify more, "Pinks" on Speed Channel is a televised program where, in theory, the participants are racing for each other's Pink Slips.

patsy1099

STP for ambassador. Well said.

harkgar

Talking about torque 659 pound foot from a mighty 6.6 liter V-8 is better than a measly 400 pound foot from the MB V-6.

There is no replacement for displacement, particularly when the displacement is turbocharged.