Well. we have racked up 3000 miles in slightly more than 2 months with our diesel, and I must say we love it! It's been on several 400+ mile round-trips, and the wife's commute is just a few miles, so it's a good mixture of driving. We're averaging 21 mpg in this time. Two weekends ago we averaged 25.5mpg on the highway with 4 adults, luggage and coolers. Because it was on the lot so long, the dealership had to jump it once, and they broke the little cover over the positive terminal hook-up and then entered the wrong code, which made the TeleAid registration time consuming. It rides really nicely on the 19 inchers, handles as well as can be expected, and the diesel has enough oomph for the big sled. The new nav system and CD changer in the glove box are both huge improvements over the previous generation - and th elooks, to me, are a night & day improvement.

 

How does it handle acceleration from say 60-80? What speed does it settle out at? I find our R500 drives better at 80 than at 70.

 

Fortunately or unfortunately, we wouldn't have cause to go faster than 75 on Wisconsin's interstates & other four-laners: for the extra few miles an hour it's not worth a ticket from the ever-present State Patrol and county boys. (My CL500, on back roads, is another story!) However, high speed acceleration is more than adequate as the thing has almost 400 foot-pounds of torque. Handling and ride are more than accepatble for a tall, heavy vehicle. I have little experience with SUV's so I have little to go on, but I would say it feels more stable than the 163, but less so than a buddy's Yukon or Denali or whatever the hell it is that he has which is longer.

 

My 06 E320 CDI sedan averaged (real fill ups, not calculated) 36 mpg on a trip to WI from SC. Lowest we get in town is about 31.