I love my CLK55, but want another Mercedes with more room and decent fuel economy. So I'm thinking a Diesel ML for the wife to replace her Jetta. Any major changes in the 06-09 ranges and what do people really see for fuel economy?

 

I get 20-26, depending how easy I drive it.

 

We have over 100,000 on our '09, and it's my wife's vehicle. She loves it, and had a 3 series BMW before we bought it. Great room inside, quiet, comfortable, lots of torque. Looked at GLKs before we got it, and I'm very happy we didn't go that route. Way too noisy on the interstate. Glad we had the extended warranty. Mileage had been around 23 in town, 27-28 on the highway at 80. Now it's 31, sometimes better, since we installed an inline module that I got from Germany (recommended by my M-B tech who also had a diesel). I was very skeptical until I installed it. Very easy as it is a plug and play at the fuel rail connection.

 

I have an 08 CDI. Average week is 25-26 MPG (my commute is 84 miles a day, 12 of which is back roads), not much stop and go. Highway at legal speeds 27+ depending on temp and weather. Towing my clamshell snowmobile trailer 16-17 mpg depending on wind. Towing my enclosed 5x10, usually 19-20. Again, this all depends on driving conditions. I have reached 31 mpg on my morning commute this fall before putting snow tires on, very light traffic and kept reasonable speed.

06-08 MLs no Adblue urea and have compact spare
09-11 MLs Adblue urea and no spare, have runflats. Better NAV

Personally if you dont need SUV, then consider 08-10 E320, I know they are rear wheel drive, but if you run 4 snows, and toss a sand tube in trunk when needed, you will see mileage in the mid 30's

Just my .02

 

Can you elaborate on this module? Cost? Where to order from? It sounds interesting. Thanks.

 

look at CRD-tuning.de. I'm pretty sure I did mine on ebay, and it was shipped from Germany. It seems they do a lot of diesel tuning.

 

Thanks. Have you noticed a real difference in performance with this?

 

a slight difference. a bit more hp and torque, and the throttle response seems a little better.

 

The ML "Fool" Computer display lies like a "you can keep your ..." politician. These two pictures were taken on the same trip last Christmas when for laughs I decided traffic was not heavy so I wouldn't be an obstacle if I drove 1000 miles at 60 MPH.

37.4 MPG after 90 minutes, 90 miles, at 60 MPH! Prior to that picture it had been toying with 39.0 MPG but never got there.

After 19 hours with a 54 MPH average its still claiming 35.4!

But with a calculator after it was all over the real MPG was just over 31 using winter diesel. Previously the same trip with CC at 70 MPH produced just over 29 MPG on summer diesel. I don't really know how winter and summer blends affect my ML, results were varied on my former F-250 Powerstroke.

 

I bought a 2008 ML 320 CDI with 113 000 km on the clock a month ago and drove it for 5 400 km from Calgary, Alberta to Murrieta, California and back over the 2013 Christmas period.

Driving in convoy with me was a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo CRD 5 speed automatic (with the same Mercedes 3.0 l V6 diesel engine as the ML) with 110 000 km on the clock.

Each of the vehicles was carrying a family of 4 and a full boot of luggage.
All 4 wheels (255/50-19) on the ML were inflated to 3.5 Bar for the trip to California and inflated to 3.3 Bar for the trip back. The wheels on the CRD were inflated to 2.5 Bar and 3.0 Bar respectively.

Fuel efficiency values below are shown for the intervals where vehicles were filled up to the brim (you could see the diesel level in the filler pipe).

For the purposes of the fuel efficiency (fuel consumption) calculations, the distances travelled as shown on the ML odometer were corrected. (0.5% up - the ML odometer was "calibrated'' against the GPS on a 300 km stretch of open road. The ML indicated 298.5 over 300 km indicated by the GPS).

Steady speed was maintained by using the cruise control where possible, the speed was monitored on the GPS and was kept at 8km/h above the legal speed limit. For 99% of the distance on the open roads we were traveling at speeds above 115 km/h but for probably 80% of the time we were traveling at speeds between 125km/h and 137km/h depending on the speed limit. Interestingly, the 7 speed ML engine does 2 500 rpm at 136 km/h (GPS) and the 5 speed CRD engine does 3 000 rpm at the same speed.

1st leg: Okotoks, AB to Draper, UT; 1 428 km; 320 m drop in elevation; temp. -15 to 0 deg. C; [11.025 km/l or 9.07 l/100km for the ML] & [9.808 km/l or 10.196 l/100km for the CRD]

2nd leg: Draper, UT to Murrieta, CA; 1 080 km; 1 040 m drop in elevation; temp. 0 to +20 deg. C; [11.577 lm/l or 8.638 l/100km for the ML] & [8.535 km/l or 11.716 l/100km for the CRD]

3rd stage: Driving around in California (a lot of town driving and shopping); 389 km; temp. +24 deg. C; [9.418 km/l or 10.617 l/100km for the ML] & [data not available for the CRD for this stage of the trip]

4th leg: Murrieta, CA to Mesquite, NV; 572 km; 160 m rise in elevation; temp. +24 to 0 deg. C [11.341 km/l or 8.817 l/100km for the ML] & [9.296 km/l or 10.758 l/100km for the CRD]

5th leg: Mesquite, NV to Clearfield, UT; 613 km; 870 m rise in elevation; temp. -5 to +3 deg. C; [10.813 km/l or 9.248 l/100km for the ML] & [9.22 km/l or 10.845 l/100km for the CRD]

6th leg: Clearfield, UT to Butte, MT; 600 km; 330 m rise in elevation; temp. +3 to -8 deg. C; [10.485 km/l or 9.537 l/100km for the ML] & [8.142 km/l or 12.282 l/100km for the CRD]

7th leg: Butte, MT to Shelby, MT; 390 km; 680 m drop in elevation; temp. -10 to -12 deg. C; [11.073 km/l or 9.031 l/100km for the ML] & [data not available for CRD]

8th leg: Shelby, MT to Okotoks, AB: 332 km; 50 m rise in elevation; temp. -12 to -19 deg. C; [9.757 km/l or 10.249 l/100km for the ML] & [data not available for CRD]
I don't understand why the fuel efficiency dropped to 9.757 km/l for the ML on the 8th leg. I wonder if it should be attributed to the -18.5 deg. C ambient temperature for most of this leg.

Generally, the ML on board computer was posting conservative (worse) figures for fuel consumption compared to the actual figures. Here are a few examples (indicated by on board computer in l/100km<>actual in l/100km):11.3<>10.617 ; 9.8<>8.817 ; 10.1<>9.248 ; 10.5<>9.537 ; 9.7<>9.031 ; 10.4<>10.249.

The CRD has a tank (83 l) range of approximately 700 to 750 km and so we put in diesel every 600 km or earlier just to be safe. On this whole trip the ML never got to below 1/2 tank! The ML is specified to have a 95 l tank, but when filling up, you can fit in another 10.5 litres after the first time the diesel pump handle automatically shuts off and you continue to painstakingly fill up to the brim. I don't know how much diesel the tank holds then, but if the indicated remaining range shown by the on board computer at 1/2 tank is anything to go by, the ML should be able to do in excess of 1 100 km on a tank filled to the brim.

I was a little concerned about buying a pre-owned ML with 113 000 km on the clock from a VW dealership, but now after our 5 400 km trip we're extremely pleased with our ML . The ride is very comfortable, the cabin and boot areas are spacious for a family of 4, road holding, sound system, bi-xenon lights, heated seats, Sat Nav and build quality are all very good if not excellent. The engine in general and in particular its fuel consumption is amazing. The 7 speed dual clutch semi-automatic transmission is fantastic. The ML is simply a pleasure.

I also drove the Jeep CRD on this trip and even though the ride is also very good, the ML as a complete package beats it hands down.