Analysis of Cross Country Road Trip
 

I wanted to provide a quick analysis of my recently completed road trip last month for everyone. Trip went from Feb 09 - Feb 26 starting in Charleston, SC going to Whistler BC with a brief stop in Jackson Hole Wy and of course... Vegas. We covered a total of 7,629 miles with 125.51 hours behind the wheel avg 23.5 mpg at 60 mph with the Blutech motor.

The Merc was loaded with 2 161mm snowboard bags, one large duffel bag, a medium size suitcase, 2 ruck sacks a small cooler, case of water, snow chains and misc odds and ends needed on the road. As the picture attached shows, everything fit suprisingly well and we had plenty of room for additions along the way.

I was hoping for better gas milage over the course of the trip but we were blessed with head winds going out and back in. New mexico was the small stretch that we had a decent tail wind. Overall, I was not displeased with MPG we posted doing 75 mph on the interstates. The diesel was a BEAST in the mountains motoring through with ease. i was expecting the transmission to have difficulty finding a constant gear but no such luck. It seemed as though the computers knew were traversing steep grades and held the transmission in the appropriate gear for the speed we were traveling both up and down passes. i was impressed at how well it shifted.

Snow and rain handeling worked extremely well with the factory continental M/S tires. Even with traction control turned off i was hard pressed to make it slide around. automatic wipers worked well with zero issues. steering input was not a problem in snow and felt grounded with agility if adjustments were needed.

interior is the P95/S02 packages with 801 and 739. I bought a set of all weather floor mats and they held water/snow well and would recommend the purchase. The H/K sound system was awesome and with the multiple inputs we were never at a loss for entertainment. My only complaint is that over the course of an 12-14 hr stretch behind the wheel the sports seats were slightly uncomfortable in the side lumbar area. They really snug you in the seat so they are perfect for daily driving hours and i am not disappointed at all.

When all is said and done the Merc was the perfect roadtrip car and i love driving it. Its the weekend driver so its one more reason to look forward to the weekend!!

any other questions let me know and i'll try to answer! :zoom:

Great report! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the great report.

Did you experience any of the dreaded BlueTEC stumbling and bucking after cold starts?

Cold starts always have its block to two block stumble without a long warm up. Mine is not that bad though and goes away quickly. like everyone else I'm still waiting for a fix but its not enough to deter me from buying it again.

Thanks for sharing. I am currently on a (much) shorter road trip with my family - three adults and a teenage boy. We left Nova Scotia on Monday morning and are shopping our way through the outlet malls in North Conway (NH) and Freeport (ME). Back home on Saturday.

The vehicle is as smooth as silk even on the uneven secondary roads. What impressed us most was how quiet it is in the interior... even at 75mph. We can actually engage in a conversation without the good old WHA!?!?

The fuel consumption is out of this world on the diesel. I will do the math when I get home in a couple of days. Today we averaged very close to 30mpg. I must say that I am also impressed at how easily I could switch the display from metric to imperial when we crossed the border. The digital display and the NAVI all switched over... I was expecting to fiddle with the NAVI.

The cargo is full to the brim. We have all of the headrest extended up to help. There is a bit of lost space in the cargo area because of the way the seat incline and the way the side walls are. Some clever loading and the space is made to good use. Is there a cargo net that exist that can be attached to prevent items from avalanching out when I open the tailgate. We had one of those on my 2006 Buick Rendez-Vous. Any suggestions?

We did experience that morning "hesitation" first thing every day... but it's gone in about a minute.

The only aspects that was a bit disapointing is that navigating though the music collection we put on the iPod is cumbersome. In my previous MB with the media connector I could jump through the "alphabet" by pressing on the keypad letters. However, in our case... it always goes to the first entry in the "A". ot certain if it's because of iOS 5.1 on my iPod Touch or something going on with the Media Interface software. I noticed I could navigate the albums by cover off of the SD card... but I have not been able to do the same with the iPod. I would appreciate some suggestions.

So far this road trip has been that much more pleasant by this great vehicle.

Is that 30 MPG US or imperial?

Usually I refrain from judgement, but really? the Rendez-Vous? My gosh its one of those blunders like the X6. Sorry, but I must agree good choice and taste in recent vehicle.

my wife loved it... i hated it.

It was 30 mpg US... i would of been superlative if it was imperial. :)

I just finished a 3K mile road trip with my Bluetec.Much less cargo,only two people and mostly on flat land (I-95) but some hills (East Tennessee on I-75).Got about 36mpg at 70mph.What you said about the mountains is in keeping with what I've read...the massive torque makes climbing a breeze.I know the hills of Tennessee were no problem for me...7th gear all the way.

I think you have that wrong.Mileage of 30 mpg US is better than 30 mpg Imperial.

Boy,that's a long way to travel just for some shopping! :) I've done New Hampshire to Cape Breton and I remember it having been a *long* drive.But now that you're here make sure you spend lots of cash...God knows we need it! :rolleyes:

I,too,get that bucking.The dealer says "nothing wrong" so I guess I'm stuck with it.But as others have said it goes away after a minute or two so I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.

You are right. Did not have my coffee this morning when I responded.

It's the second week of my son's school break. We did not feel like flying anywhere and the new ML gave us an excuse for going on a road trip.

We broke down the trip in manageable chunks: Halifax - Bangor - North Conway - Auburn - Fredericton - Halifax. I did all of the driving... just the way I like it with my new vehicle :) I must say... the roads aremuch better than years ago. I can remember the single lane Trans Canada in New Brunwick. Brutal behind those truck going uphill.

Had to pay our taxes when e came back in... so yes, we did stimulate the economy. Can you feel it? :D

Update on the Diesel cold start.. my service manager called Saturday and said the software update was ready for installation. I am scheduling a time this week and will let you know if it corrects the issue

Just called my dealer and confirmed the recent release of this update.Scheduled an appointment for Thursday.We'll see what happens.