Got a 2014 ML350 BlueTec late last year. The car has 2500 miles on it and I have been very impressed with the quality and ride. Driving in the city I get anywhere between 21 and 23mpg and on the highway I can easily get above 30mpg if I take it somewhat easy. Last night on our way back home driving between 55 and 60 mph the computer showed 35.6mpg.

I have found that the computer is about 0.5 mpg higher than when I measured my consumption at the fuel pump, but nevertheless this kind of fuel economy is impressive for such a heavy vehicle.

 

Is there an AdBlue level indicator on your dash somewhere or a milage left till refill countdown indicator?

Also, do you add your own adblue or let the dealer do it? How did you compute if it paid to pay more for a diesel with its extra purchase and fluids costs associated with it. At what price difference would diesel fuel have to be above premium to wipe out your savings?

I don't know which to get coming from an '07 E550... I no longer want to pay the additional money for a 550 so I'm looking at the "350" choices.

Tks.

 

No AdBlue level indicator on my dash (as far as I can tell). My car only has 2500 miles so no need for adblue yet. However, when the time comes I will be adding it myself. From reading several threads here it seems to be a really simple process so no need for the dealer to do this.

I did not really buy the diesel for the gas savings. By the way, it is only about $1500 more than the 4matic 350. I bought a Diesel because I love the torque on the car. While I think there are some savings in fuel by going diesel (even at the current 30 cent premium over premium gas here in Atlanta) this was not at all my main consideration. Fuel is a small share of my total car bill since most of it is depreciation in a luxury car.

 

From what I've seen down here on SoFla, Diesel is 10 cents or so less expensive than Premium, once or twice even the same price. I guess that's because there's no competition on the fuel supply for it to be used as home heating oil #2.

 

I'm on my second ML350 diesel. I love the fuel mileage as well, even with the slight fuel cost increase every winter. The only issue Is the higher maintenance costs I have with the diesel version of the ML. Only had a fuel pump replaced in the first 70,000 miles but it acts like it wants to fall apart now. Previous diesel had two fuel pumps replaced. Therefore I'm finding costs are much higher than the previous two gas versions of the ML I had.

In addition to my diesel, I also took delivery of a new ML last week. I ordered it two months ago. And this time I went back to gas.....

I hope you have good luck with it.

 

Well doing the math it's pretty simple how much better the Diesel is over Premium Gas. For about a 10% increase in price, you'll get at least 20% better mileage.

 

There is a Add Blue Level indicator of sorts.

You go to your car and turn it to ON but not start. You make sure he MFD shows the total milage on its screen. Then on the steering wheel you simuntaniously press the "pick up phone' button on the right side of the steeing wheel and the OK button on the left side of the steeing wheel. Wait about three seconds and the display changes from the total milage to a list of items. You let go of the two buttons.

At the top of the list is VEHICLE DATA. Now press OK. Now another item is displayed but not what you want so you page DOWN about ten times til you see AD BLUE. On my car it says FULL. But my car has only 3500 miles on it so I don't know what it says when it's half full or ??? whatever full. You might try pressing up instead of down to get there earlier with fewer presses. I've not tried that yet.

I drove last weekend 950 miles. On the way down to Corpus Christ I got 23 something mpg. I had a strong headwind in front of me. On the way back had the same wind but behind me this time and got 28 something mpg. Averages out to 25 mpg give or take which matches what I got the week before on a 1300 mile trip of 24.5 mpg. I'm pleased. I do the speed limit more than less of 80-85 mph and think that mpg is just fine for a 5000 pound vehicle that resembles a box on wheels.

It's a joy to drive on the toll road (Tx 130) that goes around Georgetown, Austin to San Antonio that is about 90 miles long and you can do a legal 85 on part of it and the rest a legal 80 mph with an added plus 5mph added to that. Beats all to heck the GOOD OLE DAYS of { 55 And Stay Alive} days that existed all over the land.

And a big YES to the comment about how accurate the MPG figures are on this vehice at least on trips of several hundred miles and then gassing up and checking it out on a calculator vs the amount you put in at the station.

It would be interesting to know what a gasoline engine ML gets doing 80-85 mph for extended driving. High teens????

 

I think the difference must be more like 30 - 40% better mileage. I'm getting 23 mpg with my 2012 C350, so I don't think I'd get more than 20mpg with the bigger and heavier ML350 gas version.

 

I'm getting 37% more mpg in my ML350 BT than I'm getting in my new gas ML350 right now. It's about 27mpg vs 19mpg. But then I don't drive them the same. BT gets more highway miles. Gasser gets more slow country miles.

On long 45mph rides the BT will climb over 30mpg. Even hit 32 once. That's good economy for an SUV. Been years since I had a gasser so I'm looking forward to seeing how well the new one does on that same 45mph ride to the beach.

 

I tried this yesterday. My car has 6,000 miles on it at this point. The indicator says FULL as well. Maybe it has just 2 states -- FULL or EMPTY. Would be nice if somebody could check if there is more granularity to this indicator.

 

That's disappointing with you having 6000 miles on your car and the Ad Blue is FULL. Seems there is no inbetween. Full or empty seems to be what is available. I've only 3800 miles and had it a month. When I get to say 8000 miles and it says FULL.........then that just about means its only a two way street with this level of Ad Blue.

I looked at the FUEL LEVEL using this technique and it's more granular. Much more. Starts at ?????? 93 Liters and goes down in increments. That tells me the Ad Blue is just either full or empty. We'll see.

As far as gas mileage goes, I delibertly drove 80 miles on I-20 towards Abeline Tx Sunday and held the speed at 65 mph. I got 29mpg on the money. When the speed limit changed from 65 t0 75mph I felt like I was an moving obstacle to the other drivers and turned around. I saw 30mpg with a good and I mean a Good tail wind going from Ft Worth to HIllsboro. Then again, I've seen 30mpg with a XK Jaguar leaving Needles Ca headed for Flagstaff. The wind was honking that night and I mean honking. Twernt doing any slow 65 mph either. More like a legal Ca 70 mph.

 

You are right about two states...... Full or 20 starts remaining. Dealer forgot to fill me up once during an oil change. Stopped in with 5 starts remaining and they filled it for free. AdBlue tank seems to get 14 to 15K miles.