Third SL

Does anyone have any real world experiences for round town and more leisurely cruising for an SL500 (not AMG)? I want to know to know how much to budget for gas/petrol (apart from "plenty").

Trimmer2

You're kidding, right?

Third SL

Nope. I've been living away from the US for the past 8 years but am returning shortly. I am trying to prepare for the joys of car ownership, including VA personal ppty tax and gas. I ordered the SL 16 months ago and have not even seen an EPA sticker. Delivery is scheduled for February.

BERNIE

For your info, my SL500 has 8'000 km on the odometer and on average basis the petrol consumption is 11,9 lt/100 km

not bad for such an engine

by the way probably 75 % long distance trips on highways the balance in town.....

but who cares about petrol cost when enjoying such a nice car !!??

blueSL

The SL is firmly in the category that if you have to budget for the cost of gas, you probably should not be buying it. Even here in the UK, where gas is three times the cost of it in the US, it barely comes onto the radar compared to other costs.

I get 17mpg on my SL55 which is fine. That's a bigger gallon than the US one but my guess is an SL500 will give 20 mpg +/- in the US. However, with gas at, what?, $2 a gallon, it's noise level.

Go figure: 10000 miles, 500 gallons, $1000. Nothing.

ChrisB

My 1999 SL 500 has the same motor as the R230 SL 500. Other things like aerodynamics would be better on the R230.

I kept track for the first 5,400 Km (3,300 miles) of about 60% highway, 40% city driving and found I averaged 13.8 liters per 100 Km (20.4 miles per imperial gallon).

blueSL

So my guesstimate of 20 +/- was pretty close!!

Third SL

Thanks for the posts. Very helpful.

stockseer

agree 'blue' (and glad to see you back here too after the outage; we were all grateful for your incredible reviews some months back; at least I was!

Anyway, mileage: my SL55 (and the only reason I have a clue is the car's computer; certainly would never bother manually this these days) averages around 17. Around town it was as low as 9-10 in the early days (and my foot was probably heavier before I took this all in stride).. and as high as 22-23 on the road (strictly interstate) .. again averaging around 17 now after 4500 miles (if I don't get the '04 it mght actually be broken-in in another year).

Not that you asked about this; but the car has been superb; yes the brakes are a little unusual, but the car continues to please. It may be replaced by an '04 coming next week, but not sure (this one is perfectly equipped so it's tempting just to stay with it).

cheers!

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'03 SL55 black/charcoal
all options but distronic