in a 240 i got 20 around town. nothing but short hauls of a few miles here and there. with any of the 3.0 liter diesels with turbos I never could get near 20 around town. more like 17.

the 22 highway doesn't sound that bad really.

best I ever got in a turbo 3.0 was around 25 with any consistancy, and that would be on trip with max speeds of 65. running 75 it is more like 22 23.

folks seem to get better mileage in colorado and places with high altitude.

Tom W

summer trip on WVO and B100
 

This Friday morning , my wife and I are leaving for Vermont and then onto Bar Harbor, Maine in our '82 300D. We will be running the longest legs on 100% WVO and around the towns we will be running B100. I will confirm the mileage on a Garmin GPS Street Pilot. It should prove interesting to see what mileage numbers I can attain on WVO and B100. The total trip should be around 2000 miles.:)

I took a trip two summers ago from vermont to virgina.. on the way down i was hurrying and keeping up with traffic, and got 28MPG... a week later on the way home I went about 700 mile on 20 gallons fo fuel...( all highway driving, NO stop and go other than a rest stop every 2-3 hours..)

May be my odometer is wrong, may be my injectors are not set up right... may be... but I changed only one thing on the way home:

Now for the punch line, It took me 16 hours. including stops. I was driving that speed because the radiator was marginal, and keeping the tach at 2400 RPM seemed to keep the tempature down(about 53mph)... yes it was economical, and my math figured out to be about 34.9MPG.. Regardles of if the math was right, it was an improvement over the calculated 28MPG I got on the way down. the only the drivers habits changed... used to get about 25MPG in mixed driving, but not any more for some reason..

I Bet as Hattie suggests, Brian drives in a manor which places as little demand on the engine as one is able..

I get 25MPG in the wagon and 28MPG in the sedan.

Going beyond that seems doubtful (with all that I've tried).

The '83 SD that we got rid of last year got about 24 with the AC running, and a solid 27 without. This is overall mileage, which is 90% highway if not a bit more.

My '96 E300 gets 32 overall with the AC running, under the same conditions. The new Jetta TDI gets 42.

We're pretty anal about checking fuel mileage with each fill-up, just to see if something is wrong with the car.

How? Get a 300d
 

I get about 36 on the highway. :D

1991 300d

I had one that tricked me for a long time, until I clocked a trip I knew the exact, real miles of. It turned out, the car clocked about 21 extra miles, on a 52 mile trip. So, I was able to tell that the speedo/Odometer, was working faster than actual miles. The car told me I was doing like 45, when I was actually only driving about 32 miles per hour...Big difference..

Try like 1,200 rpm off the line, maybe 1,500.

If I drive like Brian I can et 24mpg around town, but I'm in a rush so I'll live with 21.:D

well I haven`t been able to achieve the 40 mpg I saw on e-bay tonight
on an old 300 cd with 396000 miles.

but starting back in march 7-07 through july 2-07, my mpg are as follows:

28.27 28.46 23.00 29.06 25.61 27.99 29.20 29.38 28.52 27.77

28.65 30.83 26.31 28.08 27.45 26.33 29.16 28.72

this is on my CA 85 300D, but with all the junk removed and changed
back to like an 83 so it can breath.:D
that last milage was at 330868 miles just before the chain gave way.
Charlie

I think a well running 85, with a 2.88 differential, and a well maintained engine, should be able to get high twenties on a regular basis. I've gotten anomalous readings as high as 33 mpg, that was on a trip from pennsylvania to north carolina, on 95/85 driving 80-90 mph most of the way. But as I say I think I hit a dimensional portal of some sort, or else hit an errant pocket of frictionless asphalt. Mostly when I make this trip, and I've verified with GPS, I average 22-25 mpg, A/C blowing until it gets too cold an I have to open a window.

Because of the 2.88 rear end, the 85 300D and 300SD get the best mileage around 75 mph. I have achieved 28mpg highway on straight no. 2 diesel with my 85 Cali 300SD after replacing the muffler with a cherry bomb and modifying the turbo with a 50 trim compressor wheel. This is very good for an 85 cali car.

I believe that running power service in each tank is cost effective as a means to increase mileage in these cars. Adding power service to no. 2 diesel will boost your mileage more than it will adding it to no. 1 diesel.

I agree, Brian and I have both noticed this.

Interesting statement, and what data was used to calculate this?

One can assume then that the 2.65:1 diff therefore create a need to drive 81.5mph for the best mileage?

I can see it now.......

But officer! At that speed I get the get fuel mileage! REALLY!! You would not want me to waste fuel now would you? Or are you one of those that like dirty air?:laugh3::rolleyes::D

Pump Error?
 

I put diesel in a station on my way to work, and I calculate my mpg every time I fill up. One pump in this station always give me 29 - 31 mpg, whereas the others give me between 26 t0 28 mpg. I always fill-up the same way so I know this "special" pump is somehow giving me more diesel. I know the pumps are checked by the state for accuracy, but I'm happy the way it is.
My work car is an 1987 300D.