the thing with no spare and runflats is that the runflat tires apparently do not handle as well.

Marty,

I apologize for hijacking the thread....and sounding argumentative for no reason.

The ML shows its drag coefficient and frontal surface area at over 75 mph - on a drive to see this year's Indy 500 I was shocked to find the vehicle only got about 24.5 mpg on the highway averaging 75 mph. A clear difference compared to the sleek E Class body.

Jim

Nope, that would be more like 20% more than US and I am only seeing 10%...I suspect it's just "padding" to make the owner feel better I suspect. I would be curious to hear if anyone else with the same car has the same results.

No apology needed...sometimes it's hard to tell "tone" from a post, and I wasn't trying to be argumentative either.

That's what I have heard too but I don't drive my car "at the hairy edge" and, frankly, the E350 isn't the kind of car you go around turns pulling maximum g's, it's a land yacht and the run flats suit its character just fine IMHO.

The fuel economy gauge in the ML is pretty good. I fill the car up the same most of the time (try to fill at the same station at the same pump in the same location) and my "tank" arithmetic is within a few tenths of a point from the computer's.

The ML is very sensitive to ambient temperature. Below about 45F and it goes into a warmup cycle that chews fuel for a few miles. After the engine is considered "warm" it gets truly astounding mileage for the vehicle that it is. Also, it periodically does an exhaust system burn off cycle that I can now detect while driving - runs rich to heat the catalysts and get them to burn off any junk.

Jim