TaylorH360 nailed it. I will never own another Benz with Adblue. Even the dealership was having problem fixing it. A money pit. Went backwards to get a CDI and very happy.

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06 MB E320 CDI 123k miles
14 Sienna (wife's DD) 36k miles
11 GL350 Bluetec 136k (Sold)
96 E300; 292k+ miles (Donated)
11 Sprinter 22K+ miles (Sold)

Well reading items in our local web pages .Read that aspirated engines are to be outlawed by 2030..That means diesel and petrol .Loks like 6 HP horses to come back.

Hopefully not all is lost...

Mercedes-Benz

I will say that my OM642 (leaking oil notwithstanding) is so much cleaner than the earlier models. Even when I romp on it there is absolutely no smoke. And this is the model year before DEF.

I for one will be hoping for a GLC/GLE with the OM654.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

No more so than gasoline powered cars that are equally complex. I don't want to own any modern car of any make once it is out of warranty. Leasing will probably become the norm once more of the public start to realize this.

I would like an EV for around town. But on trips, I want to be able to stop just long enough to pick up a coffee and go the bathroom. Only way I can see that they could do that is have standardized drop in batteries or batteries with enough capacity to get you far enough for a meal stop (say 5-6 hrs) and then be able to be charged in 30min. None of this on horizon.

So it seems, EVs will likely need on-board generators to extend range. A small diesel generator might be good. Jaguar had a prototype with gas turbine generators - much lighter, but probably $$$$.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

May I interject that my satisfaction level with my 2006 E320 CDI is very high!

I'm really glad I decided to buy it in June 2013.

Just a great MB inline 6 turbodiesel sedan.

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The complications that the modern diesel has to deal with with regard to the emissions control is not Mercedes unique. Bosch is the OE supplier for the system and it is used on the Chevrolet Duramax and others. I have had three Sprinters and this GL and the issues for me have been manageable at least. Either I am under the 5 year or 100k warranty or I also have a DAS Xentry diagonostics system that tells you exactly how to troubleshoot.

If you have not owned one they are great motors if you maintain them correctly. And as someone said earlier the turbocharged gasoline motors that everyone is going to are really not any simpler (or cheaper to repair).

I will keep my Diesels...thank you

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1995 E300 (W124)
1999 ML430 (w163)
2011 GL350 (x164)
2016 Sprinter 144" 4X4 lowtop (906)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon (Gold)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon Avantgarde (silver)

KrustyKustom: Beautiful set-up!

I'd likely have bought a Ford Excursion 4X4 with the 7.3 turbodiesel engine.

The emissions controls on a modern GDI engine are a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to maintain than a modern diesel. No DEF system, no particulate filter, no regen cycles, no piezo injectors, no EGR cooler just to name a few. The cost of emissions control are going to reduce diesels to an ever smaller nitch market as EVs and hybrids get cheaper. Even in Europe diesel market share is shrinking fast.

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It's not just the emission controls that have become complex. It's all that other crap they put on the cars these days.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

'87 for me. I love me some SOHC straight 6 diesels

No actually it is the diesel emissions controls that are overly complex and expensive. Thats why you don't see any sub $30k diesels in the US market and the few that got there (VW) only did so by cheating. Today hybrids are cheaper and simpler to build than diesels and EVs are following close behind. Diesel passenger vehicles are a shrinking niche market both in the US and anywhere else in the world that gives a damn about air quality.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

I'm feeling the need to pop in here and clear up some misconceptions about EVs, specifically Tesla, on both sides of the aisle.

Babymog said something about not being within driving range of an outlet. That is extremely difficult to believe, since even a household 120v outlet can charge a Tesla. Not quickly, but possible. Most people install a 50A 240V outlet that will provide about 28 miles of range per hour of charge.

Something about needing drop-in batteries on a road trip. I took a 257 mile trip today with one stop at a Tesla supercharger. It gave me 125 miles of range in 28 minutes. At that point I only needed 80 to get home, but the car was ready before I finished eating. So no, battery swaps are not really necessary.

A Model X is suitable for towing an Airstream. Well, not really.
https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/initial-trailer-pulling-report-90d-and-airstream-22ft-bambi-sport.74540/
tl;dr -- they get 100-150 miles on a charge. And superchargers are not exactly convenient when pulling a trailer. Don't do it unless you are really really dedicated.

Further, a Model X is rated for a maximum of 5000 lbs and an Airstream Classic 30 has a GVWR of 10,000.

I'm as much of an EV lover as anyone, having a Model S for 2.5 years and 59K miles. But the Diesels have their place. In the late 90s or early 2000s MB showed a prototype diesel-electric hybrid that I thought was absolutely perfect. Too bad it never made it to production.

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Rick Miley
2014 Tesla Model S
2018 Tesla Model 3
2017 Nissan LEAF
Former MB: 99 E300, 86 190E 2.3, 87 300E, 80 240D, 82 204D Euro
Chain Elongation References

The Don...

You are in luck! The next generation MB diesels are all I4, I6 configurations. The new OM654 is the 4 cylinder version of the new 6.

I do like the straight sixes (and 5s as well) also.

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1995 E300 (W124)
1999 ML430 (w163)
2011 GL350 (x164)
2016 Sprinter 144" 4X4 lowtop (906)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon (Gold)
2004 E500 (W211) 4matic Wagon Avantgarde (silver)

Nothing wrong with the old technology. My 1991 300D Turbo recently had an intermittent boost control problem. Checked the hoses, replaced a few old ones as a maintenance task but I was pretty sure that wasn't it. Being intermittent it had to be something electrical.
Eventually traced it to a dirty & worn micro switch for the overboost relay. Replaced the leaking fuel stop lever's o-ring (That had made the switch get dirty over time) and said micro switch and it's been good as gold again ever since.

I prefer simplicity on cars for when things go amis. Other people can handle the headaches with electronics, etc. that are bound to occur with newer Ben if they prefer. I'll be sticking to pre mid 90's Benz, personally.

I'm glad you like your S Rick, friends of mine who own them like theirs also. However, up here in the north, your battery will give you a reduced range warning when you hop in on a cold day, superchargers are 200miles apart which means you had better start with a full charge (and those only if you're traveling the I-80/90 tollway between Chicago and Detroit), ... especially considering your drive will require lights, wipers, high-speed defrost all-around, ... and a fair amount of AWD switching on some days. Many times I'll spend my night at a hotel, and I've not yet found one with a supercharger in the lot, I'd rather relax after a long day than go charger hunting. Even if they hotel will let me plug into a 110v outlet, and I have the dual charger option, ... it'll be a very slow charge and I need to be up and out too early in the morning.

My travels tomorrow take me up through Michigan's middle and southwest, nowhere near a charger. At the end of tomorrow's 375mile run, my diesel SUV will still have over 1/2 tank, will return 33mpg, and will emit 30% less greenhouse gasses than a 33mpg gasoline engine. It simply works and as you stated: diesels have their place.

A diesel series hybrid would be great, ... if there were any, as it would be cleaner than the current crop of badge-engineering hybrids. However, when I need to drive between 400miles and 800miles in a day's business, it is nice to leave home with a full tank, and still be over my reserve light when I return. I really don't want to plan my trips around supercharge stations as my friends seem to enjoy as some type of challenge, ... and we don't have the constant sun nor government incentives here to install solar charging so the price for the 50a charger plus electricity is all on me, which means that I would be spending a lot of extra money for a car that is highly impractical for my uses.

The recent election, whether you like the outcome or not, has shown (according to some analyses) that the voter has changed. People like me, who don't live in SoCal, or NYC, or DC, have lives that are not being addressed by the legislation and mindset that we are all easily governed by laws fitting high-density southern climate living. There are many of us who will continue to use our own vehicles, will need to travel longer distances, will not have cheap electricity available, will spend much more money heating than cooling our homes, have lots of fresh air and water available, our houses do not cost $1mm plus for a 3BR ranch, and EVERYTHING shifts in this demographic. I have lived in large cities and small towns, rust belt and sun, have traveled internationally as well as much domestically, and have seen how the Japanese make their cities and farms work as well as suburbanites in Detroit or L.A., and small towns in GA or MI.

Trump too needs to get out more, I have doubts that he will understand what the other 80% of the nation's needs are any more than Obama or Clinton, ... but we can hope.

Again, I'd love to be able to own a nice Model S, but for my needs I would be trying to adapt my business and home vehicle use to make it work, it doesn't yet fit my needs.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff