Gas Mileage
 

I purchased my 84 380sl to be my dailey driver, but the gas prices are killing my pocket. I wanted to know what you guys are getting on gas mileage from your sl's? On a full tank i get about 240 miles is that normal or could i be doing better if so what can i do to better this?..Thanks

My daily driver 84 380 puts on 300 mi/wk. Mostly freeway, 20-21 mi/gal.
Check o2 sensor. When mine went bad, I was looking at around 14 mi/gal.

I gas up at around 280 miles for my 560SL's. Mostly highway.

John Roncallo

You should be getting better on a 380SL. My 450SL has averaged 14 mpg in mostly stop & go driving and I tend toward jack rabbit starts. I get about 18 on the freeway. You should be getting around 20-22 on the freeway.

You didn't what type of driving you doing - city? highway? mix of both or how you drive - easy on the gas or jackrabbit starts but if you're doing primarily rush hour driving that wouldn't surprise me. Personally I get about 17-18 mpg in fairly light traffic urban traffic and 21-23 mpg for highway driving if I stay under 70 which I think isn't too bad for a car that weighs about 3500 lbs, has a v-8 engine, is stuck with an automatic, and has the aerodynamic properties of brick.

Most of my driving is highway about 95%, I try to keep it around 65-70mph. I try to keep the needle out of the red and in the economy side on the economy gauge (not sure what that gauge is called sorry). On a car this old should i use regular 86 gasoline or permium 97? Thanks

I hate to make you guys envious, but I get on average 23 MPG in my 1999 SL500. It was on of the reasons I chose a later model SL. Even with some now and then agressive accelerations the mileage is even better than my 98 Ford Ranger, which only has a 3.0 V-6.

I get even better mileage than that in my Acura CL. Plus I get better acceleration, better cornering, more features and better reliability. I didn't get my 450SL hoping for good mileage, I got it because I wanted a project car and I love the 107.

I knew going into this car that the gas mileage wasnt the best, but i love the car. So ill shut up any pay at the pump $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Well at least the 380sl has one saving grace over the sl's. It uses regular gas.

hey London

The manual states... use high octane fuel.... what's this regular gas stuff??

A 500 SL AMG with a dogleg close-ratio five speed? I don't even want to know the mpg.

Hmmm
 

Yes, you are pretty lucky. Although my 91 SL500 has the wonderful M119 engine, it only gets around 15 MPG (partly because of the way I drive, and the amount of stoplights and hills around here).

Why bother.enjoy the ride!
MPG is for Honda drivers...I get 13 in town and I :D

Gotta agree with TheV12pwr… enjoy the ride in your MB convertible. Here’s the MPG’s for the vehicles in my ‘stable’:
SL600 – 15.5 mpg (18.8 cents a mile at $2.90 per gallon)
SL500 – 16.4 mpg
ML430 – 18.4 mpg
240D – 22.5 mpg
Dodge Neon – 23.8 mpg (10.9 cents a mile at $2.60 per gallon)

The top 3 all take premuim fuel, diesel for the fourth and cheap, non-Citgo regular for the fifth. If I went by strict gas mileage, I’d be driving a 2002 Dodge Neon… and having zero fun.

Cheers,
Jeff