The reading are finally in.... I'm getting 30mpg
 

Hey...

Since doing my injectors, changing filters and just maintaining the car all the time I finally got 30mpg on my 240D. I only drive the highway for a 80 mile round trip. I'm not sure if 30 is a good number BUT I am very happy with it.

What are you getting ?

What's your city mileage? Is yours a stick or automatic?

Happy Motoring, Mark

I have an automatic....... i don't drive this car in the city only the commutte to work.

I'd say that 30 MPG on an automatic 240D is excellent as your car weighs about 1000 pounds more than my '84 5-speed Honda Accord. My Honda does manage over 35 MPG occasionally on gentle highway driving (under 65) but with AC going, on major interstates where I get run over if I can't cruise above 70, I get closer to 30.

Happy Motoring, Mark

I got 30 once on a 300 mile stretch, going and comeing a week later, in the 300D. It's usually more like 25-27 though. ~shrug~
Aint bad..

I always thought the 240D's usually got that kind of mileage anyway until I heard form a few forum members that they only got about 25 MPG's from their cars even with rebuilt engines. I average 25 MPG's now with my '85 300D and have even got very close to 30 MPG's last week while driving very conservatively.
It's got me thinking whether I should get a 240D as my 2nd MB.

For what accounts say is such a lack of power, I have not heard anything to make me want a 240 over a 300 personaly. The MPG is pretty close, and the power, well. Think I'll stick to VW's for super high MPG. One could argue that the simplicity of a 240 helps...

Since I bought my 300SD on April 10, I have gone from 22 MPG up to 28.59 on the last tank full. Not sure why it's getting the steady increase, but thes numbers are 50-50 City to Highway.

Doesn't seem to matter if I use the AC or not either, just that with the AC it's slower off the line.

Sure beats the minivan my wife drives!!

With my current 300TD I get 28-30 on the highway if I drive conservatively. It goes down to 25-26 for city driving (short trips with lots of stop & go).

With the '79 300D I only got around 23-24 at best (a non-turbo engine).

With the 220D I was getting 30-32 highway, but it was a manual tranny.

I lent my brother my '80 300D while he was visiting from the other side of Oz. He drove about 700km and returned better than 10 km/litre. (He actually said that hegets more than 100km for $10, but as diesel is >$1.00 per litre, I reckon that 10km/l is close)
That relates to 28.3 imperial MPG (US gallons are smaller) All this on a 380 000 km engine.

I would never replace my 300D with a 240D. My idea is to get a second MB diesel. Yes the simplicity idea has a lot to do with it. I wouldn't want a VW based on the fact that they're more complex and that they don't have the quality or longevity of a MB by far. Safety is also an issue. I don't think a VW would do as well as an MB. And the bottom line, I could get a 240D far cheaper than a VW diesel anytime.

The main reason I would consider a 240D over a 300D is the availibilty of a stick-shift.
I think it kind of negates the economy aspect of the 300 Diesel to only offer an automatic.
I'm one of those old fashioned types that still likes to decide when to shift my own gears.
Too bad Mercedes banned the 5 speed for US market W123s.

Happy Motoring, Mark

Early 80's VW's are far more simplistic than our MB's, the diesels anyway. And there just as long lived overall. There is the safety issue. I wrecked an 85 A2 TD Jetta once and it did really really well, but there still light weights.

The fact that a 240D can be had cheaper is just sad.
But true. Good VW diesels, epecialy TD's, are not cheap on the whole.

I agree that the early 80's VW diesels were simple but I didn't like the fact they had aluminum heads and they're FWD. My dad had an '80 VW diesel "pickup". I didn't like the rubbery shift linkage and that it had a thermostatically run fan with only an idiot light to warn you if it got hot. His VW almost died at 60K because the idiot light and fan switch malfunctioned. It overheated w/o any warning. It was totally unexpected on a 1-1/2 year old car. The head was toast so we bought a new one and put it back together and he traded it for a Datsun diesel pickup which he still has to this day.

My two pickups both have full VDO gauges, o-lite shift bushings, weighted shift rods, swept back scirocco shifters, LED's to tell when the fan's are on, a manual over-ride switch(which you never need really). I've never pulled a head on a motor that was not being rebuilt. I have close to a million miles in VW diesels, over half of that in the 81. Maybe I should specify that MY VW diesels are as simple and reliable as our old MB's. They sure handle, stop, and in the case of the 1.9TD accelerate better, the 45+mpg too.. I miss my VW's..

But there not a Mercedes.. :)