I have gotten 222miles on a half full tank. This is with both city and highway driving. Is this a good MPG rate for my car? How much is that in MPG? I am not sure how much the tank holds. I am guessing 22 or 23, not sure though.

Snibble,

Assuming that your fuel gauge goes down evenly - not very common in all the cars I've owned - you used 11 gallons to go 222 miles or just about 20.2 mpg. This sounds reasonable for mixed driving in a 380. I have a 560SEL and get around 17 in town and 19 on the highway. This assumes of course that I'm not wearing my lead shoes .

To get an accurate idea of fuel economy you'll need to do some record keeping on every fill up. I've always carried a small spiral notebook in the glove compartment in which I record every fill up. The basic information you'll need is odometer reading and gallons of fuel from which you can calculate the distance driven and the MPG. If you don't use your trip OD for anything, you can use it to do the distance math for you which is what I do. If you do this religiously for several months you'll have a very accurate idea of how your car is performing and some good insight into when repairs may be necessary.

jlc

PS I also log all repairs in the same book so that when I'm away from home and notice something that seems strange I can easily check to see when that item was last serviced.

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Jeff

'87 560SEL 267K (177K on motor) Blue/Blue
'98 Buick LeSebre 60K (wife's car)
'56 Imperial Sedan 124K
Past Cars:
'67 Dodge Monaco 130K (Sold)
'87 Chrysler 5th Ave 245K and going strong (sold)
'73 Plymouth Satillite 175K (sold)
'96 Chrysler LHS 80K (totaled)

I bought an 86 Euro 500 SE with replacement engine
seller had bill from ca. shop that did the replace ment I called the shop ,very friendly said he'd put in a good used 500 Euro engine as bill showed.

engine was running very well uses no oil smooth and good power, since unknown miles on it I decided to put new timing chain and rails in it.

Checked engine no. 116 965 witch makes it a 420 not a 500.Going to finsh up chain job tomorrow ,was sort of mad at first but got to thinking why not a 420 in a 500 I plan to keep it untill the wheels fall off and it burns(B.D.)so resale is not a problem and got a good price on it, I don't drive over 80 (much) and getting 20 + mpg overall, talked to seller last week as he was coming up to bow hunt and he was as supprised as I was......
William Rogers......

I'm getting 5 miles to a litre in the 300SE. I think you're getting a great deal m.p.g.

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... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

Hmm, I'm sure that the W126 chassis holds more than 11 gallons........!

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2006 E350 w/ 155k miles (Daily Driver)

Previous:
1993 300E 3.2L Sedan w/ close to about 300k miles
2003 E500 Brilliant Silver (Had 217k miles when totalled!)
1989 300E with 289,000 miles (had for <1 yr while in HI)
03 CLK 500 cabrio (Mom's)
2006 C230k (Dad's)
1999 S420 (Mom's/Dad's)
2000 C230k Sport sedans
2001 CLK320 Cabrio (Mom's)
1995 C280 My First Mercedes-Benz... (155k miles. EXCEPTIONAL AUTOMOBILE. Was Very hard to let go of!)

In the 500 I got 23 miles to a gallon on average.

Alright.. I am having a hard time trying to figure out what my current MPG is. I believe I have encountered a dip in MPG, but need to confirm it. I also need to know if the center resonator/muffler, which has a hole, could be a cause of it.

I did approx. 80/20 city/highway driving

1) Stopped at Shell gas station, filled the tank completely (had a little left in the tank before filling). I had now a full tank (23.8 gallons) when I added 20.522 gallons. I reset the trip odometer to "000.0".

2) I had an emergency and had to be at the university by a set time, so I didn't want to risk running our of gas, so I added a little gas ( 1.772 gallons) when the fuel reserve light came on. I forgot to record the milage at that point, but didn't reset the trip odometer.

3) Then I had to drive my mother to a mall on the other side of town. At this point, I was between reserve light and the 1/4 tank level. I added (4.611 gallons) and continued driving.

4) Today, I pulled into the gas station with 430.8 miles on the trip odometer. I filled her up to full tank. That required 17.556 gallons.


Alright.. I think I made an error by forgetting at what mile I added #2) and #3). I should be able to know how to calculate this.... although there are many steps due to me #($%&ing up I tried calculating... but I get an answer of around 16.01 MPG. I don't know if that's right. I am not even sure if I did the right calculation steps to come up with an answer. At this point, I am bombed out after a chemistry and statistics midterms and can't think straight. If anyone could figure the MPG with the above information, I would GREATLY appreciated. Oh.. and you'll get a cookie too

Ok, to get my calculations this is what I did. First I assumed that you started (you stated you did) with a full tank.

I added the following:

1.772 Gallons Your emergency Added Fuel
4.611 Gallons Your trip with Mom Fuel
17.556 Gallons To top off the tank to get back to the 23.8 Gallons it originally held when you set the trip odometer.
23.939 Total Gallons Used

You state that the trip odometer read 430.8 miles. So I divided the 430.8 miles by the 23.939 gallons used to go that many miles and I got 17.997 miles per gallon.

Iggy

__________________
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

2006 - Suzuki Gran Vitara (2.0 L fully equipped) Like this car so far except for trying to put on the seatbelt.
1988 - 190e - 2.3L - 172K miles (It now belongs to the exwife)
1999 - Chevy Blazer LS Fully Equiped - killed it June 2006
2001 - Honda Civic EX - 68K miles (sold June 2004)
1963 - 220S - Dual Carb 6 cyl. (sold)
1994 - Yamaha WaveRaider (fun to ride)

Iggy... you are a genius!!!
I see I made an error in my calculations... I added the emergency stop #1 and #2 to the total (23.8) then divided by the distance travelled (430.8)

Can you explain how you came with the 23.939 total gallons used? I kept punching in numbers and don't get anything close to that number. But by looking at it, it makes sense considering the reserve in the total gallons.

Add the variables x y and z!

var x = 1.772 (excess1)
var y = 4.611 (excess2)
var z= 17.556 (gallons used after x + y)

23.939.

All this is assuming that your tank was 23.8 gallons full exactly.

divide 430.9/23.939

= about 18 mpg.

__________________
1987 300SDL (324000)

1986 Porsche 951 (944 Turbo) (166000)

1978 Porsche 924 (99000)

1996 Nissan Pathfinder R50 (201000)

Hey Taka.. thanks for the link. I am somewhat disappointed with the MPG, but what would expect from a car that big. :p The only good thing about the 300SEL is that the insurance is a lot cheaper than of a V8. Other than that... I sometimes wish I had a 560

I get really great gas milage on the highway in my 83 280SL. It drinks gas like a pig in city driving. I wonder what the car is trying to tell me.

The more you drive like an arse, the worse your gas mileage is going to be.

In a diesel, the more you drive like an arse, the better the car runs and fuel economy seems unaffected.

M116/M117 V8's: you hound on them, and you can watch the needle drop over just a few minutes on the highway.

Besides, what fun is a 560SEL when you can never hear the engine? They're too darn quiet.:p

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1987 300SDL (324000)

1986 Porsche 951 (944 Turbo) (166000)

1978 Porsche 924 (99000)

1996 Nissan Pathfinder R50 (201000)