Just filled my gas tank to the max and awaiting for tomorrow morning's drive. My friend and I are driving in my car from Columbus to Indianapolis to see a NCAA basketball game (UCLA/DUKE "go bruins!"). Then if the weather is favorable.. we will continue to Dennison, Illinois which is a border town in Illinois and then head back home all in one day. If the weather is not favorable.. we will watch game 2 of our package ticketing deal.

I will learn how my car acts during a long trip like this and also see its gas milage on the highway. Wish us luck!

We got St. Christopher (driver's guardian) on our side!

What a fluke!! I just gassed up my car also for a roadtrip into winter wonderland north of where I am! Me and a freind are going snowmobiling.

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

Man, I wanna see the duke game....How long have you had those tickets?

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Brandon



2008 S550
1957 Dodge D100
1967 VW Microbus 21 Window
2001 Suburban
2004 Beach cruiser bicycle
-----------------GO DUKE!-----------------

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry 1776

I'm back! And I am happy eventhough UCLA lost to Duke, I will get to the reason in just a little bit. Here is what happened...

it took about 2 hours and 30 minutes each way from Columbus to Indianapolis.. and back. On a full tank(from full untill the yellow reserve light lights up) I got 368.1 miles.


368.1 miles / 20 gallons.... 18.045 MPG going about 75-80 MPH most of the way. I don't know if thats good... but I hoped my gas milage was over 20.. or am I asking too much for that big of a car?

Now back to the game.. my buddy ordered the tix off ticketmaster but they only had cheap tickets left. We still went with it.. but we were able to sneak down to the middle level which are great seats. UCLA gained an early 10 point lead and then poof it went. They lost by 11 in the end of the game. Duke does nothing but shoot 3's and they make the craziest shots. UCLA's team is not good IMO.. but Duke's is. Now.. the best part of the day was... I met, shook hands and got an autograph from John Wooden! wow! it was an honor to meet the 92 year old Wizard of Westwood.... AKA best NCAA basketball coach of all time PERIOD! He's remarkably healthy and doing well for a 92 year old man... heck his handwriting is way better than mine at his age!! all in all.. it was a great day. No accidents, no porker pull overs... and weather was somewhat OK but it got worse on the way back.

see ya guys later!

John Wooden is great. I was fortunate enough to attend his basketball camps for several years when I was much younger, which paved the way for me to get a scholarship to play basketball in college. Glad to hear he is still going strong. BTW...UCLA kicked our ass the only time University of San Diego played them while I was there....Aloha

boy 18mpg would kinda stink
But at least you had a nice drive

Dan whats a good MPG rate for this car? I was expecting maybe the mid 20's on the highway. Is there an idea speed where you can drive the fastest and get most milage for the gallon? I mean.. I know that at certain speeds, the engine is working a lot harder due to wind.

18 Mpg sounds about right I think it was 14 city and 19 highway for the 380 if I remeber right. And I think the speed where the engine has the greatest eco. is 55 but that is way to slow for me. I'm still happy with the 23mpg the 500 got on the highway

I just got back from two days at the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona (I decided at the last minute to ride down and forgot your number Dan). Went in the 300TD - ran great. Six hours each way and it averaged around 22-23 mpg.

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Jim

No, it isn't. Doesn't your inline Six have a pretty steep final-drive ratio in it, anyway? I mean, what is it revving at around 75-80 mph? That would account for some of the fuel economy figure.

The 380SE isn't as quick as a Euro 500SEL would be, but it's gotten as high as 24 mpg before (2 people from Ellensburg, WA to Seattle, WA on I-90, over a 3,000 foot mountain pass at 70 mph approx. average speed. No A/C on).

My car gets 22-23 mpg on the highway. Bad for a 2.3 liter four, I can thank the turbocharger for that.

-Sam

well my trip was cancelled for safety reasons because here in my area of canada we have to deal with lake effect snow and therefore many roads were closed in the area where I was going so I decided to chill at home and forget about it....not to think that also the 126 would have had to battle the road salt and sand that they put.

Took it to the car wash and she sat happily in the garage spic and span!

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

Going 75.. the RPM was at 35K. At 80MPH it was about 38K. Too high? Yes its a M103 motor, I would think gas milage would be better than the other w126's, but its also a weaker engine compared to the others and the car is heavy. So I am assuming I am getting normal MPG????

I get just under 30 mpg on the highway at 120 km/h (around 70-75 mph) with my 3.8 litre 6. Going to a 300 SD I realize I will actually be getting worse mileage, and lower power, but oh well, I want it for other reasons.

The 380SE tachs over 2,800 at 80 mph in top gear. Of course, it's got a lot lower final-drive ratio than your car does. That's where the difference in fuel economy comes from, I'm willing to bet.

I wonder if a 420SEL from the same year as your car would get better mileage than your 6-cylinder. It has the same final-drive as our 380SE.

Nice! I can't think of any other engine of that displacement that gets as good mileage as the old GM 3.8 V6.

-Sam