E300 BlueTech Hybrid - 1 Month On....

[Sportwag]

Really enjoying the car and getting used to some of the quirks of driving the Hybrid model such as increased engine braking (without using the Glide feature), engine cutting in and out on a (very) random basis - convinced passers by think I am stalling!

Some observations: -

Why oh why do the parking sensors not beep until you are right on an object - still getting used to the led displays!
Seatbelt buckle not having anywhere to go when it retracts (narrow gap between seat and pillar.
Exposed boot hinges can catch on items in the boot is full.
Car creeps and creaks when applying the handbrake - not in keeping with MB image!
That rubber strip on the rear glass screen looks like an after thought but really works.
Engine quite noisy when it first cuts when cold.

Car drives beautifully and I am averaging around 45mpg as many of the miles have so far been urban.

Interested to know what the others think.

 

[pse1336982]

Sportwag,
It took me several weeks to finally get the hang of the new E300... getting 53-55mpg (if I try hard...).

I also took all the self driving gadgets, which are amazing, but again blow your mind initially.

Cheers,

pse1336982

 

[Sportwag]

I find the brakes take a bit of getting used to - on battery it sometimes feels as if there is no servo. On other occasions it feels as if the engine is trying to nudge forward and the brakes are fighting to hold on. I haven't started to pile on the miles yet so my last fill up was only 38.4mpg actual (into 220/250 CDi territory) but that will improve. Effortless thing to drive and extremely comfortable. The 5 Series may have the edge on driving dynamics but they look dull in comparison to the new E.

 

[cp3377]

The brakes do take getting used to - they are hard to modulate when in electric I find, especially when you are about to stop. The other time is when you start with electric and have to take your foot off and back on again to gain full braking - that made for a few interesting occurrences to start with...

I've done almost 8k miles in mine now and am averaging about 50 - it's 51.4 according to the trip computer but I've done a few measures brim to brim and it is about 1-1.5% optimistic. I do a fair amount of town driving as well as longer distance and what amazes me is that I often get well over 40 pottering around the city. Slightly different from my old E500 which used to indicate c18 on the same journeys. It has definitely improved with age too. I'm also using v-power diesel although the few tanks of standard I've tried have also seen pretty similar consumption.

Overall I'm delighted with it - the car attracts quite a lot of positive attention - especially the LED lights, and people seem to like the Cavansite Blue colour too - and it's a great car to spend time in, truly refined at speed, and the electric motor makes it more interesting to drive too. I just wish they'd offered air suspension as that would be the icing on the cake for me. I also like the fact that it isn't a 5-Series, which is a great car but just incredibly common compared to these.

Hope you guys enjoy yours as much as I do mine. Keep up the updates!

 

[pse1336982]

Gadgets

All,
The Hybrid is great fun and I am slowly getting the hang of it. Definitely a different style of driving and I am enjoying slowing down. However it's the gadgets that amuse me the most. I have the Driver Assistance package and it will self-drive the car at speeds below 20mph (in slow traffic), steering, acceleration etc... and also steers when going faster but makes you put your hands on the wheel after 15 seconds. All this while staying 25m behind the car in front.

When cruising at 70mph on the flat I get 62mpg and I have a E300 Hybrid Estate (see below).

Anyway, very very pleased with the car. It's as good as I hoped it would be.

Cheers,

P.

 

[f1ack2]

I ordered one of these on Monday, AMG Sport saloon in Canvasite blue. No options though, as at the top of my car allowance in standard trim. I had a demo car over the weekend on a 3 day test drive which did 55.4mpg over the 500 miles I did in it.

Won't get it until the 3rd March though, as that is when my current 5 Series goes back.

 

[HaywainMike]

1 month on

I've had my E300 Hybrid estate for a month now and do love it. Much more refined and comfortable than my 5 series touring. I'm still not sure how to achieve the better fuel consumptions? Any advice? The best I've done is 53.3 mpg on a motorway drive, but round town I guess the best I get is about 35 mpg. Several people say they are getting used to using the electric motor more, I have been trying but find that unless I'm prepared to pull away like a slug the engine simply starts up. It's very difficult to keep the battery consumption gauge below the red - when the engine starts - for very long at all. I have also failed to get the battery charged any more than about 83%. Your experiences of this would be helpful.
My car is covelline blue which I could not get a look at in real life before the car arrived! luckily it is stunning!

 

[Ash]

HaywainMike - are you comparing the 300 with the current 5 series or previous? I'd be interested to hear how it compares with current which is supposed to be very refined.
and from others how the e300 compares to the 250CDI, which does have quite a buzzy engine i find
cheers
Ash

 

[cp3377]

All,
The Hybrid is great fun and I am slowly getting the hang of it. Definitely a different style of driving and I am enjoying slowing down. However it's the gadgets that amuse me the most. I have the Driver Assistance package and it will self-drive the car at speeds below 20mph (in slow traffic), steering, acceleration etc... and also steers when going faster but makes you put your hands on the wheel after 15 seconds. All this while staying 25m behind the car in front.

When cruising at 70mph on the flat I get 62mpg and I have a E300 Hybrid Estate (see below).

Anyway, very very pleased with the car. It's as good as I hoped it would be.

Cheers,

P.

Driver assistance sounds interesting - out of my price range unfortunately but I'd love to try one with it. Btw - did you buy some additional wheel as it looks like you have an SE but with AMG 18's - looks good!

 

[cp3377]

I've had my E300 Hybrid estate for a month now and do love it. Much more refined and comfortable than my 5 series touring. I'm still not sure how to achieve the better fuel consumptions? Any advice? The best I've done is 53.3 mpg on a motorway drive, but round town I guess the best I get is about 35 mpg. Several people say they are getting used to using the electric motor more, I have been trying but find that unless I'm prepared to pull away like a slug the engine simply starts up. It's very difficult to keep the battery consumption gauge below the red - when the engine starts - for very long at all. I have also failed to get the battery charged any more than about 83%. Your experiences of this would be helpful.
My car is covelline blue which I could not get a look at in real life before the car arrived! luckily it is stunning!

I find if you drive it normally and eat up to speed then you benefit better from the electric motor- you cans come off the throttle and also use the glide to help you (by pulling on the up shift paddle and nudging it along a little. I don't think the figures you're getting are too bad incidentally and it should improve as the engine loosens up over the next 10k.

 

[RFdesigner]

I've been following the Hybrid with interest. I have the old 210 E320CDi, but I get >40mpg in the real world and have made a couple of eco-mods.. the main one being, adjusting the nut behind the wheel.

Some things that are helpful to think about to get the best from a Hybrid.

Hybrids can work really well, but you need to make sure you're using the electric stopping in preference to the brakes (obvious I know), once the brake pads start to bite your economy is going straight down the drain. So anticipation is all, keep your distance so that you can do light electric braking.

Note: Kinetic energy in your car is proportional to the square of your speed.. I keep the maths simple by thinking of speed in 10s of mph.. braking hard from 40 = 4^2 = 16 units of energy into the brakes.. gentle electric braking from 40-30 then braking hard = 3^2 = 9 units.. a 43% improvement... electric braking from 40 -0 will always be best of course.

With a Hybrid doing the 'sailing', you have substantially reduced mechanical drag, so driving a bit slower will yield massively better FE compared to a normal car... fuel economy really should follow a 1/speed^2 profile at high speed, 60mph could be almost 30% more efficient than 70mph... depending on your tyre pressures.

Rolling resistance is a fixed cost per distance.. regardless of speed, manufacturers will inflate to tyre sidewall max or close to for testing. It's perfectly safe to raise pressures and contrary to popular myth it doesn't make the centre tread wear out excessively early. With Hybrids being so efficient in most other respects, rolling resistance is the last big loss to be dealt with and makes a huge difference. I think MB even issued a recall at one point to raise tyre pressures after complaints over poor fuel economy.

Ancillary systems, Once you've got the mechanics of pushing a car along pretty efficient, you realise you don't need that much energy.. so every other load will really stand out. I'm not saying do stupid things like driving without headlights or anything, just be aware that any heating system will really pour your economy down the drain.

i.e. On those mornings where I have a windscreen covered in ice, I use 'cold' tap water (~12C) to warm it up, this means I can start the car and drive off with no warm up period and saves a huge amount of fuel. (I have a gravel drive, so ice on the ground is always below the top layer of gravel.. not sure I'd do this on a flat tarmac drive)

 

[Sportwag]

Just under 1300 miles on the clock. Trip Computer = 40.9, Actual (exact calc) 37.67. Mix of town and longer runs.

Slight niggle when on diesel, the foot brake requires a gentle touch to mover the gear shifter into D. On battery it requires a firmer shove. Had a few false starts!

 

[m1br]

All,
When cruising at 70mph on the flat I get 62mpg and I have a E300 Hybrid Estate (see below)

I find this hybrid thing all a bit odd.
The new E220CDi E here is regularly making 60mpg on a motorway run.
I can eek out 68mpg keeping the speed down a bit more.

And there are a couple of these E300 around here, they look nice but in the body they seem to be a hybrid of AMG bits mixed with the older E Class front end.
Maybe they are older models?

I just don't get what the advantages are - they are much more expensive aren't they?
So where is the payback over and above the E220 say?

 

[V12]

I just don't get what the advantages are - they are much more expensive aren't they?
So where is the payback over and above the E220 say?

Around town is where they shine.

 

[f1ack2]

I had three day test drives on a 220CDI manual (SE Spec), 220 CDI auto (AMG Sport), and the 300H (AMG Sport). I did the same 35 mile route in all three cars (mainly clear dual carriageway), plus my current 520d Msport (2011 spec with 93,000 on the clock). Results were;

220CDi manual - 53.3mpg
220CDI auto - 53.3mpg
300H - 55.4mpg
BMW 520d - 57.8mpg

I over each of the three days I covered 500-600 miles in each of the Mercs and the two 220CDI's both averaged 46.6mpg and the 300H averaged 48.2mpg. My BMW has done 48mpg over it's life. So based on the extra speed (and it is really noticable over and above the BMW) and the lower BIK tax the E300 was a no brainer. It really excelled when I was stuck in crawlling traffic on the M25 for an hour, the engine only started twice for short bursts, rest of the time it was in Hybrid mode. Now as I do 800 miles a week I spend a lot of time crawling in traffic, so I think real world the Hybrid will work out well. As mentioned above the Hybrid system is great for round town and in traffic, on a clear high speed run the Hybrid won't save you anything.

 

[cp3377]

On a clear high speed run the 300H is just a heavy E250 but when you can employ the electric motor the fuel saving really kicks in. I found the 300H is 5-7 mpg more economic than a 250 having run bothfor a similar period of time although the 220 might be close that gap. I did 350 miles today on motorways but with quite a bit of variable speed traffic and roadworks involved and got 55mpg despite not hanging around. Similar route yesterday that was a little shorter but with more sustained cruise control travel at slightly higher average speed brought 50 mpg.

 

[HaywainMike]

HaywainMike - are you comparing the 300 with the current 5 series or previous? I'd be interested to hear how it compares with current which is supposed to be very refined.
and from others how the e300 compares to the 250CDI, which does have quite a buzzy engine i find
cheers
Ash

Ash. My 5 Series was an early F11 (Oct 2010) so one of the first ones. If thats the one you're talking about then I still find the E300 more refined, more comfortable and the ride is softer which I much prefer. The extra performance of the Hybrid over the 520d touring which I had is very noticeable. The one issue I'm undecided on is road noise from the rear, especially in the estate. I have the accoutiglass option but cannot really decide how effective this is. I still suspect more road noise is coming through from the back of the car than on the 5 Series. Anybody else finding this?

 

[cp3377]

I think the tyre brand can make a significant difference from what I've read on various threads. I have Michelins on mine and they seem to be the quietest. Also, I think that the Estates will generate more noise from the rear as there is simply less between them so if you have a brand that is noisy this could exacerbate it.

Then there is my little theory - which I'd be interested in views on, that these cars are now so refined in terms of wind and engine noise that the road noise is extremely dominant and therefore seems louder than it used to be. I've driven XFs, new F10 5-Series and W212 E-Classes and the thing that stands out over their respective predecessors is that they are significantly quieter overall, but that tyre noise seems a little more prevalent - because everything else has been largely eliminated.

What do others think?

 

[HumberMart]

Whilst I could accept that more progress has perhaps been made suppressing other noises than tyres, leaving road noise more noticeable, I hold a view that it's due mainly to the quest to reduce weight.

I agree wholeheartedly that road noise is now the main spoiler to refinement and oh boy does a hard concrete surface still make you cringe and search for the ear plugs.

I've convinced myself that all the new range of Mercs have worsened with respect to road noise. The most noticeable to me was when we swapped my wife old B for a new one. Certainly the face lift W212s I find equally poor and I'm convinced have become noisier since the facelift.

I suspect that most panels are thinner. Inc glass, and less carpeting/insulation. They've now cut out the spare wheel well liner on the latest W218s. I remember ripping apart all the rear trims on an R320 (2006) and it was stuffed full of padding and spray foam insulation. Now you can find exposed metal in lots of places on the current crop.

This 'change' is the one thing that worries me most about 'progress' at MB.

 

[Sportwag]

E300 is a big step up in refinement compared to previous A4 Avant (2010 Model Year). The saloon is quiet apart from when the diesel engine first cuts in from cold. My car is fitted with Conti's OEM and the rear tyres are wider than the front. There is some road and tyre noise but overall it is well suppressed.

MB have removed the headlight washers as the lights are LED and so the lenses get noticeably dirty this time of year. Dipped beam is not great at night when the lenses are dirty. Surprised that washers are mandatory for Xenons yet not required for LEDs.