ML 350 CDI 4Matic Sport Blue Efficiency

[bobster316]

I've just recently bought one of these and just wanted some feedback from others who may have the same car.

1. I was expecting alot better fuel consumption than i'm currently getting, round town driving i'm lucky if i get 23 mpg and thats with easy driving.

2. Have also noticed gear change is not always as smooth as it should be, can happen with car's cold or warm, when driving sometimes see the rev counter going above 2000 and expect gear to change up but it doesnt, there seems to be a lag (10 secs) before the gear changes, this is an intermittent problem.

3. Also seen some people reporting issues with injectors, not sure if it applies to the ML aswell.. what are the symptoms ?

Anyone else experienced any issues ?

Thanks

 

[JohnDeere8530]

I've just recently bought one of these and just wanted some feedback from others who may have the same car.

1. I was expecting alot better fuel consumption than i'm currently getting, round town driving i'm lucky if i get 23 mpg and thats with easy driving.

2. Have also noticed gear change is not always as smooth as it should be, can happen with car's cold or warm, when driving sometimes see the rev counter going above 2000 and expect gear to change up but it doesnt, there seems to be a lag (10 secs) before the gear changes, this is an intermittent problem.

3. Also seen some people reporting issues with injectors, not sure if it applies to the ML aswell.. what are the symptoms ?

Anyone else experienced any issues ?

Thanks

Not sure about 1 & 2, however on 3 I believe the injector problems only occur on the smaller diesels, the 350 runs at a lower pressure I think

 

[BTB 500]

I've just recently bought one of these and just wanted some feedback from others who may have the same car.

1. I was expecting alot better fuel consumption than i'm currently getting, round town driving i'm lucky if i get 23 mpg and thats with easy driving.

The 'book' urban figure is 25.2 mpg, so with a new (tight) engine you would expect to get less than that.

 

[grober]

When the engine is cold then sometimes the ECU holds on to the lower gears for longer to help warm up the catalytic converter. Might be that when the engine is cold?

 

[Rory]

1. I was expecting alot better fuel consumption than i'm currently getting, round town driving i'm lucky if i get 23 mpg and thats with easy driving.

Critical thing with diesel autos is to try to avoid actually coming to a stop (not always easy!). There's a lot of waste in the torque convertor (probably exaggerated with 4WD) in picking the car up from rest.

My otherwise pretty economical C270CDi only does 30MPG around town. I take one of our other cars is I can.

 

[w124coupe]

Re number 2, the 7Gs do have a tendency to do that (and sometimes be a little aggressive dropping 2->1 when cold and coming to a gentle stop) - there are still software updates coming out even now.

I assume its the programming trying to ensure the engine doesn't drop out of boost at change-up (as these symptoms don't exist on the non-turbo petrol models). The ECU is aware of attitude on the car (uphill versus downhill) and definitely changes the gearchange points to suit.

Do you see these symptoms when on the flat or on a slope? (I have one hill leading up to a roundabout where I can cause a bumpy change every time by slowing and then accelerating in a certain way).

 

[SportsCoupeRich]

my ml320 cdi will only do 23 / 23 in town driving, 16 in central london but mid 30s on a run up the motorway.

it just isnt an economical car, though you could half those figures for the petrol versions.

7g gearbox does it all the time.

Pics and Specs?

 

[bobster316]

Thanks for everyone's responses, i guess its early days with the car being so new and me not being used to it. I'll monitor its behaviour over the next few weeks/months and see how it goes.

 

[raymont]

Not quite the same car ( has 7 speed box) but wrt the gearbox behaviour I find that it adapts very quickly, i.e. in minutes, to the way I am driving. If I’m just lazing along it will change up as early possible. If I’m pushing on it will hold on to lower gears longer allowing the engine to rev more. The other thing that happens when pushing on is it will delay an up change if I lift off for a few seconds. Seems to be waiting to see if I want to continue accelerating hard. An example of this is when joining a motorway, accelerate quickly to get up speed, lift off throttle to align with a gap in the traffic flow, car holds gear, reapply throttle and plenty of control to merge with the traffic. A couple of minutes of gentle driving and this behaviour disappears.

Certainly holds low gears when cold to aid warm up.

 

[adm]

I've got exactly the same car being delivered next week (was hoping for it this week), so I'll let you know if I see the same thing.

I rented a 320ML in Germany today and did about 350Km in it on the autobahn. It had about 18000 Km on the clock and I got about 35mpg out of it, calculating full tank to full tank. I was booting it too.

I didn't notice any gearbox issues and i was looking to see if the box hunted around a bit too much. I was mainly doing autobahn driving though...

 

[peterg1965]

My GL320 does similar things, the gearbox has always been a little 'jerky' in slow traffic. These cars are simply not economical in town, 2.5 tonnes of metal is a lot to push around! My GL gets about 22mpg around town, now at 14000 miles, and I rarely get above 28mpg on the motorway.

 

[Rory]

I've got exactly the same car being delivered next week (was hoping for it this week), so I'll let you know if I see the same thing.

I rented a 320ML in Germany today and did about 350Km in it on the autobahn. It had about 18000 Km on the clock and I got about 35mpg out of it, calculating full tank to full tank. I was booting it too.

I didn't notice any gearbox issues and i was looking to see if the box hunted around a bit too much. I was mainly doing autobahn driving though...

I guess you like the car, but how does it go on the autobahn?

I love the easy, relaxed driving you get in US SUVs (when in the US) but I've seen comments that ML isn't the same sort of drive at all.

 

[st4]

With an ML it want the 420cdi. As nice as the V6 is (I sampled in a 204) I fear it may be a bit much for a car as large and heavy as an ML. As the economy is so woeful I'd want to do it with style and with 8 upfront.

 

[Baldylocks]

I've just recently bought one of these and just wanted some feedback from others who may have the same car.

1. I was expecting alot better fuel consumption than i'm currently getting, round town driving i'm lucky if i get 23 mpg and thats with easy driving.

I'm glad I went for the 420 then as I get 21 in heavy traffic

 

[hawk20]

The V6 350cdi has ample power for the ML. The 0-62 time is close to the S class at 7.3 seconds and a top speed of 137 should satisfy most in a country with a 70 mph motorway speed limit.

I found it easy to get over 30 mph on a run in the 3 litre but in the 4 litre found it hard to exceed 24/25 mpg. Costly if you do a reasonable mileage.

If the 7 speed box is up to its (sadly) usual tricks I would go and ask them to sort it. Usually software changes can eradicate many of its problems. Oddly on some it is fine: then again on others for no apparent reason it will give fairly frequent jerky changes.

 

[Alex]

The V6 350cdi has ample power for the ML.

You're kidding, right? ML should come with V8 as standard. That and V12.

 

[chrismcn1]

ML350 fuel consumption

I have had 3 MLs and this 350 Sport is the worst. I am getting 21 mpg around town and my local dealer in Ascot is not really interested. We do a short morning journey every morning of around 4 miles and with it on 'choke' it does 19 mpg.
I used to average 25-28 in the previous model so how can they call it Blue Efficiency?
I intend to take it as far as possible as I am not happy with this model.