w210 - which one to choose

[renault12ts]

Some published figures from the web....

300dt auto estate:
Fuel consumption (urban)24.8 mpg Fuel consumption (extra urban)40.4 mpg Fuel consumption (combined)32.9 mpg

E230 auto estate:
Fuel consumption (urban)24.6 mpg Fuel consumption (extra urban)43.5 mpg Fuel consumption (combined)34.9 mpg

I know these are figures for new cars, which is why I'm trying to get some real world numbers. for e230 e240 and e300dt.

Common sense says diesel should be more economical, but it makes me think when I see stuff like this!

Did you notice what I drive? And I had a 300td in the past. The 240 will rarely get 30mpg.

 

[kusanku]

I'm not so sure that the diesel is more econimcal these days. It has better MPG, but it costs more to fill up.

I'd still like to know how many litres of fuel people normally put in their cars and how many miles you can cover, so i can compare the different engines in the real world?

I bet it's closer than you think!

It may be closer than some might think, but of the options you cite, the 300TD is still the most economical if you work out the cost per mile. If we start with the average price of diesel as £6.12 per gallon and petrol as £5.89, based on a price comparison website I just consulted, we can work out the cost per mile by dividing this figure by the average mpg per vehicle. These figures may not be entirely accurate, but Parkers list the average mpg of the 300TD as 35mpg, the E240 as 25mpg and the E230 as 31 mpg. This gives the price per mile as:
E300TD 17.5p
E240 23.7p
E230 19p

So you could argue that the E300TD offers only marginally better economy than the E230, but that is combined with considerably better performance.