Today's trip to Utah was good. Car performed flawlessly. Set the cruise at 80 going up, 75 coming back, and I averaged 30.5 MPG. This also includes 30 miles of very spirited driving though the Virgin River Gorge and about an hour of running around in St. George. This car is great. First I've had that I actually achieve EPA numbers in.

When I got back to Vegas I noticed the auto start-stop began functioning. It hadn't been operating for the week I'd had the car, which I had chalked up to one of three possible causes:
1) fuel quality. I assume the dealer would have put regular unleaded in. The manual says fuel quality can be an exception to A.S.S. I've now run through the gas the dealer had in it.

2) battery charge. It's been at a dealership for 2 months, good bet the battery wasn't fully charged. Today's drive will have resolved that .

3) prior owner had coded it out.

I'm glad I know that it is working, even if I'll likely leave it disabled. As a 2017 the disable button is a persistent setting which is great.

 

car sounds great, and over 30mpg is great too!

 

This is an easy way to tell if the smaller engine is "enough". When we got our Q7, one of the deciding factors for the supercharged V6 was that it got exactly the same fuel economy as the turbo 4. That told me the 2.0T (which is a great engine in its own right) was working harder than necessary on this platform.

 

That's how I see it too.

Years ago they made millions of the Chevy Cavaliers with a 4 banger engine.

There were other GM products that used the same engine, such as Buicks.

They were sub 100k mile cars before the engine was completely ragged out and SPENT. Lol

The same exact car with a with V6 didn't have that problem.

My theory is the 4 banger was too weak for the car from the start.

 

Seems like having a Cavalier die sooner rather than later would be a mercy.

 

That sounds like a nice road trip. It is impressive that these cars can meet or exceed EPA estimates while enjoying the car.

 

same with the GLE350 vs 450, there's basically no upside to the 4 cyl apart from saving a bit of money... but if you're shopping in the GLE/X5/Q7 segment i have to think anyone getting the 350 would have no problem getting the 450 (assuming there's no issues with availability or dealer markup)

 

Used engine prices too high? Just buy a whole car that has been hit and take its engine instead.....

It comes with extras too, and more work for me! Because I'm just to nice to people I actually agreed to doing this job "twice" since apparently used 3.0S engines are quite pricy.

The plus side is I'm getting paid book time and I beat the hell out of it, calls for 28 hours end to end and I had it out in under 7. Being paid 14 and I also get to strip and sell the car as much as I want and keep the extra.

I've somehow been yet to be screwed over working on an Audi. All have been unusually easy/under time to the point I'm just waiting for a "hellstorm" car to show up

 

that's 40 years ago... engines have become a TON more reliable now.

i just looked and starting prices are $7K apart.

 

Yep. Also, obviously, an engine that works harder is going to be strained. I'm sure a 300SL can last forever don't get me wrong. But the V8 in the 500 just doesn't have to work at all. I really don't drive the car that hard because it equally likes to waft like a big V8 luxury sedan which is very nice.

That's another reason V8s can last forever is because they are so under stressed.

You got the S/C and I'm sure you're more than glad you did. I don't blame you.. The S/C will give you the buffer and extra power when you load it down with family and gear also. 2.0t would really start to noticeably strain loaded down and probably deliver worse MPG than yours.

Same thing with GM trucks, the 5.3 and 6.2 mileage difference is a wash. 6.2 needs premium, only downside but will run fine on mid grade.

The whole thing is stupid really..... if you have a huge engine or high performance car or huge truck or SUV, forget about MPG. We all got along just fine before the TV started telling us our cars use too much gas.

 

The problem with some domestic 4-bangers of years ago was not so much that they were highly-streesed, but that they were just poorly engineered and used questionable materials. Toyota and Honda produced 4-bangers that could go 200-300K.

 

the BMW valve stem seals would like a word with you lol... but curiously the ones used in their V8s and not I6s

 

Oh, BMW just can’t make a V8 period end of story and never could. At least, not ones that don’t turn into garbage at silly low mileage. From the Nikasil (sp?) issues in the beginning to the plastic timing chain guides to the valvetrains that turn into messes, hard pass on any BMW V8.

I pretty much meant most V8s in existence other than BMW, lol.

 

Monkey's paw curls

You now have a 6.2 V8 diesel from an 80's GM truck

 

Ya lost me lol. Glad you like the 540.