After a successful Turkey Day in our Mercedes R500, I signed up for the minivan-meets-SUV for the Christmas weekend, but only after some careful consideration. "Hmmmmm," I thought to myself. "It's more luxurious than our Chevy Tahoe. It's more everything than our Kia Sedona...
During the long weekend, which included the usual trip to grandma's house, R-Class packed to the gills with family and gifts, the R500 performed as wonderfully as I expected. Seat comfort is top notch, and my 65-lb. pound puppy loves the R500's cargo area. You'd think it was lined with Slim Jims he hops up in there so quickly.
Overall the weekend was uneventful, but the R500 did reach a couple of milestones while in my possession. The first is the 17,000 mile mark, which it blasted past on the I-10 Freeway just outside of historic and picturesque San Bernardino, California, birthplace of McDonald's and that other temple of the taste buds, Taco Bell. The second milestone reached by the R500 is its first real problem. Seems the power liftgate isn't closing itself as well as it once did. It now leaves itself ajar, requiring the driver, or the driver's kid, to climb out, walk back there and give it a good slam. We'll address it at the car's next scheduled maintenance visit.
Too bad our local Mercedes-Benz dealer can't do anything about the R500's fuel mileage. The thing drinks premium and the trip computer says we've averaged 16.7 mpg over the last 17,285 miles.
Inside Line Editor-in-Chief Scott Oldham @ 17,325 miles
ahightower says:
07:16 AM, 12/28/06
16.7 mpg sounds good to me. It'ss probably a little better than most V8 SUVs, and only slightly worse than most V6 minivans. A lot of vans are rated 19/26 or so, but read your minivan forums about real world mpg and you'll see averages in the high teens.
desmolicious says:
12:58 PM, 12/28/06
But that's running superunleaded! Eeesh...
billt9 says:
05:45 PM, 12/28/06
4917 lb R500. Compare to 4200 lb Sienna, 4700 lb Odyssey, and 5300 lb Tahoe. It's got the correct mpg. An alternative would be the R320 CDI, 21/28 mpg, up from the R500's 14/19 mpg. A person's choice to choose the 5.0L engine.
desmolicious says:
11:41 AM, 12/29/06
An Odyssey weighs 4700lbs? Great googly moogly! No wonder our roads are crumbling beneath us...
rsholland says:
02:56 PM, 12/29/06
If you consider a 4700 pound Odyssey heavy, what do you consider an 80,000 pound Freightliner?
More than likely it's the Freighliner and all its other Class 8 buddys that are making the roads crumble. :)
desmolicious says:
03:53 PM, 12/29/06
Yah, but I don't see too many Freightliners tear up my local suburban streets...
Seriously dood, around here in Venice and Santa Monica I swear I saw some road between the potholes...