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Don't believe everything you read on a Monroney sheet.
I recently did a three-day, 1,436-mile drive in
a 2006 Mercedes-Benz
R500, and one aspect of the trip had us quite
apprehensive. Well, it wasn't so much an aspect of
the trip as it was the fact that just days before
I was to depart Phoenix for Breckenridge, Colorado,
the price of gasoline started hovering right around
$3 a gallon, so the prospect of nearly 1500 miles
had me wishing our test car of the week had about
half as many thirsty cylinders as the R500 had under
its hood.
The 5.0-liter, 306-horsepower V8 in what Mercedes
calls a sport tourer is a wonderful engine, but if
you look at the Monroney sticker, you discover that
the Environmental Protection Agency says that even
sending its power through a seven-speed automatic
transmission, that engine returns only13 miles per
gallon in the city and just 18 mpg on the highway.
Fortunately, I'd be doing my driving on highways.
Unfortunately, most of those highways would involve
some serious altitude, not to mention some pretty
serious climbs - just going from the Valley of the
Sun to Flagstaff involves several thousand feet in
elevation gain, and in Colorado we'd have to tackle
one mountain pass more than 10,800 feet above sea
level and another that took us above 11,500 feet.
You want wonderful gas mileage, do you driving at
sea level, not up in the stratosphere where the thinner
air robs an engine of its power and makes it work
harder (burn more fuel) as it tries to compensate
for the lack of oxygen.
Worried about my wallet, I headed north on Interstate
17 to "Flag."
Tangent alert! Before the trip, I went to Mapquest
to see just how far it was from Phoenix to Breckenridge.
Way too far, the website reported.
When I looked at the route details, I realized the
website's mapping service defaults to major highways
and was directing me from Phoenix to Flag and then
to Albuquerque, New Mexico on I-40 and then to Santa
Fe on I-25 before heading north on US 285.
I think Interstates should be avoided whenever possible
on such drives, and fortunately noticed the "Advanced
Options" link so I clicked it and then the "Shortest
Distance" button and cut like 200 miles from
the trip and thus confirmed the route I'd planned
to take in the first place: Phoenix to Flag to Tuba
City to Four Corners to Cortez, Durango and Pagosa
Springs, where we figured to spend the night.
Not only was it shorter, but even Mapquest said
it would cut more than an hour from the drive.
Tangent alert 2! I got an uncharacteristically late
start and it was getting dark by the time I reached
Pagosa Springs. Tired and hungry, I - again uncharacteristically
-- actually stopped at a chain motel. Fortunately,
they had no more singles for the night, and the young
woman working the desk suggested I drive six more
miles to the other side of town, where her aunt worked,
and where there was a steakhouse right across the
parking lot.
It was wonderful advice, because the High Country
Lodge is a wonderful facility with friendly hosts
and the price of a room or cabin includes breakfast,
and the Ol' Miners Steakhouse is quaint, intimate
and serves wonderful food. I liked the Lodge and
restaurant so much I stayed both nights I was in
Colorado.
After a night's sleep and a hot breakfast, I headed
up over Wolf Creek Pass and on toward Breckenridge,
stopping briefly for a chat with a Colorado state
trooper who gave me a warning for being 5-over the
posted speed limit.
Tangent alert 3! I'm not sure what the deal was,
but I've never seen speed limit enforcement like
I did that Saturday in Colorado. Whether local police,
marshals, sheriffs or state troopers, the roads were
lined with red and blue light topped vehicles. In
fact, one town that couldn't have been home to more
than a couple hundred people had three cars clocking
speeds on its main drag!
Anyway, I got to Breckenridge - not to ski but to
pick up my brother, who had flown out from his home
in Virginia with co-workers for a convention in Denver.
While some of the party went skiing, my brother and
I would drive down to Hartsel, to check out some
land we'd inherited.
In many ways, the Mercedes R-Class is a terrific
road trip vehicle. With its V8 engine, it's fast,
but also surefooted with its full-time four-wheel
drive. It's also roomy, whether you have people or
cargo to carry.
After nearly 1500 miles, however, I also have some
nits to pick.
First of all, you can't read the navigation screen
or trip computer when wearing polarized sunglasses.
And it's not just Mercedes. I find this in way too
many vehicles.
Second nit: The door detents aren't detented enough.
Again, this is a problem not just with this Mercedes,
but with too many of the cars I drive. When I push
the driver's door open, I expect it to stay open,
not bounce back or have even a gentle breeze blow
it back in my face.
Third nit: I found the headlamps barely adequate
for driving after dark. This was a real surprise,
especially from a German automaker that designs vehicles
for driving on the autobahn at considerable rates
of speed day or night.
On the other hand, my trip showed me one very positively
surprising thing about the R-Class. I filled its
fuel tank four times on the trip. While the trip
computer indicated that I was averaging between 19
and 21 miles per gallon, when I did the math with
actual mileage and fuel used figures, I actually
averaged 22.6, 21.1, 23.9 and 23.1 miles per gallon,
or basically four to five miles per gallon more than
the Monroney sticker said to expect, and yet, as
that Colorado state trooper can attest, I wasn't
exactly babying the gas pedal.
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