Mercedes 420 gl
Discussion
CHEF_GOLF said:
Hi I am looking to change my Dailey drive from an amazon 4.7 to a merc gl 420
I would like to know the real life fuel consumption and any other issues that is associated with them
Thanks
Having had one for around 18 months and 25k miles, I'd summarise as follows:I would like to know the real life fuel consumption and any other issues that is associated with them
Thanks
Fuel consumption is OK - round town from cold it's tragic at 18mpg, as you'd expect, but I've averaged around 26-27mpg in the last 5000 miles.
Mine had a fair few problems when I got it, but these were all fixed under warranty. Other than that, I've only had a rear wiper motor fail, and replaced an EGR valve. Tne original battery was also dying, giving all sorts of weird system warnings - never failed to start the car, but it was just a but annoying. £150 for a battery was a bit OTT but sorted it out. I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes for servicing - half the price of Mercedes and immeasurably better.
Tyre wear is excellent. I swapped mine around 15k miles back and there's still loads of life left.
Insurance is stupidly cheap, given the size/price/performance - about half what I was paying for a Disco3.
Other things - the sat nav is rubbish, the headlights are the best I've ever used, it's amazingly good at cruising motorways, and it's as good as my Disco3 off-road (at least for my purposes). The low ratio and locking centre/rear diffs make it pretty much unstoppable on the right tyres. The seats (mine are the "they cost HOW much" optional ultra-luxury ones, admittedly) are rather splendid places to spend 12 hours crossing Europe, which is one of the places the car really makes sense - mine's done probably eight trips to the Alps now and I can't think of a better car to do the journey and cope with the conditions when you're there.
Oh, and it's fast. Really fast if you have it remapped. All things are relative, obviously, but for a bus weighing near-on three tonnes, its performance is decidedly better than adequate.
TL;DR - it's big and thirsty, but not too bad if you don't persistently drive it in town. Nothing major goes wrong.
longblackcoat said:
Having had one for around 18 months and 25k miles, I'd summarise as follows:
Fuel consumption is OK - round town from cold it's tragic at 18mpg, as you'd expect, but I've averaged around 26-27mpg in the last 5000 miles.
Mine had a fair few problems when I got it, but these were all fixed under warranty. Other than that, I've only had a rear wiper motor fail, and replaced an EGR valve. Tne original battery was also dying, giving all sorts of weird system warnings - never failed to start the car, but it was just a but annoying. £150 for a battery was a bit OTT but sorted it out. I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes for servicing - half the price of Mercedes and immeasurably better.
Tyre wear is excellent. I swapped mine around 15k miles back and there's still loads of life left.
Insurance is stupidly cheap, given the size/price/performance - about half what I was paying for a Disco3.
Other things - the sat nav is rubbish, the headlights are the best I've ever used, it's amazingly good at cruising motorways, and it's as good as my Disco3 off-road (at least for my purposes). The low ratio and locking centre/rear diffs make it pretty much unstoppable on the right tyres. The seats (mine are the "they cost HOW much" optional ultra-luxury ones, admittedly) are rather splendid places to spend 12 hours crossing Europe, which is one of the places the car really makes sense - mine's done probably eight trips to the Alps now and I can't think of a better car to do the journey and cope with the conditions when you're there.
Oh, and it's fast. Really fast if you have it remapped. All things are relative, obviously, but for a bus weighing near-on three tonnes, its performance is decidedly better than adequate.
TL;DR - it's big and thirsty, but not too bad if you don't persistently drive it in town. Nothing major goes wrong.
I'm looking to go from Discovery 3 HSE to GL420. Is there anything the Merc doesn't do as well as the D3? Not worried about fuel and have noted the extra 24cm length.Fuel consumption is OK - round town from cold it's tragic at 18mpg, as you'd expect, but I've averaged around 26-27mpg in the last 5000 miles.
Mine had a fair few problems when I got it, but these were all fixed under warranty. Other than that, I've only had a rear wiper motor fail, and replaced an EGR valve. Tne original battery was also dying, giving all sorts of weird system warnings - never failed to start the car, but it was just a but annoying. £150 for a battery was a bit OTT but sorted it out. I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes for servicing - half the price of Mercedes and immeasurably better.
Tyre wear is excellent. I swapped mine around 15k miles back and there's still loads of life left.
Insurance is stupidly cheap, given the size/price/performance - about half what I was paying for a Disco3.
Other things - the sat nav is rubbish, the headlights are the best I've ever used, it's amazingly good at cruising motorways, and it's as good as my Disco3 off-road (at least for my purposes). The low ratio and locking centre/rear diffs make it pretty much unstoppable on the right tyres. The seats (mine are the "they cost HOW much" optional ultra-luxury ones, admittedly) are rather splendid places to spend 12 hours crossing Europe, which is one of the places the car really makes sense - mine's done probably eight trips to the Alps now and I can't think of a better car to do the journey and cope with the conditions when you're there.
Oh, and it's fast. Really fast if you have it remapped. All things are relative, obviously, but for a bus weighing near-on three tonnes, its performance is decidedly better than adequate.
TL;DR - it's big and thirsty, but not too bad if you don't persistently drive it in town. Nothing major goes wrong.
Dave Thornton said:
longblackcoat said:
Having had one for around 18 months and 25k miles, I'd summarise as follows:
Fuel consumption is OK - round town from cold it's tragic at 18mpg, as you'd expect, but I've averaged around 26-27mpg in the last 5000 miles.
Mine had a fair few problems when I got it, but these were all fixed under warranty. Other than that, I've only had a rear wiper motor fail, and replaced an EGR valve. Tne original battery was also dying, giving all sorts of weird system warnings - never failed to start the car, but it was just a but annoying. £150 for a battery was a bit OTT but sorted it out. I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes for servicing - half the price of Mercedes and immeasurably better.
Tyre wear is excellent. I swapped mine around 15k miles back and there's still loads of life left.
Insurance is stupidly cheap, given the size/price/performance - about half what I was paying for a Disco3.
Other things - the sat nav is rubbish, the headlights are the best I've ever used, it's amazingly good at cruising motorways, and it's as good as my Disco3 off-road (at least for my purposes). The low ratio and locking centre/rear diffs make it pretty much unstoppable on the right tyres. The seats (mine are the "they cost HOW much" optional ultra-luxury ones, admittedly) are rather splendid places to spend 12 hours crossing Europe, which is one of the places the car really makes sense - mine's done probably eight trips to the Alps now and I can't think of a better car to do the journey and cope with the conditions when you're there.
Oh, and it's fast. Really fast if you have it remapped. All things are relative, obviously, but for a bus weighing near-on three tonnes, its performance is decidedly better than adequate.
TL;DR - it's big and thirsty, but not too bad if you don't persistently drive it in town. Nothing major goes wrong.
I'm looking to go from Discovery 3 HSE to GL420. Is there anything the Merc doesn't do as well as the D3? Not worried about fuel and have noted the extra 24cm length.Fuel consumption is OK - round town from cold it's tragic at 18mpg, as you'd expect, but I've averaged around 26-27mpg in the last 5000 miles.
Mine had a fair few problems when I got it, but these were all fixed under warranty. Other than that, I've only had a rear wiper motor fail, and replaced an EGR valve. Tne original battery was also dying, giving all sorts of weird system warnings - never failed to start the car, but it was just a but annoying. £150 for a battery was a bit OTT but sorted it out. I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes for servicing - half the price of Mercedes and immeasurably better.
Tyre wear is excellent. I swapped mine around 15k miles back and there's still loads of life left.
Insurance is stupidly cheap, given the size/price/performance - about half what I was paying for a Disco3.
Other things - the sat nav is rubbish, the headlights are the best I've ever used, it's amazingly good at cruising motorways, and it's as good as my Disco3 off-road (at least for my purposes). The low ratio and locking centre/rear diffs make it pretty much unstoppable on the right tyres. The seats (mine are the "they cost HOW much" optional ultra-luxury ones, admittedly) are rather splendid places to spend 12 hours crossing Europe, which is one of the places the car really makes sense - mine's done probably eight trips to the Alps now and I can't think of a better car to do the journey and cope with the conditions when you're there.
Oh, and it's fast. Really fast if you have it remapped. All things are relative, obviously, but for a bus weighing near-on three tonnes, its performance is decidedly better than adequate.
TL;DR - it's big and thirsty, but not too bad if you don't persistently drive it in town. Nothing major goes wrong.
Much better interior, hugely faster, drives a lot more like a car, brakes in a different league than the woeful D3 ones, cruises 15mph faster than the LR.
Just as capable off-road, but makes less of a song and dance about it - fewer buttons and switches.
Seats are immeasurably better than those in the D3.
Minus
No heated windscreen.
D3 shape is much boxier, so a tiny bit more practical if you carry a LOT of bulky stuff, and the 3rd row seats on the Merc have a tiny bit less legroom. Still fine for a 300 mile drive, but not if you're 6'6".
Fewer specialists to service (I use Autoclass in Milton Keynes, who I can't praise highly enough) so you might be stuck with the dreadful Mercedes dealer network.
Slightly strange tyre size so £25/tyre more expensive than a Disco 3 - in the end I went with 255/55 Vredestein Quatrac 4 (i.e. D3 size) which have the right load rating and work fine.
Thanks LBC. I did a test drive in a GL420 today. I found it as good or better than the Discovery 3 in all but 3 areas:
1. Tiny exterior mirrors
2. Transmission reluctant to kickdown or change up as quick as I would like (though I think I've read that getting the software reflashed with a later version cured this???)
3. Seats - really short on the base - 5cm shorter than the Discovery. It felt like I was sitting on it rather than in it (they were also much harder).
On your other post, you mentioned that you had superior optional seats - I will look out for these. If I can find a black one with the right seats and optional electric tailgate (and maybe rear camera) then I would probably buy. As it stands, the D3 does everything I need but too slowly.
1. Tiny exterior mirrors
2. Transmission reluctant to kickdown or change up as quick as I would like (though I think I've read that getting the software reflashed with a later version cured this???)
3. Seats - really short on the base - 5cm shorter than the Discovery. It felt like I was sitting on it rather than in it (they were also much harder).
On your other post, you mentioned that you had superior optional seats - I will look out for these. If I can find a black one with the right seats and optional electric tailgate (and maybe rear camera) then I would probably buy. As it stands, the D3 does everything I need but too slowly.
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