I've just bought my girlfriend a lovely ML500, we needed a car with seven seats and always fancied an AMG. As the AMG doesnt come with seven seats we settled for the 500 fully loaded with family, lux pack and full AMG kit (except the bonnet).
The truck is a 2003 model. It is perfect apart from one one of the mercedes roof bars have a bung missing so cannot fit it, the screen at the comand will not show movies (the roof screen works fine). Also one of the rear air vents has a director missing.
We are also noticing rather high fuel bills. I thought about fitting a gas conversion but this will take up too much boot space.
I had my Lancia integrale fitted with a performance chip, this actually reduced the fuel costs when driven like a granny. Has anybody chipped their 500 with improved fuel efficiency?

Any help most appreciated.

 

It's a V8 suv,, not to be rude, but what do you expect? What are you getting mpg wise?

 

pretty much the same as most people on the forum seem to get, around 17mpg depending on driving conditions.
I was expecting large fuel bills, my 7 series BMW was not too bad on fuel when driven slowly. Although it was a litre smaller in capacity. I thought the ML would be similar but it seems to like to drink at all speeds.

 

The Ml has full time awd so it will naturally use more fuel cause of the more moving parts

 

Grant, I think the Mercedes is pretty economical for a suv with a V8. Anyone driving a 2003 LandRover Discovery would be envious. They only get around 10mpg city or highway.