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Wife wants a R320 CDI - Printable Version

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Wife wants a R320 CDI - turbojeep - 08-30-2019

Wife wants a new hauler and I think my MB diesel bug has finally worn off on her... Are we crazy to be thinking about one of these? Seems like you can pick up a decent CDI one for around $6k. AWD, Diesel, seats 6... Seems like it checks most of the boxes. Also, high 20s low 30s doesn't sound bad either. We put an easy 25k miles a year on our stuff and 14mpg is getting old.

I also saw there were several canned tunes that boast another 2-3mpg (and 65ft of torque and 40hp!) for around $500. 

I was trying to convince her that we needed a E320 with the OM648, but that'll probably be further down the road when my commuter bursts into a ball of fire. 

All in all, it seems tempting. Any pointers?


RE: Wife wants a R320 CDI - dcm - 09-03-2019

I've never had an R class but they seem to be a lot of car for the money, have heard good things about them over here.


RE: Wife wants a R320 CDI - turbojeep - 09-08-2019

Thanks for the feedback. They're such an oddball vehicle over here that not many people talk about them. And the forum reviews seem very polarized, best car they've ever owned or they're ready to set it on fire. Mind you this is all from 10 years ago and everyone is paying dealer service prices.


RE: Wife wants a R320 CDI - atypicalguy - 12-30-2019

They have air suspension etc that goes bad after a fashion. Our neighbors' R sat on the curb looking all deflated for about 4 months before I think they had it hauled away for scrap. I do not think it was a diesel, though. Perhaps they traded it on the even-more-worthless i3 I have seen over there for awhile now.


RE: Wife wants a R320 CDI - turbojeep - 12-30-2019

Yeah, the air suspension is a chunk of change if it decides to quit. In the end we bought an 05 CDI to replace my dying w124. So far I really enjoy it and the mpg has been pretty good as well.

We saw a GL350 Bluetec going down the road the other day, wife seemed to like it more than the R320. Might have to ad those to the list of cars to check out later. But again, most of the reviews are pretty polarized and it's all guys that swap cars every 45K and would call a wrecker to change a tire.


RE: Wife wants a R320 CDI - atypicalguy - 01-01-2020

(12-30-2019, 09:39 PM)turbojeep Yeah, the air suspension is a chunk of change if it decides to quit. In the end we bought an 05 CDI to replace my dying w124. So far I really enjoy it and the mpg has been pretty good as well.

We saw a GL350 Bluetec going down the road the other day, wife seemed to like it more than the R320. Might have to ad those to the list of cars to check out later. But again, most of the reviews are pretty polarized and it's all guys that swap cars every 45K and would call a wrecker to change a tire.

Any of this more modern stuff gets long in the tooth and you are looking at random electronic stuff failing and bricking the whole works. The ECU and TCU are likely reasonably durable on the CDI and now there is an aftermarket ECU option from Baldur, so going 648 is reasonable if the rest of the car doesn't fall apart too much along the way. Probably the best compromise between modern diesel technology and long term reliability.

Any of that adblue stuff is potentially going to have emissions system problems. Our 2010 Touareg had the whole adblue system replaced due to a faulty sensor, although my sister is still driving the 2014 touareg we sold her when it came off lease and it has been trouble free for the first 80k miles or so. BMW X5 2018 was not so lucky, with the HP fuel pump failing twice within the first 8k miles and BMW refunding all our money and sending it to auction. So that's two out of three adblue vehicles having major motor failures under powertrain warranty.