Bluetec, 706 Miles, Toys-R-Us and Too Many Border Patrol Agents to Count

I like a good spontaneous auto review and I found a pretty funny one over at Fox News (of all places). Auto write Gary Gastelu decided to test a Mercedes E320 Bluetec and see if it could cover 700 miles on a single tank. This immediately brought back memories of Kramer's Saab test drive: "You know, uh, oftentimes, Jerry - he lends me his car and I find myself in a situation where the car is almost out of gas. But, for a variety of reasons, I don’t want to be the one responsible for purchasing costly gasoline."

So anyways, Gary heads out to do 700 miles on one tank of diesel. Now, Mercedes' website lists the range of the E320 at an estimated 675 miles, but hey what's another 25, right Gary? As part of his route, Gary was planning on heading into Canada, but then realizes that the loan agreement doesn't permit this. So, Gary stops a few feet short of the Canadian border. Cue the black helicopters. Five or six government SUVs and one incident report later, Gary is back on the road.

At the end of the day, Gary makes it 706 miles, but then has to wait for roadside assistance to bring him some fuel. I don't think he actually ran out of diesel, but rather chickened out when the navigation system said that a diesel station was some distance away.

In either case, it's an impressive run. I honestly believe that the "killer app" for a diesel will be the first family vehicle that can run 1,000 miles on one tank of fuel. That would be some bragging rights, wouldn't it?

You can read the full article here.