2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 Bluetec First Drive

Your browser, , is out of date and not supported by www.motortrend.com. It may not display all features of our site properly and could have potential security flaws. Please update your browser to the most upated version. Update Now Shortly after Mercedes-Benz launched the new four-cylinder 2014 E250 Bluetec twin-turbodiesel in Portland, I borrowed one for a longer jaunt to better assess whether this four-banging oil-burner was up to the task of lugging three adults and their abundant luggage up and over mountains, and to test the veracity of that newly announced 28/45-mpg EPA fuel economy claim. Actually those EPA figures drop to 27/42 mpg for my AWD 4Matic model. We left Portland airport with a full tank and headed straight up to Astoria and the mouth of the ferocious Columbia River, steering clear of the faster I-5 route in favor of the two-lane byway hugging the river's left bank. Peak speeds in the 60-mph range are good for economy, but climbing additional hills and slowing for towns and scenic overlooks is not. The engine's lusty 369 lb-ft of torque make effortless work of maintaining set cruise-control speeds without constantly pestering the seven-speed automatic for ratio changes, but the 195 horses don't exactly make quick work of passing semis. This car is great at illustrating the difference between torque and horsepower -- that big torque number means there's plenty of brute force to get any job done, but the modest horsepower figure means you can't hurry those jobs along much. Our indicated average at the end of day one: 37.9 mpg over 115 miles. 2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 Bluetec Front-engine, RWD/AWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan 2.1L/195-hp/369-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 16-valve I-4 28/45 mpg (RWD); 26/42 mpg (AWD) 137/85 kW-hrs/100 miles; 147/91 kW-hrs/100 miles

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