2009 Mercedes-benz Ml550 - Black, Loaded, 77k Miles, Private Seller. on 2040-cars

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Recharge Wrap-up: Cool new Euro VI railroader Unimog, Car2go hearts charity

Mercedes-Benz's mega-cool road-railer Unimog now boasts Euro VI compliance. Used for railroad track maintenance and train shunting work, this diesel-powered Unimog offers about a 90-percent improvement in particulate emissions over the Euro V. The new engine also offers improved efficiency. It provides 231 horsepower, and with eight forward and eight reverse gears, it can travel up to 31 miles per hour in either direction. It also has new in-cabin features that make it easier to use for the driver. Read more about the new road-railer Unimog in the press release below. Carsharing group Car2go has launched a donation feature within its mobile app, called "ride2provide." The feature lets users find "heart cars," which, when used, include a $1 donation to Whole Planet Foundation. The money raised by the ride2provide program goes towards the Whole Planet Foundation's mission of providing microcredit to the poor for creating or expanding home-based businesses. Car2go's ride2provide program started August 4, and runs for 90 days. Learn more in the press release below. China continues to pave the way for more EVs, but some people are still skeptical they'll catch on. Charging station operators will be forgiven some of their electricity fees until 2020, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). China has already extended tax exemptions on EVs through 2017. The NDRC is also urging local governments to offer subsidies and free charging. Still, the costs involved with installing chargers are keeping many from doing it, and many consumers are hesitant to become early adopters of EVs. Read more at ECNS. car2go Launches "ride2provide" To Help car2go Communities To Work Together To Give Back "ride2provide" To Be Integrated via car2go Mobile App Beginning August 4th car2go To Donate To Whole Planet Foundation® As Program's First Exclusive Charity car2go North America LLC, the fastest-growing global carsharing company, announced that it has launched "ride2provide," a donation feature to be integrated into the car2go mobile app for iPhone and android iOS beginning today, August 4th. The new initiative seeks to help car2go communities across its 15 locations and over 400,000 members in North America to work together in donating to a charitable cause, and will first kick off with a 90-day partnership with Whole Planet Foundation as the program's first exclusive charity.

Why it's difficult to accurately test the efficiency of a plug-in car

When it comes to electric vehicles and plug-ins in general, the Environmental Protection Agency-certified range is a hugely important number. While actual range anxiety is largely psychological, the magic number does provide a point of comparison of buyers considering one EV over another. The driving distance is also often touted by automakers when marketing their models. Unfortunately, as Green Car Reports finds in a recent deep dive, the way the EPA calculates the figure is a convoluted mess, and discovering the reasons why is definitely worth the read. The issue isn't about bad science but instead comes down to vague wording. The EPA's accepted range test is sourced from an evaluation called J-1634 from the Society of Automotive Engineers, and it seems to provide balanced results for vehicles that automatically reach a single state of charge when plugged in. However for models with multiple charge settings, the situation gets complicated very quickly. Of course, these modes are often created in the software, meaning that a car's certified driving distance can change with just a few taps of the keyboard without the real world results owners might experience actually changing. By showing the test's effects on the certified range for the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf and Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive over the last few years, Green Car Reports makes a compelling argument that it's the evaluation that needs to change. Thankfully, it appears that the solution is a very simple one. Get the details here.

2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600 Review [w/video]

"Hindsight is 20/20" is a handy yet disingenuous cliche. The flaw is that hindsight is only instructive up to the moment you would have made a different, perhaps better, decision. At the moment of that deviation the past goes in another direction, one that you can't peer back into because you didn't experience it. So when we say we wish Karl Benz's eponymous firm had produced the Mercedes-Maybach S600 in 2002 instead of the gilded blunder of the separate Maybach brand and its 57 and 62 sedans, we just can't know if the formula would have worked 13 years ago. But we do know the formula adds up superbly right now. A little history: Wilhelm Maybach helped Gottlieb Daimler build a high-speed, four-stroke internal combustion engine in 1885. Eventually Maybach went to work for Daimler's new car company and designed the first Mercedes, the 1901 35-hp model considered the world's first modern car. Maybach left the company after Daimler's death, started a company building zeppelins, then joined his son to start the Maybach car company. Together they developed super luxury cars including the DS8 Zeppelin models that competed with Rolls-Royce. A reviewer in 1933 wrote, "The Maybach Zeppelin models rank among the few cars in the international top class. They are highly luxurious, extremely lavish in their engineering and attainable only for a chosen few." It's a whopping 28 inches shorter than the departed Maybach 62, but 8.2 inches longer than a standard S-Class. As is this Maybach S600. It's a whopping 28 inches shorter than the departed Maybach 62, but since it's 8.2 inches longer than a standard S-Class, there's a very different driving experience. Two-thirds of a foot isn't much, but the Maybach is 639 pounds heavier than an S550, or 231 pounds heavier than a standard S600. From the driver's seat we could feel every additional pound and inch over those other models. It is as if Mercedes threw out the aluminum and steel and chiseled this sedan from basalt. We've driven scanty few cars where we've been genuinely glad for blind-spot detection and 360-degree cameras – this is one of them. The Maybach's wheelbase is four inches longer than that of a Bentley Mulsanne, even though the overall car is almost five inches shorter than the Big B. That long wheelbase translates into tranquil steering response – the S550, S600, and Maybach S600 all have the same 2.3 turns-to-lock, but this sedan feels like it takes more effort. It even looks heavy.