I had a good look at one of these with the Mercedes diesel and is it ever well thought out.
It sure ran nice too. It was a 2500 and there is supposed to be a wide body with duals later this year. Its got Daimler German engineering all over it. Cool locking gas door the ties into the drivers door, lots of adjusment to the seats, smart and functional.

Scotty

 

Are you refering to the Sprinter?

 

The Sprinter is super cool

 

Dat be it. It was a very well built and designed unit.
thanks Ed Shovelhead.

Scotty

 

I was at the dealer today looking.I have 2 isuzu cab overs for my company and need to replace one this year. I usually go used , but the sprinters are sweet. Not very good for towing heavy trailers but would make great work truck

 

I was at church when I overheard my wife talking to a friend about our next mini-van purchase...
"The next one I'm getting is going to have the new stow-and-go seating and the DIESEL ENGINE"

Atta' girl!!!
(she was a keeper even before hearing that!!!)


Keith

 

This looks like an excelent vechile. I'm trying to get the college I attend to look into them rather than full "mini busses" with gas engines. They are almost sold on the idea - except they think that students will fill them with gasoline rather than diesel. With enough training and signage, I don't think there would be a problem.

The dual rear-wheel 3500's have been out since the start. The Dodge dealer I looked at them first said they are not there for stability but rather load-carrying-capacity. Hmmm. That's my only real concern with these - they look really top-heavy.

 

The only disadvantage we found with the Dodge/Sprinter, when shopping for new vans for a family owned commercial sound contracting business, was the height. Even the standard roof was too tall for use in some of the parking garages around here. We'd had good service out of GM 6.5 deisel vans and ended up getting two of them for $15k each, instead. They were about the last 6.5s of the assembly line and were hard to find.

 

A friend of mine is the manager at a local Dodge dealer and he told me those things just don't sell they sold one in a whole year and they move alot of trucks.

 

I saw the Dodge brochure when the Sprinter first came out and it didn't look like something that would catch on too fast. I thought they were just too ugly to get very popular. I've read about them and as Scotty said, I have to agree, it is very well thought out. Very practical. I've seen quite a few around here used by Fed-Ex.

 

I have too but it seems only big business like fed ex is picking them up

 

It would make a nice conversion van. Some of those are huge and you could do alot with them. What kind of fuel mileage do they get?

 

Not sure of the mileage but that is exactly what these vans are being used for. A company here sends 8 per week to the guys that do my thermoforming for parts and are converted to RV's. The cost of one here is 45K and then it sells for 80K plus when converted.

They cannot get enough vans though. They do 8 per week and they are 50% behind demand. Thats a lot of money being spent in an area I thought wasn't near that strong.

The wide body is the one that I was referring do with the dual rear wheels.

Like what had been mentioned...it appears the big companies are buying them.

One van was there for a delivery conversion for a diesel parts shop for big rigs.

Scotty

 

Scotty what am I missing - these things have been out for like 2 yrs...? Yes they're pretty cool and get good mpg, but they should have put MB's 320CDI diesel engine instead of the 270CDI. Would have been nice if the thing had some guts, but probably hurt mpgs. I believe the sprinter shares the same transmission(although beefed) as the S-class benzes do Freightliner also brands/sells sprinters.

There is a sweet kit out for sprinters to convert the grille to a MB star etc.

 

Nothing. Its the first time I had the luxury of looking at one real close. I was impressed with it.

Now go back to rippin the Diesel Power Magazine for its first issue being sub par.