Are the sprinter vans any good? I see them around delivering the amazon stuff??

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Many of my former expeditors friends are still using them running freight all over the USA ...they are roomy, large windshield and you can get them with seats for your family,,u will never be short of room...make great campers,,, gas engine and diesels come in them, if it were me, I would go with gas, diesel are really expensive for the family guy IMHO and u must use their oil per owners manual, do not substitute any other make, it is critical on their diesel engines,,just a friendly reminder...
 
My dad has a 2017 2500 extended. It was shifting oddly with like 10000km on it and they replaced the trans without fixing the problem. He told me he spoke to someone with a few of them and they said they loved them but they are expensive to fix after warranty. I told him the same thing when he bought it, get rid of it before the warranty expires and you get sent to euro car heck.

It's huge and he cut his fuel cost in half from his 2000 G3500 extended 5.7. I'm not a fan of the high floor of Mercedes vans personally, he had a rental Metris for a while and it had the same high floor but with a cramped interior and paddle shifters!
 
I see those Amazon vans all the time. A year ago they were all Sprinters but lately I've been seeing more Nissan vans of similar type. I guess Amazon leases or contracts somehow. It might depend on the region as well.
 
If you plan on keeping them after warranty, don't buy one.

I ran about 400 of 3.0L diesel Sprinter cab and chassis DRW in our fleet. The engines were reliable out to 75,000 miles. Expensive issues after that were upper intake butterfly valve failure, about $4000 fix. Cat down pipe cracked, had to replace everything from manifolds to muffler including the cat, at least $3000. Only lost one engine to a wind blown roll over, hydro-locked it. About $20,000 for a replacement. Highest mileage ones were at about 150,000 miles.
They got to be so unreliable, our drivers would rather take a clapped out 2007 E350 vs a 2013 Sprinter. Check engine lights, no starts, just not a good experience.
If you used OE filters, and correct spec oil, 229.52, which I recommend, an oil change is at least $300, closer to $500. Newer Sprinters allow a 16,000 mile or 1 year change interval.
Check engine light means a trip to the MB dealer ($$$) as independents won't spend the $10,000 annual fee for the diag license and equipment.
Rust on the 2009s to 2012s was horrid, not sure how the newer ones are doing.
 
I have owned two Sprinter vans and they have cost me a lot of money in repair. The first diesel I bought brand new had problems from the first month with the def injection system costing me valuable time off the road. It never ran right and no one could ever get to the bottom of it. I have had to replace the turbos on both of mine. That cost me over 10K. Brake problems, electrical problems, ECU replacements, sensors going bad, rust, various engine maladies.
Finally got sick of paying thousands in repair every year and sold them. Bought two new 2015 Ford Transits. Zero problems and one free recall. At about 65,000 miles on each I am very happy with them.
Do yourself a huge favor and stay away from those German money pits. Any part you have to buy will cost you 300% more than a domestic.

Choose wisely.
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Rust on the 2009s to 2012s was horrid, not sure how the newer ones are doing.
They are better now, you can tell the old ones a mile away by how rusty they are.
 
Originally Posted by walterjay
I have owned two Sprinter vans and they have cost me a lot of money in repair. The first diesel I bought brand new had problems from the first month with the def injection system costing me valuable time off the road. It never ran right and no one could ever get to the bottom of it. I have had to replace the turbos on both of mine. That cost me over 10K. Brake problems, electrical problems, ECU replacements, sensors going bad, rust, various engine maladies.
Finally got sick of paying thousands in repair every year and sold them. Bought two new 2015 Ford Transits. Zero problems and one free recall. At about 65,000 miles on each I am very happy with them.
Do yourself a huge favor and stay away from those German money pits. Any part you have to buy will cost you 300% more than a domestic.

Choose wisely.


I was going to say, my only experience is with the Ford Transits. They are the most part very reliable. They seem to go through rear brake pads rather quickly either loaded or unloaded. There is a recall regarding the flexible coupling on the driveshaft that I STRONGLY suggest getting done if you haven't. I just finished a parts list on one where they never got the recall done and it let go. The list included the transmission, brake, and fuel lines. The driveshaft had what I thought were zipties all around it but are actually the brake hard lines.
 
My son as one of his responsibilities is the fleet manager. They have 7 of these and the repairs and maintenance for the diesel version have proven to be prohibitively expensive. Consequently they are switching over the fleet to gas only.

One of the sliding doors broke and it was $3,000.00 to fix it. Only certain dealers can work on them and parts ARE NOT readily available.

Would never own a version of these.
 
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We had a bunch of these, had a $12,000 transmission replacement on one, had sliding doors falling off, had a serpentine belt fly off and damage the main engine wiring harness to the tune of about $4K, ours were Dodge & very few dealers would even touch them (I kept telling them to take them to the Freightliner dealer). They were an expensive disaster, and were worthless rusty pieces of junk by the time we got rid of them. I'm not a big Ford cargo van fan, but both the Econolines & Transits are many times better.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
but lately I've been seeing more Nissan vans of similar type...


Those big Nissan vans are getting bought up by ** EVERY** plumber, electrician, etc. etc,.

Pretty soon, Ford and Chevy are going to have to decide whether to keep making them.
 
Based on a number of people's mostly-negative experiences vs. Trav's endorsement, I would bet that these are good vans if maintained properly, but are not forgiving if at all neglected.

I have seen a number of the older (Dodge-branded) ones with big rust blotches on the sides and rear doors.

A sales rep for a major communications cable manufacturer, a really good fellow, came through town with a Dodge Sprinter perhaps 12 or 13 years ago, when these vans were still a novelty here. We were all impressed with the headroom (he had a fibre optics demo set up in the back) and he told us he was getting 32 MPG (Imperial) out of the diesel engine, which seemed excellent to me.
 
Originally Posted by Linctex
Originally Posted by PimTac
but lately I've been seeing more Nissan vans of similar type...


Those big Nissan vans are getting bought up by ** EVERY** plumber, electrician, etc. etc,.

Pretty soon, Ford and Chevy are going to have to decide whether to keep making them.


Around here you usually see those big ugly Nissan 1 tons with a woman and 2 kids parked in Costco
 
Garbage...absolute trash. Maintenance nightmares. My wife's company (the federal govt) runs thousands and they can't keep them on the road. So bad thyve been ordered to switch to ford transit gas jobs...which also suck...just. Less.
 
Originally Posted by Number_35
Based on a number of people's mostly-negative experiences vs. Trav's endorsement, I would bet that these are good vans if maintained properly, but are not forgiving if at all neglected.

Our fleet of 400 Sprinters out of 1400 trucks went in for a rigorous PM check at least 2x a year, and had a safety inspection once a year.

Way more service than regular cars that you see on the road every day.

It's telling that a 2007 Ford is preferred over a newer 2013 Sprinter. The drivers just didn't want the head aches. And the trucks Fords and Sprinters were serviced under the same PM schedule.
 
The issues these vehicles have are not maintenance issues. They are poorly made and don't last in the long run.

I can't speak for the German model, but the US model is awful. These are regularly discharged in double digit numbers from fleets, while still running and driving, for scrap.
 
Originally Posted by Number_35
Based on a number of people's mostly-negative experiences vs. Trav's endorsement, I would bet that these are good vans if maintained properly, but are not forgiving if at all neglected.

I have seen a number of the older (Dodge-branded) ones with big rust blotches on the sides and rear doors.

A sales rep for a major communications cable manufacturer, a really good fellow, came through town with a Dodge Sprinter perhaps 12 or 13 years ago, when these vans were still a novelty here. We were all impressed with the headroom (he had a fibre optics demo set up in the back) and he told us he was getting 32 MPG (Imperial) out of the diesel engine, which seemed excellent to me.


Unbelievable..................

AS I said-my son manages a fleet of 7-all maintained at the factory intervals-and they are complete junk.
 
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Originally Posted by Trav
I like them much better than the Fiat Ducato which is probably sold in the US by Fiat Chrysler.

And FCA sells the Ducato as the Ram Promaster which the USPS has been buying them but with Pentastar power.

Most of the Amazon couriers I see drive Transits or Nissan NV3500s, with a few Chevy Express vans here and there. The Sprinters are all diesel with DPFs or Bluetec - and an Amazon contractor doesn't make that much money.
 
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