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The 'Mercedes-Benz Sprinter' is a tall delivery van, chassis cab and minibus built by DaimlerChrysler in Düsseldorf and sold under its Mercedes-Benz, Dodge, and Freightliner brands. It was launched in Europe in 1995 to replace the famous but outdated Mercedes-Benz T1 van (dating from 1977) and in 2001 in the U.S. (originally branded as a Freightliner there). It is designed primarily for business, not private users. It is currently offered with four and six cylinder diesel, six cylinder gasoline or LPG engines in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. In North America, only the six cylinder diesel and gasoline engines are offered. The body shell is also used in a joint-venture with Volkswagen who made the Volkswagen LT.
The second generation Sprinter was introduced in Europe in 2006.
The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter was voted Van of the Year 2007 by Professional Van and Light Truck Magazine
There is an electric hybrid ^[1].
The model designations for the first generation Sprinter are W901, W902, W903, W904 and W905, depending on the gross weight rating.

Contents

The Sprinter in North America

Sprinter model line-up

Notes

See also

Other links

The Sprinter in North America

For 2003, DaimlerChrysler introduced a Dodge-branded version of the Sprinter to the North American market. Rather than redesign the aging Dodge Ram Van which has used the same basic body and layout since the 1970s, the Sprinter offers a more fuel efficient alternative, available with a factory-built tall roof. It coexists with an earlier version badged as a Freightliner. While the Sprinter is offered to individuals, it is primarily a business model. The Sprinter's main US competitors include the Ford E-Series and the Chevrolet Express.
In Europe and elsewhere, the main competitors are the Ford Transit and the Fiat Ducato. Overall around 1.3 million Sprinters have rolled off the assembly lines. The Dodge Sprinter sold 19,578 units in the United States in 2005, while Freightliner sold approximately 2,500 units, giving it just 3.5% of the full-size van market.
Companies such as Microsoft are replacing van conversions with wide bus bodies with Sprinters with side-facing benches and tall right-side doors as campus shuttle buses. Limited numbers of complete "wagons" (passenger vans) are being produced in Germany and shipped complete to the U.S. market for mostly individual and church van uses. Typical Sprinter Wagons are 8-10 passengers and have glass in all of the normal positions that windows can be factory installed. Vans shipped to the U.S. on spec (Speculation to sell by dealer/distributor) are mostly sent in Arctic White color, but many standard and a few special colors are available on these passenger vans. The Dodge dealer network for Sprinters is limited to certified locations (known as "Five Star" certified dealers) and dealer knowledge is still limited in both sales and service. Special orders typically take 1-3 months for delivery and make stretch out even longer: mid-late 2006 orders are probably going to be for 2007 models and delayed further for production to catch up to demand.
In North America, most Sprinters are sold as cargo vans to expediters in the United States. Such expediters are similar to truck drivers except they take smaller loads and will wait in a town indefinitely after unloading until dispatchers find another customer nearby to transport goods. The advent of the Sprinter van with its cargo space of 13-1/2 feet (4.1 m) has allowed van expediters to take three 48 × 48 in (1.22 x 1.22 m) skids or pallets where previously they were confined to two. A Sprinter driver is capable of hauling approximately 3000 lb (1360 kg) of cargo. The pool of Sprinter drivers gives more choice, efficiency and flexibility to trucking companies and their customers. They have become popular delivery and supply vans, with DHL and FedEx moving their fleets away from trucks and more and more towards smaller, more aerodynamic and more fuel-efficient Sprinters. Trade workers and others who spend time in the cargo bed of the Sprinter find the added roof height, an option on all Sprinters, a more comfortable alternative to traditional North American vans; even a six-footer can stand upright inside.
Another market in which Sprinters are gaining ground is as van conversions and mini-motorhomes They have adopted as a smaller high-end fuel efficient van-based RV chassis, rather than replacing Ford and GM chassis.
It is common for North American owners to convert their van to look like Mercedes Vans. Sites such as www.MercedesSprinterConversions.com offer a large amount of conversion products.
Dodge Sprinter owners have been discussing a possible flaw in the "Turbo Resonator". Apparently, they are made of plastic and the seal at a seam fails, causing boost pressure to be lost and making the computer detect a catastrophic turbo failure. The engine computer then switches into "Limp Home Mode", limiting the vehicle speed to about 35 mph (56 km/h).
Limp Home mode can be particularly dangerous to both the people in the Sprinter and to people in vehicles following the Sprinter, if it occurs on a hill, since the Sprinter can slow from freeway speeds to a slow crawl in seconds. And, without giving warning to the following vehicles since the brake lights do not go on. Typically the sprinter driver has his or her foot on the gas pedal, giving no signal of intent to slow down to the following vehicles. Jim Riordan, CEO of Riordanco.com has developed a billet aluminum replacement part, at the request of a Five Star Dodge dealer, to replace the faulty plastic resonators on late 2004 to early 2007 Sprinters and prevent this situation from recurring.
Riordanco.com will be happy to provide Sprinter owners the names of Dodge dealers carrying the aluminum part, if requested, by email. The new part can also be purchased on line through the Sprinter-Store.com. Riordan added that, in his experience, "the clamp used by Daimler Chrysler to attach the intake hose onto the resonator (or the eliminator) can slip off and cause the same limp-home mode problem" and in his opinion should be changed over to an "Ideal" type "worm-screw" hose clamp. Riordan believes that, based on his experience, the stock clamps "can give a false sense of tightness and should be changed immediately to be on the safe side."
When the plastic resonators fail, because it is a seam leak, it is not always visually obvious when the engine is off, yet it still causes the computer to detect a failure during operation. Some claim that Daimler Chrysler knows about this problem, but as of July 2006 there has not been any service bulletin to their dealers on this issue. Riordan said that, "as of September 2007, Daimler Chrysler still appears to be denying the size of the problem" and that, "the resonator failure problem is much larger than Daimler Chrysler is letting on and that Dodge dealers who are concerned about customer satisfaction are currently replacing many of the plastic resonators with the billet resonator eliminator to keep their fleet customers on the road and out of the shop". Riordan said that he does not believe that the 2008 V6 models are experiencing resonator failures, but that his customers are telling him that the intake hose clamps "blowing off" is still a problem even on the 2008 models. Currently DaimlerChrysler is encouraging owners who have experienced Limp Home Mode to contact the Customer Service Center with data and particulars which will be passed on to the platform team engineers to facilitate a proper fix.
In the North American market, the current Sprinter will be replaced in early 2007. This model will be assembled for the United States at a plant in Ladson, South Carolina that is currently utilized by American LaFrance, a former business unit of Freightliner LLC. The 2007 version is a complete redesign from the prior model. In 2007, the current 2.7-liter inline 5 cylinder turbo diesel will be replaced in the US with a choice of V6 turbo diesel or V6 gasoline engine. (keep in mind many sprinters sold as 2007 models will have been manufactured in late 2006 and will still have the 2.7 liter 5 ccyl engine) DaimlerChrysler plans to invest US$35 million to prepare the plant for the assembly of Sprinter vans from CKD kits imported from Europe.

Sprinter model line-up

★ Passenger van

★ Conversion van

★ Cargo van

★ Minibus

★ Cab-chassis

Notes

1. http://news.com.com/The+greening+of+the+city+bus/2100-11389_3-6079090.html

See also

★ Mercedes-Benz - Worldwide of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

★ Dodge - USA & Canada of Dodge Sprinter

★ Freightliner LLC - USA & Canada of Freightliner Sprinter

Other links

★ Official International website of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

★ Official Dodge Sprinter website

★ Official Freightliner Sprinter website

★ Discussion of Power-Loss Issues

★ Blog about Sprinter Vans and other Conversion Vans

★ Discussion Forum on Sprinter Vans and Sprinter Related Conversion Vans