Too Many Choices - Purchase Sprinter

Hello All,

My name is Devin and I am so glad I found this forum. For weeks we have been visiting local dealers, scouring the internet, and reading the auto traders to find a new van for our technology consulting firm here in Detroit. I am reaching out to the forum for some advice. We want a new/used Sprinter 2500 144 Standard for our work van and are working with Sortimo in Ga. to spec our needs for shelving, bins, ect.. but we keep running into a wall trying to find the right van. We want a white or silver van but when configuring on the MB or Freight-liner site we find the choices overwhelming.

We would like some opinions on what might be the best fit for our needs. We have a small fleet of TDI's and are very happy with Diesel technology which is what is keeping us away from the Transit Connect.The MB site has nearly 20 "packages" and then 30 more selectable options when really all I think we need is a partition, covered walls, tie down points, cold weather package, heat/cooling for the front and back for when working on the small bench in the summer/winter. Do I really need a heated windshield, backup sensors, 12v plugs in the seat, air ride or suspension seats, insulated rear and door panels, ect...

I have read here that some say the factory heaters are crap and that we need to buy a webasto (cab heater?) instead but is that better than factory for providing heat here in the cold Michigan weather (6 months of winter on average) As I said, so overwhelming. I want to get a new van but I want to do it right too. I know a lot of these choices are personal preference but I was hoping some of you who have vans can weigh in on what you have that you love and about what you wish you had on your van to make your day to day a lot easier.

I would like a heated windshield on mine. Lots of glass to scrape.

The OEM electric duct heater does a reasonable job of warming the air. Not the same as the diesel fired heater, but better than I thought.

Note: idling the van for heat (or cooling) is not recommended.

The 12v plug at the drivers seat is useful. With the extra battery, it is on all the time.

Heated seats would be nice.

I have the standard seats (no air ride or suspension) and they are fine.

You will need insulation to combat heat gain or loss. DIY or OEM.

The full plastic cargo walls are worth it, as are the tie down points.

I have also tried working with Sortimo. Good luck.

Thanks for your response, did you have a good experience with Sortimo? We found they have great craftsmanship and a good thought process.

How you outfit your van really depends on the type of work that you will be doing with it and of course your personal tastes.

Things that I would not want to do without

- Suspension driver seat. Not only gives you a nice ride be allows you to adjust seat height which i like.

- Diesel fired heater booster. Great for cold mornings, set it the night before and come out to a nicely warmed and ready to work van. Also keeps engine at normal operating temps when your sitting in traffic not moving.

- Aux battery. Depends on what you do, If you use your van only in it's stock form then you can do without. But if you are going to add things like extra lights, power inverter or other electrical equipment I would say get the battery and wire them all off the aux battery.

Things that i would do without or avoid

- Heated windshield. I have one in both my vans (came with a package). I don't use it. I won't say never because on occasion i have used it more so because it was expensive and i paid for it rather then i needed to. If you have the heater booster and set it to go on in the morning before you get up, by the time you get out there all ice is melted anyways. The days that i got hammered over night with freezing rain or sleet and did not program the heater were no issue. Just started the van, put it on defrost and by the time i was done my pre trip and paperwork the ice was mostly melted. A couple swipes with the scraper and ready to roll.

- Factory rear heat. Just not good enough. You would be better off to install an Espar or Webasto unit. They put out WAY more heat. The stock rear heater puts out warmish air at best. I have no experience with rear a/c. I just open the doors and sweat. Even in the hottest days it's not to bad. I would go with a 12v fan personally.

- Stock partitions. I have the stock partition w/window in my '08 and an aftermarket solid one in my '10. The stock one is fine. Nothing wrong with it. The aftermarket one is better. It is a little thicker metal and much sturdier. Also the largest benefit to the aftermarket one is that it is setback from the stock location. I have about 6" more room in the cab as a result. I lose a slight bit of room in the back, but the gain in the front is enormous. I spend alot of time in my van so the extra room is paramount.

- Stock radio. Go with the prep package and install your own. Everything is there, antenna, speakers, wires just grab a VW harness adapter and plug and play. In the '10 I have the Sound 20 since i wanted the factory rear view camera this time and I regret it. It was almost $1g option for the radio and another ~$800 for the camera system. The Camera works well, But no better then a cheaper aftermarket setup. The radio works fine but for the price I expect to be impressed. Instead it's the sound quality of a stock Honda Accord. The Bluetooth handsfree phone feature however works very well. It's the only reason I have not replaced it with aftermarket. I use the BT all the time like 20-30 times a day.

As far as insulation and paneling, I do my own and would only do that. I have used a corrigated plastic insulation product in my '08 and it does not work all that well but it does work. It was fairly inexpensive. On the '10 I used a fiberglass insulation that comes incased in a silver metal foil. It's about 2" thick. This stuff works better for sure. Next time around Im going to look into a spray in product like Blue Tite.

Get the floor tie downs if your going to need them. They fold flat into the floor so they are not in the way if you don't use them.

This is exactly what I am looking for, as a computer consultant we are going to setup a small "tiny" bench in the back and it sounds like the DIY approach to a lot of the factory options is a better bet. B4 working in computers I was a heavy equipment mechanic for Caterpillar here in Michigan so I am no stranger to fabrication and modification so the heater install and paneling sounds like a can-do for me. However the MB site offers 3 different heating packages and on your 2010 did any of those include the webasto or espar? I have read up on both but still not sure what the espar has over the webasto, or are they the same product? I have been thinking the suspension seat will be a great option as I spend most of my day away from the office, in fact this van will be my mobile office with Internet, fax and a cisco handset when needed.

Order spare keys when you order the Sprinter. This gets them for half the price of after-delivery key creation.

--dick

Great tip! Recommendations on new vs. used? With our TDI's I know the life span of these vehicles as we have had 4 over the past 10 years but with the Sprinter I am green to the life expectancy of this vehicle.

autostaretx said:

Order spare keys when you order the Sprinter. This gets them for half the price of after-delivery key creation.

--dick

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I'll throw out another shelving company for consideration- Ranger Design
I am very happy with their shelving units, a little pricey but nice stuff.

Order the contractors package (if they still have it). That includes that auxiliary battery and extra keys.

The Espar and the Webasto are similar enough to be the same, just different brands. There is nothing like an Espar D2 Airtronic heater offered by the factory, and the factory rear heater is almost useless. One other problem with the factory heater is you'll need to keep the van idling for any heat to come out, and idling is not good. Ordering the factory hydronic coolant heater is a good choice for your area, as already pointed out. It's very nice on cold mornings, and when the weather gets really nasty it makes driving nicer. If you have the front heater it will be easy enough to tap into that fuel line for the rear heater, though they usually leave a capped off end from the tank for this purpose.

Can you explain to me what the difference between the factory Heater Booster is and the Webasto/Espar cab heater? I am assuming ignornatly that the Webasto/Espar is a cargo heater and not used for the total van heating, just want to clear this up before haggling with the dealers come Monday.

There are a couple factory heater boosters available. From the factory there is an electric heater booster in the ductwork to give a boost on cold mornings. There are 2 hydronic, diesel fired heaters available, one with timer to start before you run the motor in the morning, another that just runs with the motor to boost it's heat output. Both of these are connected to the engine cooling system and heat the cab with the original heater. Both run on diesel from the main tank.

The Espar/Webasto heaters are diesel fired air heaters (like a mini oil furnace), and if you have a cargo divider would heat the cargo area. We don't have a divider so ours heats the whole van, quite nicely and very frugally. If you are going to be using this van while sitting still without the engine running in a cold climate, one of these should definitely be installed. If you have any mechanical skills, it shouldn't be a very difficult job. There are a few threads on this site that can help with this, just use the search tools for the threads.

Hope this helps.
Jef

Thanks for the help, my partner & wife is leaning toward the transit connect because of the pricing and we can get one in quick order but all your posts help steer me toward the sprinter. Just need to know all the ins and outs

Recommendations on new vs. used? With our TDI's I know the life span of these vehicles as we have had 4 over the past 10 years but with the Sprinter I am green to the life expectancy of this vehicle.

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In your original posting you said "new van", so i didn't campaign for "used".
Let me shift gears and do that (since it'll overcome the Transit Connect's "advantage" ).
There are a number of forum members who have exceeded 400,000 miles and are still going.
One just happily bought his employer's old Sprinter with 300,000 miles on the clock.
Many (most?) of the long-mileage are the older "T1N" model, instead of the newer "NCV3", simply because they've been around longer.
The newer ones are (reportedly) more comfortable to drive and roomier.
The older ones have (overall) better fuel mileage and the nimble short 118" wheelbase (like mine!) can be found.
My wife and i have looked at the Connect, and we're far happier with our Sprinter.
Another option in the "tall enough to stand up in (but not as fuel efficient)" class is the Nissan NV2500.

When we were shopping (in 2005), we eventually drew up a list of desired options and got quotes. Then a time-crunch happened, so we bought "off the lot". We paid a bit extra for some items we didn't need (we don't use the heated seat, and we would have preferred green instead of blue), but overall were happy (after 6 months of hunting, we knew that a Sprinter was the only acceptable vehicle that met our wants and needs).
The short wheelbase is one of our highest requirements, and the Connect doesn't have the cargo volume of the Sprinter. Based upon that we'd buy "used" today, since Mercedes doesn't import the current "short" Sprinter.

--dick

My wife just walked in and I was on my laptop reviewing the NV1500 and I wasn't impressed. We have decided to buy a Sprinter, now we need to determine if we buy a new or used one. I just need it to have a few of the options that will get me going. So I appreciate your comment!

detroitdevo said:

Thanks for your response, did you have a good experience with Sortimo? We found they have great craftsmanship and a good thought process.

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I haven't gotten anywhere, yet.

There were/are some custom items (I was told it could be done) and that seems to have stalled the whole process.

Promises >= Actual Capability, at least at this time, within the USA.

I have nowhere to work on my van indoors, so this has pushed back a lot of stuff until the weather improves (as in spring).

I would suggest sticking with "stock" stuff.

Ace in the hole said:

I'll throw out another shelving company for consideration- Ranger Design
I am very happy with their shelving units, a little pricey but nice stuff.

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Ranger Products is what the FedEx guys are using. Good Choice

Dave, the "Sprinter Guy"

I actually sent you an email earlier today, take a look and get back to me

detroitdevo said:

My wife just walked in and I was on my laptop reviewing the NV1500 and I wasn't impressed. We have decided to buy a Sprinter, now we need to determine if we buy a new or used one. I just need it to have a few of the options that will get me going. So I appreciate your comment!

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If you would like me to send you a price quote for a new Sprinter, please send an email to dave@sprinterguy.com

Even if you don't want to come to Central Texas to get your van, using my quote might help you get a good deal locally.

Dave

detroitdevo said:

Thanks for the help, my partner & wife is leaning toward the transit connect because of the pricing and we can get one in quick order but all your posts help steer me toward the sprinter. Just need to know all the ins and outs

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My 158" High roof that could almost fit 2 transit connects inside of it, gets pretty much the same mileage as the US version of the Transit Connect. Good ol USA likes us to buy petroleum so when they decided to bring the turkish built transit connect to the states, naturally they put a motor in it that consumes double of what a european transit connect consumes! What a Shocker I say!

Holy smokes, I just went a drove the 2500 from one of our vendors. When I pulled up I said to him I thought you had the small one, he said " this is the small one". So the 144" is probably a little big for what we do. How much smaller is the 118" 2006 than the 144" 2010-12?