mean_in_green
>2,000,000m in MB vans
Been reading a lot of negative comments in the UK about the Crafty Crafter lately.
Some hugely discounted deals now available on them (up to £10k under equivalent Sprinter). Sounds good at first but… it’s getting harder to deny that they appear to be utterly besieged by DPF problems.
One client has three on his fleet, says he won’t be having any more inspite of VW’s imminent warranty extension from three to four years. One van needed nine visits by VW support, DPF fault every time. He says the Sprinters may be more expensive, but the five he has haven’t suffered in the same way.
Another client’s Crafter has had three turbos and three exhaust manifolds in under 90,000m.
Numerous other reports involving steering rack failures, and one van that had to have two wishbones replaced within 20,000m.
Another colleague has returned his Crafter which was on contract hire, apparently because of DPF faults caused by the previous hirer not acting on the warning light. He has now issued an instruction sheet to his drivers detailing how to initiate a regenerative cycle in order to reset the system before permanent damage occurs.
The NCV3 has had its share of DPF haters but I wonder why people are having these problems with the Crafter, seemingly more so than with the Sprinter? The people who are making these comments run Sprinters too, yet fewer parallels appear to have been heard. One can imagine the DPFs, sensors and hardware are the same as the Sprinter's. They have different software though...
Remaining confidence appears to be rapidly draining at present, which is a shame: it's very competitively priced and arguably better styled than the Merc. It's got a lot going for it, retaining the much loved I5 from the T1N and VW's version of Sprintshift. The thing which stopped me buying one was the poor commercial dealer support in Europe. Relying on a car showroom's workshop with limited commercial model experience doesn't do it for me but I still smile when I see one of those distinctive snouts coming the other way.
Some hugely discounted deals now available on them (up to £10k under equivalent Sprinter). Sounds good at first but… it’s getting harder to deny that they appear to be utterly besieged by DPF problems.
One client has three on his fleet, says he won’t be having any more inspite of VW’s imminent warranty extension from three to four years. One van needed nine visits by VW support, DPF fault every time. He says the Sprinters may be more expensive, but the five he has haven’t suffered in the same way.
Another client’s Crafter has had three turbos and three exhaust manifolds in under 90,000m.
Numerous other reports involving steering rack failures, and one van that had to have two wishbones replaced within 20,000m.
Another colleague has returned his Crafter which was on contract hire, apparently because of DPF faults caused by the previous hirer not acting on the warning light. He has now issued an instruction sheet to his drivers detailing how to initiate a regenerative cycle in order to reset the system before permanent damage occurs.
The NCV3 has had its share of DPF haters but I wonder why people are having these problems with the Crafter, seemingly more so than with the Sprinter? The people who are making these comments run Sprinters too, yet fewer parallels appear to have been heard. One can imagine the DPFs, sensors and hardware are the same as the Sprinter's. They have different software though...
Remaining confidence appears to be rapidly draining at present, which is a shame: it's very competitively priced and arguably better styled than the Merc. It's got a lot going for it, retaining the much loved I5 from the T1N and VW's version of Sprintshift. The thing which stopped me buying one was the poor commercial dealer support in Europe. Relying on a car showroom's workshop with limited commercial model experience doesn't do it for me but I still smile when I see one of those distinctive snouts coming the other way.
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who could have stood back and looked at the front of that monstrosity and said hmm thats nice
,thats interesting about them having the i5, anyway over here in ireland the sprinter is the one giving trouble turbos/suspension and other problems
the word around the campfire is merc 
up and some are calling them a pile of 
.
couldn't have said it better.
but extra long wheel base and mega top, come on both turbos will blow a gasket if pushed to hard.
and ask who is preventing the option, and as to who is behind the reasoning of circumventing progression.
