TamagoVan
2016 144 High Roof
After a year without a trailer or a camper van my partner and I decided we might, one day, want to convert another Sprinter, but from scratch and doing all the work ourselves this time. Of course, as soon as we started looking we found a Sprinter we loved and we dove in the deep end!
Meet the Tamago: a 2016 2WD 4cyl passenger 144" wheel base, high roof.
It had been a loaner for a local dealer, and… it was alarmingly yellow. It reminded us of a type of nigiri sushi that involves a rectangularly-cut piece of cooked egg, called tamago nigiri. The trim even resembles the little stripe of nori sushi that holds the roll together. Forgive us our dorky food jokes.
Why was this eggy goodness the van we picked?
It also had a bunch of things we didn't need/want.
Things we learned:
Meet the Tamago: a 2016 2WD 4cyl passenger 144" wheel base, high roof.
It had been a loaner for a local dealer, and… it was alarmingly yellow. It reminded us of a type of nigiri sushi that involves a rectangularly-cut piece of cooked egg, called tamago nigiri. The trim even resembles the little stripe of nori sushi that holds the roll together. Forgive us our dorky food jokes.
Why was this eggy goodness the van we picked?
- 144"WB: this will be my daily driver and being able to fit in normal parking spots and easily navigate the city was important to me.
- Passenger version: it had windows in every position. Our last Sprinter camper started life as a cargo version and we added one window in the slider door, but we would have added more windows if we owned it longer. We live in the Pacific Northwest and we are often camping in the rain and wind and it's so nice to be warm and completely dry inside the van while watching the scenery around us.
- High roof: one of us is 6'1".
- 4cyl: we love the fuel efficiency and with good tires we found that our last 4cyl was able to get us where we wanted to go safely.
- 2016: still under warranty. (12k miles on it when we bought it.)
- 250 Amp alternator. This allows us to use the alternator to charge things other than the starter battery, if we decide we want to.
- Leatherette seats: our family consists of humans and canines, and fabric seats are a pain to keep clean when half of us shed.
- Driver Efficiency Package: this includes a rear view camera and cruise control.
- Safety Plus Package: this includes the rain sensing windshield, multifunction steering wheel, blind spot monitoring, and high beam assist. All of these were in the nice-to-have category, but not required.
- Trailer Hitch Package: just always a good idea to have a hitch. Again, not required for us, but we certainly liked having it.
- Electric Sliding (self-retracting) Step: we would have added a running board if the van didn't come with this option, and it's way fancier than we need, but it's kinda fun.
It also had a bunch of things we didn't need/want.
- Three rows of passenger seats.
- A massive A/C unit on the roof (which also ate in to the interior head room)
- It sure is yellow.
Things we learned:
- Mercedes Benz of Eugene is a really great place to buy a Sprinter. Eric Voss (the Sprinter person there) was easy to work with, clear in his communication, didn't do any salesman-y stuff, and made the whole process really easy and fast. Definitely one of the best car-buying experiences we've had, especially from a dealer.
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