Ducato spotted in Lincoln NE

ziggytwizzer said:

if these ducato vans are like the ones in the UK they will be dead by the time they get to 80,000 miles, you can buy second hand ones of these for the same price as a bag of chips! if you are considering one you cant possibly have driven a sprinter

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agreed they are good for 3 maybe 4 years.shocking van.

Don't you roll your van every 36 months or every lease?

Front is sure ugly. From an expediters standpoint..it is a way better option than the new Transit (too short and too light). This one will do 3 skids for sure. I like the idea of the diesel mated up to the manual (which I'm assuming is a dual clutch automated).

If it gets priced right...cost of commercial ownership may be competitive (ie if it is a 3 yr van vs a 5 yr Sprinter).

Will Chrysler service and support it properly? If they learned anything from the Sprinter experience.......

If I'm in Chicago still on Saturday I'm going to go look and measure just to see. Competition

PS, thanks bobojay for the autoblog link...very informative.

short hood could mean transverse mounted engine? it's fwd, afterall.

maxextz said:

agreed they are good for 3 maybe 4 years.shocking van.

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Hey Max- Can you share what stuff fails with these after a few years?
Or do they just "fall apart" with lots of little things going wrong?
Thanks, Rich

I feel sorry for the mechanics

shanemac said:

I feel sorry for the mechanics

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It should be OK, just need a Mini-Me friend.

George.

While in France two years ago, I had a chance to talk to a lot of van owners at the markets. My wife went shopping, I chatted with drivers. Nearly all of them said that either the Sprinter or the Iveco was the best choice. Not the cheapest, but the best.

The Renault Trafic has to be the ugliest thing on four wheels.

In the UK Ducato is also sold as a Citroen Relay & Peugeot Boxer.

The Citroen/Peugeot versions are just badged versions of identical vans. A friend has gone through 3 of them - all nightmares, constant EGR faults etc.

The Fiat Ducato uses an Iveco engine and I believe it is much more reliable. (The ambulances usually have a fiat badge on the front).

I'm a fan of Iveco - my previous van was an Iveco 35S13. I sold it with 705,000 miles on it - same engine gearbox and axle.

I have a brother in the UK with a shop!
He often states they are crap!
Two vans stand out for him, notably the Ford and the MB as the top of the pile!

As for me on this side working on other diesel powered lumps, the service accessibility with the MB product gives me the experience to nominate it as top of the pile!
Dennis

On my third year with my Promaster pile of junk, so far I've had one of the worst and only things things fail on my van, the drivers arm rest slips down! I'm now convinced I made a big mistake and I'm on my way to the MB dealership right now. If I had only listened to those who warned me, I would have spent the extra $15K on a Sprinter and avoided this catastrophe.

YOUR Promaster is powered by a Penstar engine & Mopar A series transaxle of 40 year K car vintage brought forward to today's Mopar spec, its quite stout.
The powerpack is designated for NAS operation---Say no more!

On the other side of the pond the engine is diesel either of Sofim Pogo (Peugeot Citroen decent JTD range ) Or (Russia.Brazil) of Iveco on the later stuff.

In either case my brother reports they are junk!
'Orrible buggers to work on too!

Happy to read you are happy with your pop can bodied van!
Try not to be too sensitive about commercial "bent iron"-a van -- its not a work of art--this is!
Dennis
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanit...t/baroque-art1/holland/v/rembrandt-nightwatch

Thanks Dennis for the trip to the light [lighting] fantastic.

Years ago, I had the privilege to see Steve Wynns incredible personal art collection in his casino in Vegas, and he had a Rembrandt self portrait that had been painted over for hundreds of years and was only found through x raying the painting. Once this 400 year old self portrait had been brought back, it was a fresh as the day it had been painted over four hundred years ago. The luminousness of that image, is that a real word?, was mind blowing.

Steve had other incredible works like Gaugin, Monet, Van Gogh, in this small gallery room that was a treat.

He also had his unique Enzo Ferrari model in the front lobby that made it a treat to see up close. Now those same models go for upwards to 2 million and up.

I hope Steve can find a modern solution to his vision problems, so that he might restore some of his lost sight. Thanks to all here.

Try not to be too sensitive about commercial "bent iron"-a van -- its not a work of art
Dennis

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Skillfully bent iron it is

..and more than a work of art.
I regard the van as a tool.

A rather expensive tool at that!

Beautiful!

Dennis