I feel the same but for a different reason. I was really looking forward to ordering a 4x4 but the steel/rust issue is quite possibly a deal breaker for me. MB announced that the South-Carolina - made models would benefit from new technologies (regarding the painting?) to reduce corrosion, I'm hoping that together with North American steel recipes it should resist rust better than the current products. But if the 4x4 is produced in Germany then the latter falls and the former possibly too because the new corrosion preventive techniques were to be implemented at the Charleston plant but perhaps not at the plant in Germany.Bummer on the 4x4 lift.
Good for the wallet, though. The lift ruins it for my purposes, so no need to even consider it.
I might be right there with you. 7spd plus adaptive cruise and lane keeping...considering most of my miles are highway on long straight stretches between mountain ranges through the deserts....So selling mine to build another if this ends up being true
Don’t let the Facebook posters influence your opinion of the Revel. I have had mine for 3 months and 6000 plus miles. Other than the window rattle (easy fix) my Revel has been flawless.Hopefully they bring that to the US. I love the Revel layout, but the build quality and details keep my away from buying one. Be nice if there was some competition in the segment.
Considering that the US produces ~80 million tonnes of crude steel, exports 10mt and imports another 35mt of high grade steel from countries like Japan and Germany who have steel making capacity (in therms of high grade stainless, chromolly etc) that the united states does not have, I would not attribute a difference in corrosion performance of the sprinter to the country it is manufactured in.
Thanks for your input. I'm definitely not trying to put down MB or the sprinter, in fact I like MB and the sprinter and as you can guess from my username I hope that the new gen will be a big success. I'm also not putting down German steel. I live in a place where a pretty massive amount of salt is used on roads during the winter, almost on a daily basis. After talking to owners, dealerships, and observing vans of different brands - the main complaint I hear and see about sprinters around here is the rusting tendencies. Indeed its very easy to see a rusting 2 years old sprinter - but i've never seen a rusting 2 years old transit. Now I dont want to turn this into a transit vs sprinter, and I think sprinters have many advantages over the transits, but nobody can convince me that the sprinters of the last few years have been as resistant to rust as many (in fact most) other vehicles that I see on the roads around here. I'm sure its not an issue in many places in North America, where salt is used much more sporadically. I think I've read that in 2015 ? MB made some changes to improve the rust issue, IDK how much it helped.I guess if you drive a chipped up van through the rust belt and never wash the salt off it you will see rust issues, but no more so than any other vehicle from what I have seen.
not necessarily. I'm pretty sure that in general building a new plant comes with opportunities for incorporating new or improved technologies, which would not necessarily be possible or cost effective to retrofit to an existing plant. again just my opinion. It would be great if MB would provide more info regarding corrosion resistance - how the steel used at the SC plant differs from the steel used at the German plant, if the painting etc technologies are exactly the same at both plants for the 3rd Gen and if not how it might affect rusting , etcFurther, tooling up for a new model should be commensurate across the model regardless of country of manufacture. If you think they are not rolling manufacturing improvements into their other assembly plants, your probably kidding yourself.
Apparently you can place orders for a 2020 Winnebago Revel on the VS30 for spring/summer delivery so at least that proves we are getting 4x4’s. My dealer is telling us to push our clients to the 2WD since he fears that what happened with the abrupt ending of 4x4 orders in 2018 means 2019 will be short supply.Since I started this thread back in May, I've been waiting for the official news on the 2019 4x4s, and I think I finally got some from one of the dealers here in Houston. He just got back from the S. Carolina plant yesterday, and asked specifically about the 4x4's. He said it sounds like they must have listened to the feedback from customers, because they will be sticking with the same 4x4 set-up that they currently have . It will still have the extra 4" lift, and will not be the rumored full-time AWD. He said that he was told that it will also not be built in S. Carolina, so it will still have the long lead times. He said it will only be available in the 6-cylinder diesel with the new 7-speed transmission.
I'm just happy that it will still have the extra ground clearance. I'm not thrilled with the same long lead times, so I'm hoping that's not accurate.
He said he should get his dealer order guides by mid-October, and we'll be able to build one and get it in the order system and see what it comes back with for timeframe.
We'll see.
Good idea. My dealer also said to not sell our customers on the gas Sprinter just yet as he doesn’t expect it until later. They will get 6cyl diesels at first.It's getting discouraging. I'm leaning towards scrapping the plans for the 2019 4x4 for now. I don't want to wait that long, and I've been having reservations lately about getting a diesel anyway. I've got a diesel truck that's giving me all kinds of problems. Because of that, I might just get a 2WD Gas Transit Van, and see how that works. I can get one right now and start building, and it would be much cheaper to repair if anything ever goes wrong with it. I can always build a Sprinter van later down the road if I really want one.
Good idea. My dealer also said to not sell our customers on the gas Sprinter just yet as he doesn’t expect it until later. They will get 6cyl diesels at first.
I did exactly that with a 3.5 EB. It's at the conversion shop now.It's getting discouraging. I'm leaning towards scrapping the plans for the 2019 4x4 for now. I don't want to wait that long, and I've been having reservations lately about getting a diesel anyway. I've got a diesel truck that's giving me all kinds of problems. Because of that, I might just get a 2WD Gas Transit Van, and see how that works. I can get one right now and start building, and it would be much cheaper to repair if anything ever goes wrong with it. I can always build a Sprinter van later down the road if I really want one.
I love my 3.5EB, but ergonomically its not a sprinter. It drives great, transmission is smart.I did exactly that with a 3.5 EB. It's at the conversion shop now.