Most of these problems sound like user error to me. Fair enough if they are difficult to work on but you can't really blame Mercedes for their customers being morons.

You can’t call a vehicle unreliable and then in the next sentence blame people for putting incorrect fluids in them. I’ve had FedEx sprinters with 700k+ miles that drive like our new off the lot sprinters. As a current E350 owner you can not beat a sprinter van. Best fuel economy, reliability and quality in the van market.

Weird. Every Sprinter owner I know absolutely swears by them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Mercedes that ended the contract with FedEx, since FedEx kept destroying these new vehicles almost immediately upon delivery.

This man could put a speeding tweaker to sleep...

I used to drive for a limo company that had a couple. Absolutely 100% mandatory to know a guy for service who isn't the dealer. If we wanted an oil change, the Mercedes dealer (which was 30mi from the airport!) would take the thing fir like 3 weeks, offer a C-class loaner, and charge hundreds of dollars. For mechanical work, oftentimes we'd need to take it back because it didn't get fixed. Or we could take it to Viktor's shop, down a dirt alley with chickens wandering around, past the food truck fabricators. Viktor only worked on Sprinters, only spoke Ukrainian, and drove a car with the same OM642 engine. He'd get us in and out same-day for a good price, and we never had to send anything back. I couldn't imagine trying to run a business with Sprinters without having someone like that. Aside from the language barrier, they were no more troublesome than a Ford, and the fuel efficiency was spectacular. I understand the company bought a 3rd one after I left.

This is the first time I've heard of someone calling a sprinter unreliable... in South Africa these are the 2nd best selling MiniBuses clearly they last when taken care off...😂

So the takeaway from this is if you can’t read don’t buy or use a Sprinter, whereas if you do service and fuel one with the right stuff it’ll work fine, as they all do this side of the pond.

I have a hunch that Mehai was a drug trafficker, and he used his fuel tank as his hiding place for the “product” he was trafficking (the gasoline was probably used to mask the smell of the drugs to throw off any drug sniffing dogs); which is why he threw an absolute fit when the tank was going to be replaced and the old one destroyed.

My brother worked for FedEx for a decade. He said FedEx took the Sprinters for a discount at a large quantity, but they would forgo the factory warranty. Sprinters for a while were built in Germany but shipped as chassis and body to the USA, "reassembled" in the USA with a USA-sourced battery to get around the Chicken Tax.

Drove a Sprinter from new to over 500k miles during my time as a driver at Fedex. super reliable.

Sprinters are common everyday bus transportation in Eastern Europe, diesel ones all have 400k km and I have seen many with million km+, granted no def crap

This guy looks like if someone finally made Jimmy Fallon stop laughing at everything.

The problemm with these is utter incompetence of the operators it seems

Buddy had a Sprinter for his local Post Office in Brazil. That thing drove through all sorts of traffic jams, pot holes and all that you can imagine. Never had an issue with it. Most of what he described seems like user error.

As a trucker we know all about the absolute horror of after treatment systems, (EGR, SCR, DPF. DEF, soot levels, regens, etc). It's every brand, too.

100% that guy had some sort of smuggling compartment built into that fuel tank. No other reason why someone would freak out when told they were going to drill holes in it.

Toyota should really start selling commercial vans in the US. Bring the hiace (called granace), or at least sell the it under the hino brand.

Sprinters are renowned for their reliability. They are used as ambulances in Australia and they travel huge distances with zero mechanical issues. I spoke to my mate who has 20+ years in fleet management... he reckons they are the most reliable van. (He ranks Ford Transit as #2)

Sprinters ARE Mercedes from the get go, they were branded as Dodge or Freightliner and other names perhaps in the US.

Funny how these said problems have nothing to do with the Sprinter itself. I have driven every sprinter generation and despite general problems you can have with every car of every brand they are totally fine. I would say their biggest issue is still rust, at least in German conditions.

Worked for FedEx Europe, we had these Mercedes Sprinters, we drove the shit out of them, literally in every sense possible, they held up like tanks! I don't know how the engine, gearbox and chassi parts held up but they really did!

I'm surprised he didn't mention how incredibly rust-prone they are.

My mom had a van conversion company she started and was mainly doing Nissan NV400's. Then the Sprinters from FedEx were showing up at auction and she started working on those. She never had an issue with them except one that had some sort of engine issue where the engine would not turn off. She took it to the dealer because the custome requested her too and the dealer tech let the engine run because he didn't pay attention to why it was there, it caught on fire and all the appliances and conversion work my mom did went up in flames. The dealer tried to say it was my mom's work that caused it, but the fire investigation proved it was the engine, however the insurance wouldn't cover the conversion upgrades so the owner of the van sued the dealer for 35k in parts and labor and at that time, you couldn't find a used Sprinter anywhere, so insurance bought her a brand new one. Went right back to my mom for outfitting. The last one my mom ever did.

You have to wonder what was really in his fuel tank that he was willing to walk away from $20k of covered work?

Had a fleet of 2019 Mercedes Sprinter amazon vans. We had 38 of them. Biggest issue is the transmission. Every single one I've ever touched has had the transmission rebuilt/replaced because "park" will break in such a way that "park" becomes another neutral gear. Never had this issue in a Ford or Dodge van. Every single Mercedes van in my former fleet as well as every 2019 Sprinter that any other delivery contractor used had this issue at some point. Mercedes issued a "recall" that was actually just a bit of extra wiring that sets off the panic alarm if you don't pull the ebrake after you park the van and get up. Basically if you get up out of the seat while the van is running, it'll set off the alarm if the ebrake isn't engaged. Just before my old contactor shut down we had 5 or 6 vans that blew serpentine belts while they were WELL WITHIN their service interval. The seatbelt buckles themselves would snap off every 10-20K miles (braided steel cables that connected the buckle to the vehicle would get brittle and snap off). The rear brake light housings are so brittle after facing the heat in the US south that if you lightly tap them or bump into them, the housing will shatter. Every. Single. One. had electrical issues. Bulbs burning out every few thousand miles. Rear cameras and rear camera screens that would work intermittently at best. 12V ports that would blow their fuses sometimes daily (just charging a phone and they'd blow). Faults with the crosswind assist/active braking that would cause the van to hard brake from 70mph down to 20-30 on the interstate for no apparent reason. Seat belt sensors broke every 5K miles on average. We were spending $5-10K a month on out of warranty maintenance. It was ridiculous. We observed every single service interval and drivers were strictly monitored by the Mentor driving app as well as Netradyne fleet cameras to ensure they aren't being rough on the vans or driving like lunatics and none of it prevented these turds from breaking every single day. We had to have 38 of these vans just to run 20 routes a day. We piled up 10-15 at a time to get fixed and we typically had maintenance people out daily working on them.

Had my Sprinter since 2014, bought it brand new. Yes, change your oils, fluids, put the right stuff in there and it still runs with no problems. Had it go through the mountains, 110°+ weather if Mexico and AZ. Multiple trips all over US and Mexico in heat and cold, and still love my Sprinter. Get this guy off the camera!

Dude, 20yrs at FedEx. They suck in the snow. Although when delivering in December, the Christmas tree lights on the dash was heart warming. ❤

This guy sounds like he just woke up from dental surgery.

I’m kinda lost with this video. I just showed it to a contractor working on our house and he showed us the odometer with over 300k mi on his old Sprinter. He said it has been almost trouble free and has never missed a day of work.

This is definitely life at a dealership. We get a lot of flack from know-it-alls on the internet but if you work for one and know the other side of the story this stuff is all too common. Subaru started using some kind of different wiring insulation (I think it's soy-based) and mice absolutely love to eat the wires, particularly fog lights and transmission sensors. When people find out that warranty doesn't cover rodent damage they absolutely go off. A replacement fog light pigtail plus labor is $20 and they eventually end up just paying for it but not until they've berated several people and slandered us on the internet. Putting the wrong fuel in, like in this video, sends people right off the falls as well. They swear up and down they'd never do that but what's in the tank doesn't lie. The most impressive thing I've seen a manufacturer do was VW when someone put gas in their diesel Touareg and had to have everything in the fuel system replaced, I swear this customer must've had a picture of Ferdinand Porsche doing the dirty with a goat or something because VW good willed it (not warranty, good will. Anyone who works at a dealership for more than 3 days knows that distinction VERY clearly). New tank, pump, lines, fittings, high pressure pump, injectors, absolutely everything got replaced on VW's dime.

Generally regarded as good vans here in the UK. Main issues with them used to be rust.

It’s like when he’s trying to deliver a point he gets quite and almost whispers.

Cameron is the Bob Ross of Technicians

We are a delivery service and we have 20 Ford transit and they are been the most reliable out of all the vans we have 20 rams and the amount of transmission and axle replacement is real at one point we had 8 at the dealer unable to be used we had one sprinters but the drivers complained about it moving a few feet after putting the transmission in park so we never got any more

I got gas at my local shell station and shortly after my car started smoking really bad and miss firing at idle. I couldn't figure it out. I took it to a shop and they said the engine has low compression. I didn't believe them because I did a compression check and it was fine. So I said whatever and told them to put an engine. A few minutes later I see on my news feed on Facebook that a local shell station had 91 octane contaminated with diesel fuel. I told the shop to stop and picked up my car. I called Shell they asked me for my receipt and a week later they sent me a check for 8k. I didn't fix anything I just drained the tank and its been fine ever since

I have no experience with Sprinter vans and I’ve heard people talk crap about them, but honestly I think most people don’t know or don’t care to allow a diesel engine with modern exhaust systems to do it’s thing. Again, no experience with Sprinters, but I’ve seen plenty of people ignore the regen process in diesel box trucks and then pull a surprised Pikachu face when the exhaust system needs to be fixed for a few thousand dollars… meanwhile it said clearly on the dash “regen in process, do not shut off engine.” I explained this to my old boss who was the owner of the company that the drivers of the truck would routinely ignore that warning, and just shut down the truck in the middle of a regen cycle, and he would reiterate to the guys that they can’t keep doing that and the small amount of diesel burnt letting the truck idle during a stop was greatly preferable to the large repair bill for an exhaust system repair. Most of the guys didn’t really seem to care. It sucks that it’s a mandatory thing now, but it is what it is and it won’t be changed any time soon, especially not by continuing to vote for people who give the EPA free reign to do whatever they want under the guise of “saving the planet”, meanwhile all those same politicians fly around on a G6 private jet and get chauffeured in Tahoe’s and Suburban’s. I do have experience with a Dodge 2500 pro master van from that same company and it didn’t seem to have a regen cycle, but it did take DEF and it didn’t really have any exhaust problems during my 4 years working for them, however it had numerous other issues. It seized the A/C compressor (twice I think), and the transmission was awful. It seemed to have an automatically operated clutch instead of a torque converter which was the dumbest thing (in my opinion) for an application like that. It shifted hard, bucked on downshifting, and if you wished to go slowly up a hill (like backing up a steep driveway for a delivery) it would just constantly slip the clutch the whole way. I once had the clutch start smoking when backing up a very steep, long driveway at about 3/4 of the way up. The dash lit up like a Christmas tree and said “transmission failure.” I parked it up and carried the stuff the rest of the way. It drove and operated fine on the way back, but in order to clear the “transmission failure” it had to go back to the dealership. There wasn’t any major damage but they had the van for about 1-2 weeks and told us there wasn’t anything they did besides just reset the fault code and that it would happen again under that same circumstance. My boss said that was ridiculous for a 2500 series commercial van designed for deliveries and the dealership basically said “it is what it is.” I thought that van, and it’s choice of a clutch instead of a torque converter was absolutely idiotic.

Oh, I heard of that "X times remaining" problem. Let's just say, some people interpret that message as "oh, I need to restart the van X times to get rid of that message". 😂

Loved our 2012 sprinters. We put well over 300k on both of them and learned a lot about their maintenence. I also know i will never buy a Mercedes based on my experience dealing with the dealership. Worst and most incompetent humans on the planet.

I’ve always wanted a Sprinter van to travel with the family, i’m sure they’re as comfortable as grandma’s couch😍

I suspect he didn't want the tank drilled cuz maybe it was altered with a hidden compartment for smuggling/customs evasion.

People saying “DEF fluid” drives me nuts it’s already “diesel exhaust fluid” but that pales in comparison to how I feel about the EPA…

When I worked at DHL in the Netherlands we had sprinters. Those sprinters just kept on trucking till 500.000 and they where still fine. We also had Renaults which all broke before 100.000km. Never had any real problems with the sprinters, I love them.

Regarding the coolant DEF mixup, that can even be a dealer level mistake. I had a sprinter with a bad DEF sensor early on in its life. I took it across the country and the CEL came on in LA. Took it to MB Beverly Hills because they sold and services sprinters. They “fixed” the problem and when the sprinter service manager gave me back the car he opened the hood and pointed at the coolant reservoir. It’s a plastic ball looking tub with pink fluid in it. He said “you see that there? See how it’s not full? You gotta keep it full with DEF or you’ll have problems with this van” I knew he was completely wrong but also wanted to be as far away from them as possible so I left. The van had more DEF sensor issues until they were replaced, after that it was perfect. Moral of the story, half of the people working on sprinters don’t know how, and salesman and service managers don’t know a thing, even if they are wearing the sprinter service name tag!

I was with FedEx express for several years, did my due diligence, inspecting every vehicle, every day, and learned that the first generation Mercedes 2500 sprinter with the in-line six had all of these issues, plus the turbos would fail around the 100,000 mile mark, and one of the mechanics became so proficient at replacing the turbos so quickly, he went, and did his own side hustle on weekends Replacing turbos in sprinters.

The main issue I have heard from some owners of these, at least here in Europe is that a few of them bought brand new ones and they were rusting pretty badly from factory and the paint started to bubble up.

Nearly every non English corner shop has a Sprinter, either in white or blue 🤣

Dad was a GM for a local Honda dealer and was using the dealer's parts van, which was a Sprinter. Kept driving it until it was "1 start remaining" and had to borrow my car a few times to run errands because it was a long weekend and the dealer was closed.

We had one at work, 2014 freightliner with the diesel. 258k miles and the intake runner flaps were sticking. It was a good van but kept getting erroneous ecm shutdowns and loss of communication. First the pins were replaced in the connector, next a special spray for the connector was used. Before that it had two recalls for the exhaust manifold pressure sensors, the entire emissions part of the exhaust, and the NOx sensors. Transmission was serviced regularly, went through some brakes and was picky about tires. It really liked the Michelins. 2wd in the winter it was pretty good. High top van with no windows, towing a 12’ trailer and hauling lawnmowers, bulk parts and goods. 17mpg empty, 14mpg loaded.

this guy's sultry vocal fry is absolutely captivating. He should do ASMR videos on the side, just have him read an old Haynes manual.

I purchase a Dodge Sprinter van in 2008 brand new off the lot. I serviced it every 3 to 5000 miles. Around 30,000 miles it started having Swirl valve issues. I kept driving it even though the swirl valve had problems & the check engine light kept coming on and going off. I kept getting lucky and getting it smogged every two years. The cost of new head were just insane plus the labor. I loved the size, long wheel base and the high roof. When I purchased it, it got really good mileage. About 3 months later I got a noticed in the mail saying that the computer needed a reflash. When I took it in it was getting 22-mpg. I could not get it smogged or licensed if I did not get the reflash. I took it back to Dodge and they took care of it. I started checking my mileage again. It went from 22- mpg to 13-mpg. I started to complain about the mileage. The Dodge dealer told me to bring it back and they will check everything and re- 13:46 flash it again. I got it back again & Started checking mileage once again. It was to my surprise it had dropped yet again. Now it’s 10-mpg. I never took it to a dealership again. I drove this pile until 2022. That’s when I got water in my fuel. I took it to a couple of different shops and I kept getting it back and being told they couldn’t fix it. I finally took it back to the Mercedes Benz dealer and they gave me a price to completely repair the problems. But they said they had to replace the heads and all because of the swirl valves and completely replace the fuel system from the water damage. The complete charge was going to be $18,995.00. I took it home to put it in my shop yard to be a planter box. While it was there a guy stopped by and wanted to buy it. I told him everything that was wrong with it but he didn’t care. I sold it for $6,000.00 dollars. I went out a purchased a Ford mini van Transit-connect. It gets better mileage than my diesel Dodge. That’s just some of my story. Never ever buy a DODGE SPRINTER !!!

I work at a shop called Sprinter Expert, and what was said here is a user error. I agree that they are slightly more sensitive, but I have seen hundreds of 300k+ mile sprinters. We get a lot of FedEx vans, and most of those are good, only small things that would occur on any car. I'm afraid I have to disagree with the general statement that Sprinters are "the worst van ever." It all depends on the competence of the driver. A bit of a rant, but I am slightly qualified to talk about them.

This man brings the intensity I expect from someone brought in to talk about vans

Would love to see a Vinwiki episode like this only for ProMaster vans

0:37 This may be true to American dealers. The Sprinter van is sold since 1995 in Europe. Moreover, Sprinter is a product developed and produced mainly by Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner. It was only in 2002 that it started producing Sprinter vans in the USA. Sprinters were sold as: - Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (1995-present) - Freightliner Sprinter (2001-2021) - Dodge Sprinter (2003-2009) - Volkswagen LT (1997-2006) - Volkswagen Crafter (2006-2018)

Where I work we have a fleet of 40 sprinters in all different specs. We have many heading toward 700,000 miles and some past. I've out about 500,000 miles on myself. You then blame user error which doesn't sound like the Sprinter is to blame.

Drove Sprinter ambulances for a while. They were, by far, the best van-based ambulances I've ever used. Transits are nice enough, but you cannot beat a Sprinter. They rode well, handled well, were smooth, quiet, and the ride in the back was far better than any other van.

This guy huffs model glue

Sounds like “Meehi” was moving illegal things in his gas tank

Love this vid as I had a sprinter before it got stolen. Bought it to start a small buisness with a few buddies when we were off from our normal day jobs. Work was steady and it was good. However on one occasion when it was parked outside my freinds house (due to the size of the thing I couldn't park it on my small narrow street) I hopped in it to head to a job I had booked when I noticed some of the trim panels were out of place near the ignition. Unusual and my freind knew nothing of it as it was correct when it was parked. Skip a few weeks and few completed jobs I went back in the van for another job and noticed this time thise panels that were out of place in the past were now on the floor and the ignition was completely missing. Had a new ignition and a set of keys made at a cost of 1000 bucks and then a few months after the van was completely stolen from its usual parking location. Was told by the police they are common here in the uk to be stolen and when it was recovered all valuable interior parts were stripped. It was targeted and I lost a great deal of buisness. Funny end to it is that before it got stolen there was about a ton and a half of wooden decking boards which was pricey at the time and we managed to get every piece of it back 😂 love to get another sprinter soon might be a recovery truck variant this time round and not a panel van like before with some good security.

My dad bought a 06 sprinter and it had a lot of rust but it was cheap and he bought it for 7k and he has gone through 2 engines and he has spent 17k on that dumb van. That’s how you get in to a rabid whole…

Never had problems beyond the usual with the VW Crafters (basically identical to the 2012 Spinter since that generation was a co-production between the two corps). Almost our entire fleet was Audi and VW vehicles. Though we're in Europe, maybe the US market ones are of lower quailty.

I actually still regularly see fed ex sprinters where i am in Canada, both the current and last generation. That being said my company has a lot of 12-15 sprinters in our fleet and they are plagued with issues

Drove them for 10 years at a large courier in the uk, never had an issue with the engines other than a check engine light that stayed on constantly (yet would somehow disappear when the garage looked at it and couldnt find any faults) The biggest issue we had with sprinters was the side doors either not working or the side door falling off the runners (these doors could be opening thousands of times a week so its kinda understandable) But i was never left stranded anywhere even when they "broke down" i even drove 100 miles home on limp mode because recovery was 3 hours (and recovery was somebody coming in a van to go "oh yea its fucked let me call a flatbed"....and then have to wait another 3 hours for that)

Exactly right, I'm much more inclined to help someone being rational and cooperative than someone being irrational and uncooperative. I recently got threatened to be punched in the face twice by a customer who claimed we sold a battery to them for $50-$75 (it was a terminal end). Needless to say the police were involved and they were banned

You’re telling me it took you a couple weeks to realize he gasoline inside his diesel powered vehicle 😂

I'm an electrician, I drove one of these diesel sprinters for 4 years. Can confirm, they're terrible. And and yes, I put all the right fluids in the right holes. First it was a few rounds of DEF problems. Then the injectors started blowing out of the heads. The liberated injector would cause clouds of potentially explosive atomized diesel to pour out from under the hood, and leave a gushing trail of liquid diesel on the ground from the broken return line. This happened about 4 times. The turbo went out. The oil cooler sprung a leak. The radio died. The MAF went out. It always had a constellation of dash lights on. And every visit to the shop was a few grand. The seatbelt alarm would randomly beep all the time even though I was buckled until I finally unplugged the sensor. And then there's the computers, which can't quite keep up. If you start rolling up one window, then hit the other windows switch both windows just stop. If you turn the ignition key a little too fast the darn thing won't crank and you have to turn it back to off and try again. I wouldn't own one of these if it was the last van in the world.

This title should be “Sprinter drivers make the dumbest mistakes”

Sprinter owner (hopefully soon to be a transit owner) - can confirm. The emissions system kills these engines. Which is great for the environment when you need to constantly install re manufactured engines. Lets see, I've burned a hole in a piston, replaced oil cooler seals, seized swirl valves, transmission valve body replaced, torque converter... all at 120k miles now. Alignments have to be done at a mercedes dealer.

My favorite Sprinter story is that if you bought one with dual wheels on the rear to carry more weight ,the inside of the van was now too narrow to accept a full sized pallet.

As a fuel hauler I can confirm that incidents of “spicy” diesel happen more often that you’d think. In the industry we call it a cross drop, careless fuel hauler hooks up to the wrong drop or gets a compartment mixed up and drops gas into the diesel tanks. Minimum even if they catch their mistake and have the station shut down the pumps before people start getting bad fuel you’re looking at $30k+ mistake. My company has had $125k+ loss on a cross drop between having to pump out the tanks, replace the fuel and repair cars that got their vehicles damaged by bad fuel.

I am an advisor for a smaller Mercedes-Benz dealer in MN. Currently we are building a dedicated shop for Sprinter and Metris. I hate these things, some of them are bullet proof and some have nothing but problems. I will say it is remarkable to me how many people mess up the gas in diesel thing, 20k out the door just like that and we have had 3 in less than a month. I just do not understand the allure to a non-commercial customer. AND THEY ALL BELIEVE EVERYTHING SHOULD BE COVERED! Drives me nuts, thankfully the other advisor i work with love those things so I just handle the cars most of the time.

Hehe. 🤭The reason why mihai won't let anyone touch the fuel tank because that was his cargo bay. The gasoline will masked it from dog smells the "delivery package"

My 2011 sprinter, long bed tall box has been a complete lemon. I can't think of something that has not broken on it, currently dealing with electrical gremlins but really just ready to scrap it and get a Ford transit since it seems my friends have had better luck with them.

I often use one. It has one major issue. The right hand sliding door doesn't open and if you go over a bump it will give you an alert the door has opened. The dealer insists that it is a user error

always a good day when theres a new vinwiki vid

Wish Toyota would bring over some hi-Aces as cargo cans or pop their Camry or Sienna hybrid power train in a van body to compete with the Promaster City or Transit Connect. They would sell like hotcakes. Such a tragedy that as many cargo vans as we use and need in the US, there aren’t many good options

The company I work for bought around 200 of these in 2015-2017. We have 3 left. Total junk compared to the other trucks we use now. Around 100k miles they started living at the dealer.

I've owned a couple Sprinters. The high roof van itself is fine. Great for a work van actually. The body rusts way to easily when the paint is chipped though. The emission system is the real killer. Both of my V6 diesels stutter and lose power. Doesn't matter how hard you run them. The EGR get's blocked up, and I've had the EGR cooler and exhaust sytem replaced on both of them. The fuel injection pump failed on my first one at $280k and the dealer wanted more than $20k to replace the entire fuel system. My second one is hard starting at $130k. Dealer says low compression and needs a new motor. SMH. Can't say I'd buy another one.

We have 7 at work there on the road 6 days a week. They all have done a minimum of 300,000 miles without any major issues.

Had an '03 Sprinter (diy camper van, was never a commercial vehicle), it was a maintenance Nightmare. I'm saying this as mechanic with factory training/certification (not Mercedes, but still, I know vehicles). As soon as I could justify it and make it happen, I swapped to a Ford Transit ~ night and day difference in terms of reliability. I can think of about 3 owners over on Sprinter-Source who didn't really have many issues, all were original owners who did Ample preventative maintenance. The 2 best known members of the forum were $200/hour mechanics...... You couldn't make me drive another Sprinter. Maybe the newer ones drive better, but those T1N's were sketchy above about 65~70... add in ANY kind of cross-wind or buffeting from a semi and it was white-knuckle driving. This was even after all new bushings, shocks, tie-rods, etc... If you *think* you want a Sprinter, trust me, drive a Transit (or if you can get past the looks, the Nissan NV ~ they drive Great!) for comparison. Then think about maintenance... how often do you see Mercedes dealers vs Ford? Skip the Fiat/Dodge though... Dodge will ruin that relationship, just like they did with the Sprinter, and 100% drop all support and leave you looking for parts from outside the US.

This persons lvl of negativity is unreal. Been having first gen sprinter and 2017 model with 0 problems. When ppl lack service, nothing works for sure.

Some nights when I can’t sleep I put a video with this guy talking and I’m out in 5 minutes.

We run Sprinters & they have issues but will run 300,000 miles with very few issues. Far better than the Transit & FCA offering. DPF issues come from short trips & user error. We also run Iveco in Europe. We use truck dealers & not the van dealers

To me, it's not the engines that make Sprinter vans horrible, it's the devastating cancerous RUST that eats these things alive. Here in Michigan I see ones that are branded 'Dodge' _STILL_ running around, and those are from ~2003-2005! Albeit, they are about ready to split in 1/2 from rust... Even my local Amazon hub's set of Sprinters are rusty (they're not even 2 years old!!!) Explain to me how that's possible, even with the Amazon blue wrap on them???

I own the previous version of the Sprinter and have 140 thousand miles on it. That's low mileage for one that is that old, but I am not a commercial owner, just a guy who likes having a large van for personal use. My experience with that version is that the engine and transmission are sound, other than some issues with the turbocharger system. The turbine and compressor appear to be well designed, but the other parts cause people problems. It has a rubber air hose that went bad on mine. That's an easy replace, but other people have trouble with different parts of the turbo system. Now, let's get to the stupid stuff about that version of the Sprinter that are lemony. First of all, the diagnostic system is ancient, and you can't buy a unit that fits it to read codes. The body leaks rainwater. You have to chase rain leaks with caulk or glue to keep water out of the interior. I have heard they have problems with rust, but I live in a dessert, so it's not been an issue for me. Not only does the body fail to keep water out, it also rattles like a can full of rocks. The door windows have a pin that moves the glass up and down that's made of plastic that appears to have been designed to break. I'm pretty handy and inventive, I looked at the operator with the idea that I could make a pin and replace it myself. The design is ingenious, it's thought out in a way that makes fixing it impossible. The whole operator must be replaced. Every owner has at least one window operator that has broken. Both of mine have broken. The automatic door lock system has stopped working properly. If you watch me, and you are NOT me, it's a comedy watching me try to lock my doors because the system unlocks itself within a half second of me locking it. Yep, you read that right. I turn the key and it locks. I think that everything is good, but then it makes it's own decision to unlock everything again. It's like dealing with a child. I figured out a sequence I can follow to get it to lock and stay locked, but it's a workaround that involves getting back in, starting the engine, letting the system lock itself, then getting out and locking the driver's door. But that should not be required. The problem rears its head when I open any of the other doors and then try to lock them like a normal human would. I have not taken it to a shop yet, but I will eventually get mad enough to do that. The dome light in the cab was designed by the same engineer who designed the windows. It's made of weak plastic that's designed to break and it does. Those things are all annoying, but the worse thing about that version of the Sprinter is that it was not made with an adjustable steering wheel, and the seats do not slide back far enough. It was designed for midgets. Driving it for more than 2 hours at a time causes me severe pain. I have to plan on taking at least a half hour break every 1:45 that I'm at the wheel. I like the thing, but it made me realize that the great Mercedes reputation is a myth.

Drove with multiple sprinters over the last 14years never had a single problem !!! Drive a new model ATM very statisfied!!! If you let the maintenance be done bij certified mercedes dealer/technicians like you should you will never have problems

This is strange, in Europe where I am, Sprinters are by far the most reliable vans out there. And most sought after. Most of ambulances are Sprinters and so on.

I work for FedEx. That’s all our station has 2018 and up sprinters. One of our night workers who was in charge of filling the DEF which keep in mind is under the hood in the Sprinter. Filled the fuel tanks with DEF. We had 5 trucks that needed all new engines.

As someone that has been working on sprinters for the past 8 years. I completely agree from 2012 forward they are trash. The older models had some rust problems but beside that they were work horses. From 2012 onwards every model update just gets worse. At least the 2014 4 cylinder turbo were not as bad. But for some reason they went back to the 6 cylinder turbo in 2019 and those are the worst so far. I seriously don't understand why a y company keeps buying them.

Amazon was stupid for using them for delivery vehicles. The ones I worked with were slapped together so fast that the quality wasn’t great. See quote at 3:11 that was spot on.

DEF fluid has been the biggest failure in the automotive industry whether on light duty pickups, sprinter vans, big rigs, or construction equipment no company has figured it out. It constantly screws up and cost thousands of dollars in repairs. Not to mention downtime on the equipment and trucks plus the added cost to operate an already expensive fuel. It has been a failure on every front and provides virtually no benefits when accounting for all of the downsides. There's a reason most people that use the trucks or equipment for a living get it deleted because it's cheaper to get it deleted than to spend the time and money to constantly fix it

My 2008 W906 ex-Ambulance just passed 330,000 miles today. I’ve owned it direct from its decommissioning 4.5 years ago and done about 25k in that time. It’s absolutely faultless. Love it to bits. It’s a 5000kg dually (twin wheel) and ‘only’ has the 2.1 litre 4 cylinder but goes like a rocket and never complains.

Never liked sprinters. They'd sit there spinning a wheel if you tried to go anywhere that needed a bit of suspension articulation (like turning 90' out of a side road onto a steep hill), even the low roof ones felt top heavy, and a lot would start showing serious rust before they'd even got to 7 or 8 years old. For my money, I say you can do a lot worse than finding a tidy used MK7 transit and spending some of the money you saved having it properly rust treated once a year. OEM parts are cheep and available everywhere, but aftermarket copies from China are even cheaper than that. The engines will keep going as long as you stay on top of the servicing, and the bodywork lasts for years if you get it annually pressure washed and re rust proofed.

I listened to this guy before bedtime and had the best nights sleep ever.

I drove sprinter from 2012 313 2.8 dizel it had more than 500.000 miles, with first clutch and turbo.

He sounds like the person that is so calm because he knows one thing goes left when he’s done talking and he’s doing something he can’t come back from

I Have 1st Generation, early production Sprinter 308D from 1997, and it's indestrucrtable, bulletproof van, it work for me over 20 years, close to 1mil km without any serious issues, only rust will be a problem. Engine, gearbox, works good until the end of first life. After all, I started full rebuild and om606 engine swap. In Ukraine Sprinter and brother model from VW (LT, Crafter) is most common van or Light truck. First Generation become a legend here, especially early ones 1995-2000, facelift 2000-2006 (same as USDM early Freightliner and Dodge ones) was a little bit worse, with more complicated CDI diesel engines, but still strong work horse. 2nd Generation from 2006 was more comfotable, roomy, but compared to 1st gen it was disaster, Electronic, injector, turbo, rear axle issues, crankshaft and bearing problems on om646 and om651 engines. Cost of parts and maintain raised 1.5-2x compared to 1st gen. So many operators stay with 1gen as long, as possible. Some People make engine swap from 1st gen or another 90s-00s MB to 2gen

I know lot of people who have Sprinters, they are using it for transportation and also pulling huge trailers with them, most of these Sprinters are close to 1 million kilometers, I'd say the errors that were mentioned were caused by the operators and not the vehicles issue.

I can tell you since my work only uses sprinters, they're fantastic if you take care of them. I work on Amazon vehicles for my job. Mainly transits and promasters. The sprinter is EASILY the best. The drivers thrash the vehicles because most people go by the mindset that if they didn't pay for it, who cares. Never judge a commercial vehicles quality unless you also own the vehicle and take care of it. These idiots who drive them destroy them. Promasters start falling apart by 60k miles or so. If they're driven super hard, they'll start falling apart at 30k miles. Transits are definitely better but not nearly as good as sprinters. Sprinters will start falling apart at 100k miles if they're thrashed. If they're not. 200k miles is not difficult to achieve.

Great story/insight, I DO NOT work in the automotive industry, I do work as a machine operator however. What this genlteman says about operators of machines is very true, GOOD LUCK to all emlpoyers who don't care who they get to operate the machines they have/use for their buisness.