I'm after a new van and am undecided

What shall i go for??

I'm thinking the 156 brake Merc

 

sprinter 316 or 416 fast as foook!! transits suck!

 

that's what i was thinking myself

 

125 psi new transit mate they dont suck and you can get them chipped, good on fuel as well and fast for a van

 

sprinter 416 with a dms conversion and your knocking on the door of 200bhp with enough torque to pull a house down! sorry my ford blinkers are off!

 

I love my Tranny, its mint man!!!!!!!!!!!! Well actually it aint mint at all but I still love it!!!!

Have to say though my next van will be a sprinter I reckon.

Sean..

 

Exercise extreme caution on wet roundabouts!!

 

dont get a transit mate ford have gone crap get
a sprinter

 

Company I worked for years ago chopped in their ageing (but reliable) Transit box van for a LWB Sprinter. Poxy thing was never out the dealers! And even then its just a VW van with different badges on it!

Theres a reason Transits are so popular. They work Though to be fair ours was the last of the RWD jobbies.

 

yea but how old was that transit thay had dont forget these new
veichles are not as good as the old one's ford have gone down hill

 

Deffo sprinter, i had one from new, kept it 3 years and there a fantastic workhorse, never had a days bother

Good RWD fun too

 

Hmmm...

135bhp Transit.

They used to have issues with rear door central locking looms wearing away on the indide of the door and the plugs corroding behind the light cluster. The FWD ones suffer from starters, water pumps (spines) and PAS pumps(splines). RWD ones have a vac valve for the EGR on the rad fan cowling which fill up with water and drop it into limp home (quick and easy to fix). On early ones the dual mass flywheel used to have to be changed on the first clutch change, assuming with an uprated version. This may have changed on the new ones. Occasional injector pump failure on some random vans (doesn't seem to be a trend but there are a few failing).

As for the Sprinter...

Tinny front doors that are not well made at all. The doors refuse to shut after a few miles have been put on the clock and seem to like to bounce open unless you slam the door like an animal. As the doors are so light, the hinges are tiny and so are the check straps. If the wind catches them, you end up with "fat bird access doors" opening to 125 degrees with strained hinges. Rear lamp clusters corrode and you end up with rear lamps not working. ECU failures are occasional causing the vehicle not to start. Plus if you run it out of fuel they are a cnut to bleed. If you crank it over for longer than 60 seconds after running it out of fuel you run risk of serious damage to the high pressure fuel pump which do fail. Fuse boxes have become a little bit common as well rendering wipers or indicators inop...

That is all I can think of at the moment....

 

I wouldnt be surpised most cars have got cheaper and nastier as the accountants get their claws in! But have Merc vans come on any from the brand new 98 one we had?

Probably not

EDIT

Daz what you write about the Merc is spot on. As for the Tranny. All I can say is ours was 8 years old. Used 6 days a week in London traffic. And was actually pretty good. Maybe we were lucky

 

FOOKIN BOFFIN!

 

my brother and dad both have sprinters but my tranny is so much more comfortable and my 125t350 kicks there 311cdi arses!!

 

thats funny, in the 65,000 miles i did i never had any of that.

 

Rich,

The new ones are FWD and RWD. To be fair to the old ones they were bullet proof. These new ones were another development and had Ford learning all over again. The first ones were not that good although still better than The French and Italian crap. The later ones are hopefully better.

The VW LT shares only the chassis, brakes, suspension and axle with the Merc BTW.

 

i know someone who has got a new transit van and it went
for its first test 3 weeks ago and guess what





























it failed

 

Prehaps your's wasn't any of the vast fleet of Sprinters we maintain. There is a reason why I can recite faults with both Sprinters and Transits and that is because we have in average 20 Sprinters and Transits (of varying age including new) through our workshop in 24 hours. Experience is the key.

 

Rich,

I was on about the New shape Transit. I have an old shape Transit with 1/4 million miles on it with very little spent on it for it's miles and it is never off the road for more than 1 working day.

 

I found my transit more comfy to be honest, but my Merc is just so fast, will pull 95 towing the car

 

VW



Merc

Not a huge difference is it

 

Weve got 18 sprinters at work and they seem very reliabe, we cover the length and breadth of the country with very little bother , was in long wheelbase one today that has covered 210000 miles in 3 years and all its had is 1 new turbo

 

I would go for the Sprinter

Quality van IMO......Owned a LWB one for 3 years, it was the 312 model - flying machine

Spec read like a proper performance car :
6 Cylinder 2.9, TURBO intercooled, RWD, traction control, ABS......would show 115-120 MPH on slight downhill sections - no problem

Was a very quick van, good brakes too, sold it to Steve Scott (A1 Rally Sport), think he still ownes it now

Paul Bailey has the same spec engine but in a SWB model - tweaked a bit too

 

Rich, i know they're the same body, but the engines are different, in Merc's favour

The Sprinter i've got now has done 222000 and runs fine, just want a newer one.

I think it's gonna have to be the Sprinter

 

If you decide on a Sprinter, pm me what model / wheel base / age / mileage you are looking for and i'll see what sort of deal I can sort out for you.

All the Sprinters I can get are Signature and from the largest stockist in the UK(all been fully maintained by Merc dealer network).

Can get them on Retail or Trade basis, whichever you prefer

 

Cheers Clare, will do, just gotta sell my house first

 

sprinter cool!

transit will be what the guy that
A. recovers it drives
B. tows it away when its repossessed

 

lol you dont need that sort of cash to buy a sprinter

I quoted for an X reg 311CDi High roof on 130,000 miles today at just under Ł5k...... and that was without me pulling in some favours. Depending on how new you want it to be depends on what sort of deal I can sort. Anything 2001+ is still very much in demand so the prices remain pretty high, but anything older than that can be a bargain.

Just gimme a shout when you're ready

 

I work for DHL used to have a transit was mint and excellent to drive and comfort was there
I now have a long wheel base sprinter its fast but thats it !!1 crap ride rear wheel drive shit in vans ! and the most uncomfortable van ever!"

 

DHL vehicles are maintained by my Company, and in all fairness most of their vehicles are pretty old now (ie over 3 years old).

They launched the new Sprinter early last year and the focus was on comfort, its just like driving a car now. I believe another face lift is due shortly too.

 

I have a 05 sprinter and its done 2800 miles and the brake pedal keeps going to the floor merc are coming to look at it for the second time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and all our vechiles are under two years old at our depot!

 

and its not as comfortable as my transit!!! and its the latest model

 

You're one of the lucky ones then Nah I think they are in the process of replacing the fleet so fair play on the 05 plate, they havn't let me loose in one of them yet lol

 

Clare

Can you please take your blinkers off. We know you work for them, but really Mercedes are just low rent tat nowadays.

 

They're paying me a HUGE bonus the end of this month so Merc are the bollox in my humble opinion......... Not that im biased or nowt

Nah seriously, in their defence, used Sprinters and Vitos have gone up in value over the last 6 months on CAP trade guide, so they must be doing something right

 

sorry got to agree everybodys got sprinters now So cheap and it is no where near the standard of there cars !!!

and you know they fall apart !!! we got some ones less a year old with doors that don,t shut correctly and one that the door flys open regulary! about a week after its fixed

 

Shame that doenst apply to Passenger cars though Brake recall anyone! Any diff problems recently

 

We've got 17,000 Sprinters across Europe and the ones at our depot have all covered 200-300k in under 4 years with little bother. THeres a lot of electronics on em the same as most new vehicles which gives good fuel returns etc but can give headaches when they go wrong. Sprinters tend to have better resale values as well.

 

The Sprinters are a hell of a lot better than they used to be. They are one of the better vans out there.

It all depends if you can tollerate being crippled and get there quick as fook except round corners where you feel like you're gonna fall off the road or get there slightly slower and a bit more relaxed.

Both vans have their faults and they are the best choice out of them all IMO from experience.