Not that anyone would care, however I will post my thoughts on the PM. This is not intended to be derogatory but just my personal views/opinions/findings
Last week I was at one of my clients doing electrical work. (Dodge Dealer). It was joked upon that I should buy a ProMaster and ditch the Sprinter van by my fleet guy. Of course, the Sprinter is adding up the miles and the thought of a new van wouldn't be a bad business decision I thought.
I would prefer a diesel and will wait for one. I put my Sprinter on CraigsList and immediately, received interests. There are a couple of people looking at it tomorrow. My dealer is willing to give me 19.5 on the trade. I put the ad in for 19.5 in hopes it might help someone.
I stopped by the dealer to test drive the van for a couple of days. Yes, they are good about giving me vehicles for test drives as I have a relationship with them.
The 136" low roof van appeals to me as it is more HOA friendly over the Sprinter of which I started to receive letters of complaints on. I park the van in the sideyard behind a locked gate. The height of it is visible from the street which bothers the HOA board members. For the last 5 years this hasn't been an issue. Must be new members on the board...Who knows.
Anyway, I find the V6 very peppy and powerful on the short version of the van. I was most impressed with the power. Having said that, I am a diesel convert and will wait for the new mill to arrive.
The seat height and bulkhead are two annoyances or rather discomforts. My van has the three seat option. The bulkhead does not allow rear seat travel or reclining. It does help keep things quiet.
The steering wheel feels like driving a bus in the upright position. It isn't too bad once you get used to it. The interior is full of small nooks and crannies on the dash which in Arizona get full of brown dust easily and thus make it hard to keep clean. The van had a low entry level radio which was of poor sound quality. There was no noticeable squeaks or rattles in the 100 miles I put on it so far.
My beef on this van had to do with the build quality. This is no Sprinter after all and I get it. You would think in this day and age, there would not be misaligned panels.
The body panels had poor fitment and welding done. This was evident when the sun shown down along the sides from the rear. (Late afternoon sun) The gas filler door was askew, the center body seal had waves in it where they were welded together. The driver side door did not sit flush along the bottom edge. Some of the creases in the stampings reflected light as if there were dents. I took some pics of what was easily visible to the camera.
The fleet manager told me this was an early production van that was hand built before they got the assembly line going. Not sure on the validity of that statement but I hope the future vans are better.
Fuel mileage was not horrible and averaged somewhere around 17-18 with a lead foot and empty load. The engine has plenty of satisfying power. There was a good feeling of the van being planted to the road and drove spirited. I am not a big fan of FWD and this is no exception. The FWD became most evident on the sharp turns including U-turns where I could feel the CV axles at their most maximum deflection and drag. Not a bad thing, just something I noticed and wonder about longevity in this application.
Overall, I compare this to my Sprinter and for the cost savings, this is actually a good van. It did what I asked it to do with no complaints. With more options, this would feel like a suitable replacement for my Sprinter.
It does fit through an 8' high garage door. I had to remove the antenna to clear the door frame which had about 3" to spare due to the slope of the driveway. My garage has the shaft mounted door openers so there is nothing in the center of the doorway.
Sideyard parking:
Interior:
Issues I found:
Lower driver side door gaps:
Misaligned body at roof (Center)
Fuel filler side:
Overall, I do like this van and will still order the diesel version. I hope they finally get the build a little tighter. It's a very capable van. I would defiantly recommend a wood floor or something to protect the metal. I dropped a small roll of wire and dented the floor. It's fairly thin and I can understand the construction is based on fuel savings.
Last week I was at one of my clients doing electrical work. (Dodge Dealer). It was joked upon that I should buy a ProMaster and ditch the Sprinter van by my fleet guy. Of course, the Sprinter is adding up the miles and the thought of a new van wouldn't be a bad business decision I thought.
I would prefer a diesel and will wait for one. I put my Sprinter on CraigsList and immediately, received interests. There are a couple of people looking at it tomorrow. My dealer is willing to give me 19.5 on the trade. I put the ad in for 19.5 in hopes it might help someone.
I stopped by the dealer to test drive the van for a couple of days. Yes, they are good about giving me vehicles for test drives as I have a relationship with them.
The 136" low roof van appeals to me as it is more HOA friendly over the Sprinter of which I started to receive letters of complaints on. I park the van in the sideyard behind a locked gate. The height of it is visible from the street which bothers the HOA board members. For the last 5 years this hasn't been an issue. Must be new members on the board...Who knows.
Anyway, I find the V6 very peppy and powerful on the short version of the van. I was most impressed with the power. Having said that, I am a diesel convert and will wait for the new mill to arrive.
The seat height and bulkhead are two annoyances or rather discomforts. My van has the three seat option. The bulkhead does not allow rear seat travel or reclining. It does help keep things quiet.
The steering wheel feels like driving a bus in the upright position. It isn't too bad once you get used to it. The interior is full of small nooks and crannies on the dash which in Arizona get full of brown dust easily and thus make it hard to keep clean. The van had a low entry level radio which was of poor sound quality. There was no noticeable squeaks or rattles in the 100 miles I put on it so far.
My beef on this van had to do with the build quality. This is no Sprinter after all and I get it. You would think in this day and age, there would not be misaligned panels.
The body panels had poor fitment and welding done. This was evident when the sun shown down along the sides from the rear. (Late afternoon sun) The gas filler door was askew, the center body seal had waves in it where they were welded together. The driver side door did not sit flush along the bottom edge. Some of the creases in the stampings reflected light as if there were dents. I took some pics of what was easily visible to the camera.
The fleet manager told me this was an early production van that was hand built before they got the assembly line going. Not sure on the validity of that statement but I hope the future vans are better.
Fuel mileage was not horrible and averaged somewhere around 17-18 with a lead foot and empty load. The engine has plenty of satisfying power. There was a good feeling of the van being planted to the road and drove spirited. I am not a big fan of FWD and this is no exception. The FWD became most evident on the sharp turns including U-turns where I could feel the CV axles at their most maximum deflection and drag. Not a bad thing, just something I noticed and wonder about longevity in this application.
Overall, I compare this to my Sprinter and for the cost savings, this is actually a good van. It did what I asked it to do with no complaints. With more options, this would feel like a suitable replacement for my Sprinter.
It does fit through an 8' high garage door. I had to remove the antenna to clear the door frame which had about 3" to spare due to the slope of the driveway. My garage has the shaft mounted door openers so there is nothing in the center of the doorway.
Sideyard parking:
Interior:
Issues I found:
Lower driver side door gaps:
Misaligned body at roof (Center)
Fuel filler side:
Overall, I do like this van and will still order the diesel version. I hope they finally get the build a little tighter. It's a very capable van. I would defiantly recommend a wood floor or something to protect the metal. I dropped a small roll of wire and dented the floor. It's fairly thin and I can understand the construction is based on fuel savings.