Service van recommendations

[TheAxeman]

I have to replace a couple of my Ford E-350 service vans and am looking for something that gets more than 9 miles to a gallon which is what they are currently getting. I've been looking at the Sprinters but have no experience with them and am a little concerned with reliability and payload capacities. I'm not brand loyal so I am open for suggestions. What are some of you guys using and what are your thoughts.

 

[madmike2]

Mr. Radman....calling Mr. Radman. Mr. Radman to the white courtesy phone, please.

[SIZE=8pt]IIRC, they run a few different brands in the fleet at the university. Dave should be able to give you some good information based on comaprison. Fuel mileage-maintenance, etc.[/SIZE]

 

[jwilly]

Sprinters for sure! Our company owns about a dozen of them and they have been great! A few minor issues but everything was taken care of under warranty.

My personal experience with one of ours. We had an event in St Louis, we loaded the thing front to back, and top to bottom with computer equipment and plasma's. Since everyone had been bragging about the mileage I tracked the mileage to St Louis and back to Atlanta. Averaged 23 mpg for the trip. We are the same as you, the E350's run about 8-10 mpg.

Just my $.02!!

JW

 

[TheAxeman]

Sprinters for sure! Our company owns about a dozen of them and they have been great! A few minor issues but everything was taken care of under warranty.
My personal experience with one of ours. We had an event in St Louis, we loaded the thing front to back, and top to bottom with computer equipment and plasma's. Since everyone had been bragging about the mileage I tracked the mileage to St Louis and back to Atlanta. Averaged 23 mpg for the trip. We are the same as you, the E350's run about 8-10 mpg.

Just my $.02!!

JW

See thats the type of info I'm looking for, real life testimonials instead of company propoganda. Even if I could increase the gas mileage by 5 miles the cost savings would be substantial. The last Dodge I owned was a 4WD pickup and I had some problems with it but I think it was more or less isolated to my vehicle rather than to the model overall. If you guys had the Sprinters loaded with computers and plasma's I would imagine that you were carrying the kind of weight that we normally do. I own a water treatment company so the vans are loaded pretty much full time with copper pipe, fittings, water softener salt, filter media, etc....I use to run E-150's but they couldn't handle the weight.

 

[Bob Hughes]

Starting in 2008 they are actually driving vehicles to get the fuel economy rating for the window sticker. Before this they used a dyno run to produce fuel economy numbers that had very little truth to them. I was playing around with cars that have not changed between 2007 and 2008 and yet the fuel economy as shown changed big time. Here is a link to play with:

Government Fuel Economy Website

Only the GM vans are listed that I can see though.

 

[racer34]

I have to replace a couple of my Ford E-350 service vans and am looking for something that gets more than 9 miles to a gallon which is what they are currently getting. I've been looking at the Sprinters but have no experience with them and am a little concerned with reliability and payload capacities. I'm not brand loyal so I am open for suggestions. What are some of you guys using and what are your thoughts.

AXEMAN, i am a sprintervan technician and have many customers that have nothing but good things to say about them. several of them have over 350,000 miles and going strong. good choice!

 

[jestal]

Starting in 2008 they are actually driving vehicles to get the fuel economy rating for the window sticker. Before this they used a dyno run to produce fuel economy numbers that had very little truth to them. I was playing around with cars that have not changed between 2007 and 2008 and yet the fuel economy as shown changed big time. Here is a link to play with:

Not sure what information you are quoting but I can tell you that the Federal fuel economy label information has always been based on actual car testing on a chassis dyno from day one....and it still is. There are no real world "actually driving vehicles" involved. All of it is done under controlled conditions on a chassis dyno. The Federal Test Procedure involves a city and highway schedule run on a chassis dyno with the vehicle weight and aero drag plugged into it based on actual coast-down vehicle testing.

Granted the fuel economy numbers generated often seemed to have little relevence to real world fuel economy but that was because of the requirements of the Federal Test Procedure....call your congressman. The EPA stepped in (years ago and several times since) and added fudge factors to the fuel economy data measured on the FTP in an attempt to make the window sticker numbers more relevant to what the vehicle would achieve in the real world. Those changes continue to this day....hence your comments about 2007 vehicles being different fuel economy from 2008. The difference is due to the continuing evolution of the EPA fudge factors not because the testing method changed.

The changes in 2008 were heavily driven by the inclusion of hybrid vehicles tested per the FTP. Hybrids do extremely well on the FTP due to low speeds, gentle braking and lots of idling. So well, in fact, that the hybrid fuel economy is dramatically overstated per the FTP vs. the real world. Once again, call your congressman. The rules were written by the EPA, not the manufacturers.