high payload, good power, and i’ll bet it would be 10X better than the E serise vans. they are heavy as hell and take a lot of power to move them thus giving you shitty milage which in important in business. diesel is avaliable in the E serise but few peopel actually need a massive powerstroke in their van + the extra 6K makes the gas engine much more atractive.
this is one of those thing i just don’t get. ford makes a superior product overseas so the cost to bring it here would be vastly less then re designing the brick we have here. no wonder why toyota is winning the car game. same cars all over the world.
Those euro-vans don’t suit the american drivers style. At my last employer we had sprinter vans. They got 17 mpg and guys liked them because they could stand up in them. But the 2.7l I5 diesel was relatively slow. The Chevy 3500 vans with the 6.0 gas would get 11 mpg but while loaded to 8500 or 9000 gross would still run 75 mph like it was their job. The sprinters wouldn’t. The tow rating on the Sprinter is 5000, the Chevy van almost twice that. Maybe the new 3 liter v6 diesel in the sprinter will be a little faster, we shall see.
The same logic applies to why my current employer makes five speed manual transaxles that mate to a diesel engine in a Dodge caravan in Europe. That is also more sensible. Gets much better mileage than a gas v6 and auto. But they don’t sell them here. Why? The american consumer doesn’t want them.
Put a diesel 5 speed caravan (assuming it would certify to sell in NY, which it may not) on a local dodge dealer’s lot and see how many soccer moms stand in line to buy it.
Remember than in many areas of Europe the drives are shorter and thus high speed isn’t important. Much driving is done at lower speeds on narrow or curvy medieval roads. And fuel economy is more important than performance.
Here in the us the average soccer mom wants their van to be able to merge easily onto the highway at 75 mph with a load of kids. the 150 hp gas 4 or better yet the 170 hp gas v6 will do that. While a 90 hp diesel will handle most of your driving, and will go 75, it won’t get there in a hurry.
Plus our automotive press is one of the biggest problems we have here, IMO. If motor trend tested a 90 hp diesel manual minivan they would lambaste it. Say it was slow. Say they’d prefer an automatic.
Not to mention all the family friendly moms and dads would shy away from a diesel (since americans think of diesels as noisy like a cummins dodge and smoky like a Mack with low compression and a worn out injection pump) thinking the smoke would be bad for their kids health or some shit like that. Or they would think of the GM diesels of the late 70s early 80s that were unreliable and slow.
Just as the europeans are more liberal with their views on sex and drugs and alcohol, I think they also are a lot more sensible and practical in the way they think about automobiles.
the chevy G20s and express vans do just fine. Personally i dont like the sprinters, they look like the center of gravity is too high.
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Have you ever USED a G20?
I don’t like the look of a Sprinter either, but that sure as hell doesn’t make a G20 any more attractive. They are both fugly.
I would much rather have the utility and accesability of a “euro” styled van. You can’t stand upright in a G20 even with a high top conversion. With the high roof a normal person can stand in it, @ 76.4" (over 6’4") tall. The Sprinter has an optional mega 84" (7’) tall interior.
It all depends on you needs and wants. If you do business strictly in the city, and need to carry a lot of cargo the sprinter is an excellent choice. The CG in one is a bit lower than one would think.
Again though it’s euro-vans aren’t the biggest thing in the US, and won’t be until gas prices more than double at this rate.
The sprinter looks like it has a high center of gravity, but I have yet to see numbers that back that up. You are assuming based on looks. The sprinter is about 100Xs smarter than any other domestic van on the market. It gets about 3X the fuel economy, and uses its space much more efficiently. I don’t understand the argument?
Why don’t companies sell them in the US? Because people don’t want them.
It’s not a conspiracy. The car companies aren’t out to deny US drivers the vehicles they really want or need.
If GM thought they could sell these to a majority of American’s (not just JoesTypeS), they’d be in every dealership:
As people have said, the US is a whole lot different than Europe when it comes to our roads. Everything here involves highway travel, where as a work van in a European city may spend it’s entire life navigating narrow city streets. We are a much more spread out population so we want our vehicles to perform at 75+… even our work vehicles.
