Advice on mercedes vans

[duckweed]

I wouldn't recommend any Mercedes Vans. My brother is a professional driver and delivers new vehicles and picks up old ones. He said to me never buy a Mercedes van they are not reliable. We've had renault traffic vans for years and never had any big problems.

[citymiller65]

They are very expensive to repair.

[spineless]

Well, I've driven quite a range of vans and I've never ever had a major problem with the Mercs.

 

You're right, Vito repairs are expensive, but as I say, I've never heard of a Vito going horribly wrong for no reason if well maintained.

 

I wouldn't touch Renault with a barge pole.

[Mr_Squirrel]

I wouldn't recommend any Mercedes Vans. My brother is a professional driver and delivers new vehicles and picks up old ones. He said to me never buy a Mercedes van they are not reliable. We've had renault traffic vans for years and never had any big problems.

 

Merc vans not reliable?

Im sure your brother has his reasons for believing this but in general, he is waaaaay off the mark with that one. Of course, all manufacturers suffer the odd 'dog' here and there but generally speaking, Merc Vans are probably the most reliable of all manufacturers.

Our company has used Mercedes Sprinter vans for around 10 years with each van covering around 100k per year with hardly a breakdown to be had over that time.. Before that when we used to run Ford Transits, we were virtually on first name terms with every recovery company in England

[spineless]

I fully agree with Mr_Squirrell on the above post.

 

I used to do well over 350 miles per day with 3.5t on a Mercedes Sprinter and in the 6 months I was on that job, it never ever let me down.

 

We used to inspect the vans daily and once every fortnight drive them to the maintenance company for them to service them. They all got the same treatment no matter what make. It never came a Monday that the van wasn't ready for the run.

 

The company replaced the battered Sprinters with brand spanking new transits and 3 wks later I left the company frustrated at the amount of time I spent by the roadside.

[Themarshall]

we have alot of merc sprinter vans on fleet and one came back with 150k on clock and still running strong some* parts cant be pricey and sprinter wing mirrors cant be bought from dealers complete they have to be bought in bits which is a bit of a swine...

[staninoodle]

I can say iv driven merc sprinters over four years,and never one single let down,downside was parts wer pretty expensive,but for reliability,it was spot on

[Squiggs]

Hi, I know it's a bit off topic, but can anyone recommend a good garage to service a Vito?

 

I don't want to go to Merc dealership or official place because they rip you off.

 

Any suggestions any1?

 

Cheers,

 

Yep, BJ Mason at the Old Dairy, Broadfield Road (formerly of the MOT Centre, much recommended on here) is a Merc specialist and just moved to new premises big enough to deal with vans, motorhomes etc

[spineless]

Thanks for that, I'll give them a bell soon.

[sierraman]

At my old work we used to use transits, the engines were unbreakable but the same couldn't be said for the transmission, very frequently they had to replace the DMF and the transmission.

 

Partly the transmission problem was through failure to correct the sloppy gearchange, as the pin for the selector mechanism used to wear an eventually drop into the gearbox damaging it in the process. Having said that the stop start use they got was the harshest use you can put a van through and they tended to be thrashed mercilessly as most vans are.

 

One thing I will add is to tread carefully with purchasing a second hand van. 5 r 6 years is typically a realistic lifespan for a reliable van. Companies offload their vans when they are shagged out and costing them money, not cause they fancy a new one.