The end of diesel Sprinters...?

[TomH]

Originally Posted by EmMay

I'd like to see concrete news relative trade partners working together versus protectionism; staff the EPA and let's get vehicles cleared for import.

Here's a Reuters Article about potential normalization of our trade positions.

Germany's Merkel encouraged U.S. will consider EU free trade deal | Reuters

I do not want to get into a political discussion here. While I want these vehicles to be imported to us, I can see the current administration relaxing diesel emissions requirements, but at the same time making it much harder to import from the EU. I have a lot more opinion on this, however neither this thread nor this forum are the place to discuss those things. I hope we can leave it at that.

[TomH]

Originally Posted by MtShasta

I'm waiting for my '17 4x4 Sprinter to be built. I would hate if Benz had to do a software update to "better" meet emissions and I end up with an under powered van. Fingers crossed they are more of an upstanding company than VW.

I presume your build is via Fresno? What original build date did they give you? What have they said of late?

[EmMay]

Originally Posted by TomH

I presume your build is via Fresno? What original build date did they give you? What have they said of late?

TomH, the letter you copied from Brian F basically says they're not worried but still left the door open by saying they'll let you know if something comes up. I'd categorize that as anything goes.

I'm thinking that Daimler is waiting with a set of vans right now for some signal from the government for a green light on the smaller engines and simultaneously getting that much closer to the Sprinter being made in South Carolina.

That new plant may start pumping out the late model '17's and the 2018's.

[AndrewInSeattle]

Originally Posted by TomH

I sent an inquiry to my project manager on Sunday and just received this reply:

Hi Tom,

We have been talking with Mercedes about this issue. They currently have 30+ vans that are due to come to us at their re-assembly plant in South Carolina that are waiting to be released. We are confident that Mercedes is going to resolve the issue, especially with regards to the Sprinter specifically. The amount of business they do in this model of van is too great to simply stop selling Sprinters in the U.S. For the time being I would not be worried until we hear something from Mercedes themselves that tells us otherwise.

We got a similar non-answer answer 2 weeks ago, also from SMB-West, except the number was 80 vans instead of "30+".

Our supposed completion date is late October, which hasn't been updated since last July when we put down our deposit. I can see this going either way, but I doubt SMB knows any more than we do, and is just trying to keep us calm in the face of uncertainty.

Meanwhile, I've started trolling craigslist ads again as a sort of nervous tic.

[PeteM]

Originally Posted by EmMay

That new plant may start pumping out the late model '17's and the 2018's.

Most of the Daimler reports I've seen indicate that any 2017 and 2018 models will continue to be manufactured in Dusseldorf, shipped in parts stateside, then reassembled at the Ladson facility. Full Sprinter manufacturing at the new North Charleston plant appears to be scheduled for 2019.

[winmag4582001]

America's hate of diesels confuses me....
Granted, the GM diesels of the 80's were a joke.
Ford's 6.0 is nothing more than a grenade POS. The 7.3 was the best.(besides the cam sensor)
Dodge's Cummings is bullet proof but its a Dodge, everything else will fall apart around the motor.
Chevy's collaboration with Isuzu/Durmax was rocky at first but is pretty good now.
Overseas the Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Subaru diesels are awesome! I'd pay top dollar for a Subaru Forester diesel here in the states! More torque, better mileage, and longer life with lower emissions. Why tree huggers aren't marching for diesel is sad. Instead they want battery power, which is an environmental destroyer!
Diesel is great, the EPA makes it bad.

[EmMay]

winmag...
thanks for the personal observations. the gist of this thread is that a quite a few folks waiting for their sprinters to get produced and shipped for up-fit is stressful...

[jrobe]

Latest update from "the Sprinter Guy." Sounds like no new 4 cylinders for quite a while.

https://sprinterguy.wordpress.com/

[carringb]

I don't think "America hates diesels"

America has a deeply deserved aversion to dirty air. Automakers did themselves a disservice by cheating the regulations. The VW investigation showed they were perfectly capable of meeting the emission regulations, they just could not do it while meeting their fuel economy, performance, AND cost point targets they established.

And, if you think it's bad here, just wait until you see the final regulations for large EU cities. Because pollutant levels had not dropped as forecast following existing tightening of regulations, and the cheating by European automakers was far more egregious than the EPA violation, the upcoming regulations may very well eliminate the possibility of selling new diesels in much of Europe.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/6...f-diesel-cars/

BTW - the reason the big-rig makers are making it work (Navistar and CAT excepted) is because they learned their lessons when they got caught in the 90s, and also because trucks have such a long service life, the more expensive emissions systems are fractionally much smaller part of total cost of ownership.

[TomH]

michaelf and winmag4582001 have made reference to diesels never catching on in the US and to America's hate of diesels. For many, those statements seem confusing. We see semis everywhere, half of the pickups are diesel, and in between sizes like big tow and dump trucks are all diesel. The thing is, if you ever spend much time in Europe, you will find that there are far more diesel powered cars and light vans there than there are here. You will see as many cars at diesel pumps as at petrol pumps. That is probably the perspective these two posters are coming from. And from that POV, they do have a point. Ironically, almost all of our trains are diesel powered whereas most of Europe's are electric. But then most of ours are freight while most of theirs are passenger carriers.