From an article at
www.mysprintervan.com/
When you first see the Sprinter, whether it is with a Dodge or Freightliner badge on the hood, the overall design may seem unconventional.
The Sprinter is narrower than similar classed vehicles like the Ford Econoline by almost three inches. And because it’s almost a foot taller than the Econoline its narrow appearance is even more striking. But looks are deceiving.
The company we now call Daimler-Chrysler, which manufactures the Sprinter, was once known as Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, when it was founded 115 years ago. From the very beginning it set the course of automotive history by introducing the first cars not based on traditional horse buggy configurations.
As early as 1898 Daimlers featured front engines, rear wheel drive and the seating arrangements still found in most cars and trucks today. Again Daimler has set about rethinking the needs of the motoring public by designing vehicles that better fit the world we live in while actually increasing the interior volume to accommodate larger payloads.
The Sprinter is a magic show on wheels when it comes to space utilization. The basic model Sprinter is three and quarter inches narrower than a Ford F-150 Econoline van but a whopping twelve and quarter inches higher when comparing basic body heights.
The result is an increase of sixty-five cubic feet of cargo space equaling the space required for two average size refrigerators. This “magic†is the result of trimming the waste of contoured sides with more practical almost upright lines putting your needs for cargo quantity, thus your pocketbook, first and foremost in engineering design.
As an added bonus the Sprinter’s basic payload capacity is 3,950lbs., topping the Econoline’s rated payload by over a ton.
The narrower width of the Sprinter is the wave of the future. Parking spaces are by general government design 96†wide in most applications. In a perfect world that means that vehicles that are 80†wide, like the Econoline, should have about 16†of space between themselves and the next vehicle for passenger door access.
But people rarely park in the center of a space so more often than not that 16†gets reduced to less than a foot. The three inch narrower width of the Sprinter means quite means that on any given day, in any given parking situation the Sprinter is more likely to find a usable parking spot than the owners of traditional sized vans.
