I bought my Sprinter in September '04 and have done 150,000 miles in the year and a half since then. That averages out to about equal what you said you've put on your Sprinter. I'm getting 25 mpg. I haven't had a single problem yet. The only parts I've had to buy were headlights. I'm still on the original tires. I think my Sprinter is fantastic, and I expect it to last for years.
Some truckers get a million miles out of an engine, and there are two reasons for that: trucks run on diesel, and they do 95% of their driving on highways. Diesel engines have fewer moving parts than gas engines, and they create less pollutants, so they last longer than gas engines. And lucky you, you have a diesel in your Sprinter. The main reason passenger cars only get about 100,000 miles is that they do so much stop-and-go driving in traffic, and that constant accellerating and shifting is what kills engines. The best way to make an engine last a long time is to reach highway speed and set the cruise control. Again, lucky you, as an expediter you should be doing at least 90% of your driving on highways, and this will also help you get far more than 100K miles from your engine.
There are just two simple things you need to do to get maximum miles from an engine:
1) Do all the scheduled maintenance at the mileages listed in your maintenance booklet, and use synthetic oil.
2) Drive gently. This means: no jackrabbit starts, no slamming on the brakes, slow way down for rough roads and railroad tracks, no driving at 90 mph, etc, etc, etc.
If an engine has to be replaced at 80K miles it was either a dud or the owner beat the hell out of it. If you do the two things above your engine should last for years, even at the high mileage you put on it as an expediter. I'm shooting for a million miles on my Sprinter...
Vipra
