2011 Mercedes-Benz SPRINTER

Sprinter's are nice to look at but.....

Comfort Rating: 2 Performance Rating: 2 Interior Rating: 3 Reliability Rating: 1 Safety Rating: 2 Technology Rating: 1 Value Rating: 1

I purchased a new 2011 sprinter 2500 cargo in March of 2012 as a leftover. It started out with poor shifting from the auto trans, soft mushy breaks, serious hesitation when trying to accelerate, especially at low speeds. That was just at the beginning. Right off the lot there wasn't even a working horn. In the first year the radio went out and the dealer wouldn't let me upgrade the radio to the better factory one. They told me I had to replace it with the one I had or just keep the non-working one and live without a radio. At first I got great fuel mileage, I started out for the first 38,000 miles getting an average of 23+ mpg that has now at 50,400 miles dropped to 16-17, even though I was told that it would get better around 35,000 miles when the engine was broken in. Well at 38,000 I lost 2 mpg. Then by 41,000 I had lost an additional 2 mpg. Currently it's down another 3 mpg. The stock answer I've received from Sprinter dealer techs in 3 states, CA, PA, AZ, is that I was getting better mileage than anyone else and now it's just down to what everyone else is getting and that I should be happy I did so well for the time I did. I've driven my sprinter back and forth from southern CA to southeast PA 5 times so as you can surmise most of my 50,400 miles had been cross country driving. In just this past year, since being stranded for 3 days in AZ in June 2015 for a transmission problem, my truck has been in the shop in 3 different states, been looked at by 5 different dealerships in those 3 states and it's been in 2 private shops in 2 different states. Mostly for engine light issues as well as all of the originally stated problems along with the loss of mpg. I was assigned a factory Case Rep from the Mercedes headquarters in NJ but that hasn't helped in the least. On my most recent drive from PA to CA, just a couple of weeks ago, July 2016, my newest issue came up. I now have added Cruise control issues to the list of problems. Intermittently not holding speed, shutting off for no reason while cruising, and not shutting off several times after applying the breaks. In this past year it's been in one shop or another 8 times for the engine light coming on, several times for the ABS light, once for the Traction light (whatever that is). It's currently at the local dealer's shop, and has been for 7 days as of today, for ABS light, engine light, cruise control issues, mpg issues, and breaking issues. SO... they're nice to look at but PLEASE take my advice and don't buy one!!!