What is the best work van for a mobile automotive service business? Well there were 357,000 Shooter type vans sold last year by the big three. So, What is the best work van? Well that is an excellent question. One which has several answers. Our first choice was the GMC Savannah, second is the Freightliner Sprinter. The Savannah has dual slide doors which is the coolest option yet. Ford still has the largest market share (47%)with it's E-250 and E-350. which we like even though turning radius sucks and visibility is sub standard in my opinion. But it they do have the juice. 4.2 L V-6 in the E-250 and the ominous 5.2L V-8 in the E-350, Whoooyaaaa. 78 amp battery is now standard too. Over all great compromise with it's excellent cargo space and the ambulance suspension kits. Sprinter would have won it for us but it does not have tilt wheel and the warranty is only 3/36,000 not until 2004 are they going to go to 5/60,000, I guess they want us to test them out first, see how they do. It appears well so far as we can see from the hard work at UPS and Fed Ex each company buying many thousands of units. Could end up the first fuel cell delivery van too within five years? We like the four wheel disk brakes 64 inch inside carge height, 77 inch exterior. 473 cubic feet of cargo, that is a lot. Good acceleration too. Carries lots of weight 5170 with over all GVW of 9,900. Not bad. Great for mobile oil changing, unfortunately the oil change interval is 10,000 miles so not so good for customers !!!! The Sprinter has ABS and it works good loaded in the rain, it better, I would hate to get one of those side ways full of waste oil. It is fairly quiet, stand next to one when the UPS guy or Fed Ex guy jumps out and leaves the engine running, you'll see, for a diesel it is very quiet. All Sprinters are shipped out of Memphis Distribution, similar to the strategies of Mitsubishi and Isuzu mid range trucks. Great for dealers who wholesale out with barley $1500 in profit including dealer incentive rebates. Savannah has nearly similar characteristics to all the vans, great fuel economy if you do not open ur up. But has the juice when you need it. Great braking and the smaller wheel base version out turns both Ford and Sprinter, Chevy significantly. We really like that, plenty of room and easy to work out of. Payload good enough and this is the unit we designed our Oil Change Guys van package after. Ford has the best performance if you like power. But remember fuel costs. Also remember the bigger the engine the better for power at lower RPMs and saving that engine. The formula example: HP=Torque (foot lbs.) X RPM/5252 |
