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Of course it doesn't meet U.S. standards. Why would M-B spend tens of millions to crash-certify a car that they don't even sell here?
If you need a fuel-efficient people mover, you might look into a Dodge Sprinter passenger van. It's closely related to the Vito.
I had that same discussion with the wife today about the Sprinter. It is bigger. I have not seen a passenger version. But my Vito.... LOVE. I have people here who want it and will give it a good home.
I used to use a E350 Schoolbus. 12MPG. I thought I would just buy an other E350 as the old one was a 1993. I checked and the new ones also are still rated at 13MPG. What about technology???? Shouldn't it have improved the mileage?
I had that same discussion with the wife today about the Sprinter. It is bigger. I have not seen a passenger version. But my Vito.... LOVE. I have people here who want it and will give it a good home.
I used to use a E350 Schoolbus. 12MPG. I thought I would just buy an other E350 as the old one was a 1993. I checked and the new ones also are still rated at 13MPG. What about technology???? Shouldn't it have improved the mileage?
Well I think a shortbox Sprinter with a diesel is as good as you're going to get here in the States. It doesn't have an EPA mileage rating (EPA doesn't require it) but real-world results show about 20-22mpg in real-world mixed driving.
As for technology and the lack of fuel economy improvement on the E350 van: the EPA just revised its methodology so that their ratings are closer to the real world. It may be that the new E350 actually gets 20% better fuel mileage in the real world, but with the new EPA ratings method it's rated at 13mpg whereas if they were still using the old method it might be rated at 16mpg. Technology will only get you far when you're trying to move a 6,500lb object. You still need a lot of energy to get something that big up and moving. Technology improvements have yielded more satisfactory results on smaller vehicles; A 20% fuel economy savings looks bigger with a car that got 25mpg to begin with than in a truck that got 12mpg to begin with.
It's normally not cost-effective to import cars not manufactured for the U.S. market due to the high cost (parts & labor) of modifying the vehicle to meet the U.S. Government's emission and safety requirements. You might end up doubling or tripling the car's original cost.
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