dodge Sprinter Used Parts Online

The Mercedes Benz Sprinter is a delivery van, chassis cab and minibus built by Daimler AG in Düsseldorf, Germany and Buenos Aires, Argentina and sold worldwide as a Mercedes model, except in North America where it is built from CKD kits and sold by Dodge and Freightliner. The body shell is also used in a joint-venture with Volkswagen who made the Volkswagen LT and the Volkswagen Crafter. In Europe and elsewhere, the main competitors are the Ford Transit and the Fiat Ducato. In North America, the Sprinter's main competitors include the Ford E-Series and the Chevrolet Express. Overall around 1.3 million Sprinters have rolled off the assembly lines. The Dodge Sprinter sold 19,578 units in the United States in 2005, while Freightliner sold approximately 2,500 units, giving it just 3.5% of the full size van market. The first generation Sprinter was launched in 2001 in the U.S. and originally branded as a Freightliner. The Mercedes badged version was offered in Canada. For 2003, DaimlerChrysler introduced a Dodge-branded version of the Sprinter to the North American market. It was identical to the Freightliner Trucks version except for minor styling details and badging. Rather than redesign the aging Dodge Ram Van which used the same basic body and layout since the 1970s, DaimlerChrysler chose to replace it with the Sprinter. The Sprinter offered many advantages over the Ram Van; in particular it was a more fuel efficient alternative and available with a factory-built tall roof. From 2003 to 2007, the Dodge Sprinter was manufactured in Germany, broken down and shipped to a facililty in Gaffney, South Carolina where it was reassembled. The second generation Sprinter debuted in early 2007. This model is re-assembled at a plant in Ladson, South Carolina; the previous facility in Gaffney, South Carolina is currently utilized by American LaFrance, a former business unit of Freightliner LLC. The second generation Sprinter is a complete redesign from the prior model.

The Sprinter is designed primarily for business, not private users, although recreational vehicle (RV) conversions are available. In the US, the first generation Sprinters (2001–2006) were offered solely with the Mercedes Benz 5 cylinder turbodiesel 2.7L. Companies such as Microsoft are replacing van conversions with wide bus bodies with Sprinters with side facing benches and tall right side doors as campus shuttle buses. Limited numbers of complete "wagons" are being produced in Germany and shipped complete to the U.S. market for mostly individual and church van uses. Typical Sprinter Wagons are 8–10 passengers and have glass in all of the normal positions that windows can be factory installed. Vans shipped to the U.S. on spec are mostly sent in Arctic White color, but many standard and a few special colors are available on these passenger vans. The Dodge dealer network for Sprinters is limited to certified locations and dealer knowledge is still limited in both sales and service. Special orders typically take 1–3 months for delivery and make stretch out even longer, due to the assembly and disassembly in Germany, exporting of parts to South Carolina for re-assembly, the exception being passenger van models which are assembled in Germany and exported assembled: mid–late 2006 orders are probably going to be for 2007 models and delayed further for production to catch up to demand. In North America, most Sprinters are sold as cargo vans to expediters in the United States. Such expediters are similar to truck drivers except they take smaller loads and will wait in a town indefinitely after unloading until dispatchers find another customer nearby to transport goods. The advent of the Sprinter van with its cargo space of 13-1/2 feet (4.1 m) has allowed van expediters to take three 48 × 48 in (1.22 x 1.22 m) skids or pallets where previously they were confined to two. A Sprinter driver is capable of hauling approximately 3000 lb (1360 kg) of cargo. The pool of Sprinter drivers gives more choice, efficiency and flexibility to trucking companies and their customers. They have become popular delivery and supply vans, with DHL and FedEx moving their fleets away from trucks and more and more towards smaller, more aerodynamic and more fuel efficient Sprinters. Trade workers and others who spend time in the cargo bed of the Sprinter find the added roof height, an option on all Sprinters, a more comfortable alternative to traditional North American vans; even a six footer can stand upright inside. It has been noted that Sprinters are substantially more expensive to maintain and repair than their American counterparts, which is an important consideration for small business operators. Another market in which Sprinters are gaining ground is as van conversions and mini-motorhomes. They have adopted as a smaller high-end fuel efficient van-based RV chassis, rather than replacing Ford and GM chassis. Despite not being marketed as a family vehicle, a custom modified version of the Dodge-branded version of the van is used by the ten member Gosselin family, the subjects of the TLC reality series Jon & Kate Plus 8. The Sprinter is currently offered with four and six cylinder diesel, six cylinder gasoline or LPG engines in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. In North America, only the six cylinder turbo diesel 3.0L and six cylinder gasoline 3.5L engines are offered. An electric hybrid version has been tested but is not currently officially part of the Sprinter range.