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Vans & Minivans Dodge Sprinter Dodge Sprinter Gas Mileage
76 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2007 at 9:03 AM
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i have a hard time believing that mercedes benz would make and inaccurate speedometer and wholly accurate odometer in the same unit. how could a speedometer determine velocity and at the same time the odometer determines distance traveled at the same RPM (shaft rpm) and it not show the error. so anyways, engineering speculation aside... let's say that this may be the case... the speedometer is wrong and odometer is right (or may be right). hard to believe VDO would let this slip by or better yet, i'd love to hear a BS-covered technical explanation why they meant to have an inaccrate speedometer but an accurate odometer... it really seems funny to me that in such a controverisal fuel situation that we live in today with hig consuption commercial vehicles and SUV's, that an error like this, which could perhaps help the consumer mis-calculate his or hers vehicles fuel consuption, would go unoticed. the main selling point for these vans in our current economy is their apparent miser-like FUEL CONSUMPTON. at 3.00+ a gallon working vehicles are under a never before felt scrutiny due to the soaring operating cost of cents per mile. my wife doesn't think about how much her honda cost per mile... but i must think about how much my van cost per mile so i can adjust my prices to offset my overhead and not lose money (remember making money is why i bought this van). lets be honest... sprinters are working cars and they are nearly twice the cost of competiton but they boast a huge fuel savings marketing gimmick that, in the long run, will save you money. it hard to determine how much it'll save becuase of the speculation of future fuel prices. and i'm sure not all too many civillian sprinter owners out there have sat down with calculator and figured out how much this little van is saving them... bottom line... no one likes to pay 3 bucks for something they paid a dollar for three years ago. fuel price inflation is bringing mental havoc onto the mind of the fuel consumer and causing panic and wild specualtion by those small business folk who work their cars for living. this is changing the type of car the consumer believes they need to invest in order to stay competitive. when i bought mine i asked my self will a 14 mpg gas van be as competitve as the more fuel economic 22 mpg diesel van. i'm sure every sprinter owner out there who bought these spriter vans for their businesses thought of this and that's why they decide to leave the tradtional van market (v-8 FordChevGMC) which has worked extermely well for 30 years. car companies realize all of this now, finally. most of us sprinter owners are happy with the apparent milege and don't suspect a thing because that's what dodge said it would do. it tells us what we want to hear. so why wouldn't chrysler fudge the numbers a bit. playing with numbers is not new practice in the corporate world and seldom goes noticed. most of these vans are fleet vehicles. when it comes time to do the books the bean counters are gonna look at fuel consumed and miles covered and they'll decide if this new vehicle is saving them money. they'll do this by taking an odometer reading and fuel quantity used. a driver for DHL or UPS isn't gonna email the big boss man and bring it to his attention that the speedometer is inaccurate and that the new MPG figures is bogus. shoot no! he could care less. and a lot of the folks who buy these cars for their businesses aren't driving 'em personally and or will never discover this error. in fact, i could beleive that only a small single digit percentage will ever notice the speedometer error because, well, shoot... why would this super expensive piece of equipment have an inaccurate speedometer in this day and age... hey, it's mercedes-benz right! and i'm sure an overwhelming amount of sprinter owners out there are satisfied and happy with looking at the milege and fuel consummed and reading 21-22-23-24 mpg and leave it at that. the first thing i learned when i enrolled at my alma mater business school at ol Hard Knox Univ is when something seems to good to be true it's usually not. all things aside it does get good milege... but does it get what it said it advertised, really? if that sale brouchure said "19 mpg average" and not "22 MPG average" maybe more of us out there wouldn't have digged so deep in our pockets to buy it. a ford econoline 150 with a v-6 gets up 18 mpg on the hwy and is as equally stout and only cost $20,000. the fact that it got over 20 MPG's was the selling point for me to spend an EXTRA $10,000.... does it really do it, hmmm i thought it did, but now i'm wondering. this definately wouldn't be the first time big business tried to screwed the little guy by misrepresenting a product. the sad thing is that what they're doing (or letting happen) is probably totally legal because of some ancient US speedometer calibration law. it's funny how us americans never realized where getting screwed until after we get screwed. wonder if DR Z is out there and will vouch for his product!!!! and by the way  $3.35 for fuel a 14mpg van will get 24 cents a mile and the 22 mpg van will be 15 cents a mile... at that rate it would take 111k miles to make up the cost difference of the $10000 premiuim for the sprinter... if it gets 19 mpg true, then it would be 17 cents a mile and it would take 200k miles to make up the difference... and that's not taking into account the increased cost to maintain this thing over a regualar van... but of course as fuel prices rise the difference in cent per mile will be greater and the milege gap will close so... i'm anxious to see what happens.
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Replying to: altered3 (Jun 17, 2006 5:34 pm) http://www.amsoil.com/StoreFront/deo.aspx |
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Replying to: methodvan (Sep 04, 2006 11:18 am) stated here in several post) the machine revealed that my Spinter (118,Low) was doing 35 mph while my speedometer showed me to be doing 38 mph. Hmmmm. Being an automotive mechanic here in the northeast I went to the garage and picked up my Snap-On MT-2500 Scan Tool. I then went home and picked up my handheld GPS that I use hiking. I plugged the scan tool into the OBDII socket and turned on my GPS. I then fetched up my Wife and we headed for the highway. With my Wife at the wheel I setup the scan tool and GPS on the dash in the passengers seat and told the driver to bring it up to 60 MPH. Guess what! The only thing out of calibration turned out to be the speedometer. The PCM MPH PID in the scan tool matched the GPS down to the tenth. The speedometer is an analog device that converts digital infomation from the PCM to something that makes the speedo needle move. Apparently, it's not very accurate. Which is the case with a lot of vehicles I'm sure. But the odometer is not effected in this way. In fact, the instrument cluster is simply a "dumb terminal" in most modern vehical. If you replace it you will not change your odometer reading because this reading is calculated and stored in the PCM. What a relief. I've been watching my mileage figures using the odometer as a constant. And now I know that the figure is correct. But the speedometer is advanced by 3.5 mph at 60 mph. This doesn't bother me in the least unless of course, the gas gauge is also wrong.
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Replying to: shugrue (Nov 23, 2006 3:52 pm) the fuel gauge has many more miles in the top 1/4 tank and second quarter tank than it has in the last two quarters... Also have easily put 26.5 gallons in a 26.4 gallon tank and I was NOT out of fuel at the time... the Speedometer error seems so weird because it does not seem to be proprtional (always about 2-3 MPH off). It does NOT seem to be 1 MPH off at 20, 2 at 40, 3 at 80. How about yours? At 82-83 the GPS says 79 MPH (my TOP speed). Got to 85 on the speedo one time when it overshot the mark... never have gotten close to 90 (top speed in manual)! KenB 
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Replying to: kenbaker (Nov 26, 2006 1:03 am) My speedo also is 3 mph off. I just rely on the GPS. I have hit a top end of 80. To get more I would have to be going down hill, off a cliff with a large sail. Boy I hate getting stuck in the fast lane and I got nothing left, and can't get over to the right lane. Tom 
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Replying to: 2000_valk (Nov 26, 2006 1:09 pm) The dreaded Yellow Triangle supposedly comes on with 2.8 gallons left in the tank (up to about 60 miles of wiggle room for my Sprinter at 20.nuttin' MPG, no A/C). Still haven't run out at 537+ miles (should do about 528 at 26.4 Gal. and 20.0001 MPG.) I always try to get fuel by 500 miles, less in the Summer when I might use both A/C units. I am learning to just set back and let the really fast lane alone... but it is hard not to go there when the right lane is going S l O W w w w w. KenB
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Replying to: kenbaker (Nov 27, 2006 1:56 pm) time,it can take a good 20k miles for these engines to break in
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Replying to: 2000_valk (Nov 26, 2006 1:09 pm) if you ever run out of fuel after you fill up unscrew that pump and goto town until fuel comes out. dont even try to start before that. |
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Replying to: chaozz (Dec 21, 2006 12:28 pm) Now 22,000 miles and I just got an incredible 21.2 (up from about 20.001). What else influences that number? Cold weather, no A/C required for most of the tank, what else? I have mostly heard the the post break-in will go up about 5% at the most (2 MPG on 20 MPG base figures). If that is true, then I am half way there. quit using power service until it turned COLD again, now am using for the anti-gelling properties (white bottle, red and black lettering). KenB
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Replying to: kenbaker (Dec 26, 2006 12:14 pm) |
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