A Very "Euro" Way To Hand Out That Free Candy

by Jack Baruth

Published: March 4th, 2015

a very euro way to hand out that free candy

Twenty-four years ago, noted wearer-of-Givenchy-sweatsuits-with-burgundy-trim DJ Quik lamented that, thanks to the pervasive influence of gangster rap, everywhere he went was just like Compton. The same thing is happening with the American commercial-vehicle landscape. The first to fall was the hoary old unibody Dodge van, which yielded to the rust-prone Sprinter. Next was the E-Series, nee Econoline, which bowed-out this year in favor of the Euro-style full-sized Transit. Only the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana are left to carry the glinting banner on which waves the heraldic American-van shield of a bleeding hand (from trying to wrench on short-hood vehicles), a one-dollar bill (to signify the aggressive cost-cutting which has come to dominate that business) a bar of candy (calling to mind the child molesters and creeps who formed the tertiary van market) and the symbols “O-” (the old universal-donor blood type, required for anyone who crashed a van above walking pace).

Mercedes started this party in the USA, of course, but they’ve been late to the intermediate-van game. The Metris, announced at a work-truck show in Indianapolis, will fix that oversight.

The Metris starts at $29,945 for cargo and $33,495 for the passenger models. Who’s going to buy the latter, I wonder? It’s larger than the Transit Connect or the Nissan NV200.

The sole available engine is a four-cylinder gasoline model that delivers 208 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque to the rear-wheels via a 7-speed automatic transmission.

Everywhere else in the world, this is the “Vito” van, beloved steed of German plumbers and anybody else who wants to spend more money than you’d drop on, say, a Renault Kangoo. But here it’s “Metris”, presumably because “Vito” suggests Brando in his chunky forties and this Metris is meant to be more Al Pacino in Godfather II.

I cannot imagine the Metris will set the market on fire when it arrives. This is an exceptionally price-sensitive market, as I learned to my annoyance when I sold E-150s for a living, and Mercedes no longer carries the bulletproof quality reputation that would have made spending half again the price of a Transit Connect a no-brainer in 1982. We’ll just have to see. In the meantime, consider this: a passenger-model Metris carries more people than a CLA250, with more dignity.

Jack Baruth

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11 of 76 comments

Dtremit on Mar 04, 2015

Given the three pointed star on the front, and the reasonably classy interior, I think you are going to see a lot of these at airport limo stands.

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Mad_science on Mar 04, 2015

If the market for big vans is primarily commercial, I'm baffled as to why many of the big ones are switching to costlier euro-market examples over vehicles like the Econoline that exemplify cheap and simple. Why not just keep cranking out Econos with the 2.7EB, 3.7L and 3.5L EB backed by a newer 6AT?

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- Scoutdude on Mar 04, 2015
  
  Well for Chrysler it was because theirs was out of date and Mercedes wanted to sell more of their own van. Due to the break up Chrysler was then w/o and Fiat wanted to sell more of their own. Ford on the other hand I'm not sure why they decided to dump the E-series since it had 50% of the standard size van market. They had to do some substantial changes to the Transit to bring it up to US standards both regulatory and for what the buyers expect. It will certainly be interesting to see how the market shakes out. It would not surprise me if the GM twins come out on top and since they don't have a euro van to replace it they will eventually update it w/o straying too far from its current design.
  
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- Mikeg216 on Mar 04, 2015
  
  @Scoutdude Ford still makes the e-350 in extended cargo van and the 450 for chassis cab. I've seen more of the new transits this month than the sprinter so now with ford you have the transit connect transit connect extended the transit in three different lengths and heights in cargo and passenger and gas turbo and turbo diesel and single and dually. Right now they have 70% of the market
  
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- MBella on Mar 04, 2015
  
  @Scoutdude The fact that Diamler has sold as many Sprinters as they have shows that this type of van is what fleets want. The fuel savings out ways the costs, but those are going up as the exhaust systems become more and more complicated.
  
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- Scoutdude on Mar 04, 2015
  
  @MBella The Sprinter has never even reached 10% of the market in its best years. The fuel savings do not outweigh the costs. When the fleet I used to maintain was talked into buying them the salesman's sthick was that over the life time the extra 10K would be more than made up for by the fuel savings. For some reason they lest out the fact that diesel was more expensive than gas. The reality was that they cost $2000 more to maintain and repair per year than the StepVans they were replacing, if they didn't need a transmission so that ate up the fuel savings. After buying them for about 2 years they stopped because the actual cost of operation and down time was too high. They were also not as efficient to work out of as a Walk-in.
  
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- Brian P on Mar 05, 2015
  
  The European designs make better use of available space. Lower loading floor, higher roof, thinner and more vertical walls so that a greater percentage of the vehicle's outside width shows up on the inside (and it's available floor to ceiling), back doors that swing all the way around, side doors wide enough for a pallet. I'm nearly 6 feet tall and I can stand up in my low-roof ProMaster with my head ducked (and the high-roof version is more than enough to stand up in). They all have factory high-roof versions. Can't stand up inside an E-series or a Savana - not even close. The cargo volume in the biggest E-series/Savana is about what's in the smaller or medium configurations of ProMaster, Transit, and Sprinter. A good many of those who bought Sprinters did so not for the rumored fuel savings, but rather because they needed the extra space. A good many of those who bought Sprinters because they were the only choice for something that size, are now going to be buying Transits or ProMasters ... The newer-designed vans are also nicer to drive. The fleet manager might not care, but someone like myself who is going to be driving what I'm buying will. Bigger windshield, bigger side windows, modern instruments and controls, better suspension with no more Ford Twin-I-Beam (!), better brakes, more modern engines and transmissions, no enormous engine cowl in the interior.
  
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- Dtremit on Mar 05, 2015
  
  @Brian P Those factory high roof versions are going to do a number on the coach companies who build airport shuttles.
  
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- Brian P on Mar 05, 2015
  
  @dtremit Park'N'Fly at Toronto Pearson uses rattly old minibuses based on Chevrolet cutaway chassis (basically glorified cube vans) for servicing the economy lot, but if you park at the valet lot, they use high-roof long-wheelbase Sprinters. I have a strange feeling that the Sprinter would cost less than a Chevrolet cutaway chassis plus the custom coach body. A high-roof long-wheelbase Sprinter/Transit/ProMaster will substitute for a lot of cube van applications, too. Before, if you needed something bigger than an E-series or had to stand up inside the load area, you had to get a cube van.
  
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- Dtremit on Mar 05, 2015
  
  @Brian P Even if the Sprinter doesn't cost less, the Transit definitely does. Just the E-350 cutaway chassis is $28k; you can get a medium-roof 10 passenger Transit wagon for $35k and a high-roof 15 passenger model for $43k.
  
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- Scoutdude on Mar 06, 2015
  
  @Brian P A standard Sprinter can't carry as many people as a minibus based on a cutaway van. They usually start at 18-20 passengers. There are high roof conversions for the E-series and GM vans if you needed stand up height. I've got a Clubwagon (yes it is that old) that was originally outfitted as a wheelchair lift van. I've been noticing a lot of the recent E-series with high roof conversion being used by the local private para transport companies and looked into getting a retired one to replace my aged Clubwagon but they had between 400K and 500K and they still wanted several thousand for them.
  
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