Mercedes investing $500 million for new Sprinter plant in SC

Autoblog ^ | 3/10/2015 | Chris Bruce

[RipSawyer]

Thank you on behaf of my native state. It’s amazing how things have changed since ‘62. When I went to San Diego for boot camp as soon as I said South Carolina I drew looks of pity...especially from the boys from the Motor City. I suppose I should write a song about it all.

[bert]

I did a camper version of a full size sprinter. It sleeps two on a Queen Size air bed, has ample drawer space for ten days clothing and lots of just stuff , a refrigerator, a microwave, a coffee pot, a toaster oven, over head shelf space the full length of both sides, a 22” hdtv that accepts antenna and campsite cable. It is wired for both 110 and 12 volts. It has both A/C and heat. It has both fresh water storage and gray water storage. The front compartment is outfitted with a large overhead storage wrack for maps and trip literature. (also....a potty)

It has been all across the country east to west twice, including Alaska, the Yukon and Northwest territory. It has been down the Great River Road from Minnesota along the Mississippi to the Gulf. It traveled the Butterfield Trail, route of the first overland mail, from Memphis, across Arkansas, Oklahoma, 900 miles of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona to LA and then up the Valley to the Wells Fargo Office in San Francisco.

There are several companies that use the Sprinter chassis for RV’s and there is a company in Asheville nc that will convert your off the shelf sprinter as you desire.

My 2006 Sprinter that carries the Dodge Badge has a 5 cylinder turbo diesel that gets 23 mpg on the interstate or 27 mpg on the long 55 mph dirt roads in Alaska.

Sprinter campers are something of a cult.

This year, both Ford and Dodge have put forth Sprinter Clones and unless one looks very closely, can’t tell the difference.

When not on the road for fun, my sprinter is a van. The bed platform folds up allowing access to the very roomy cargo area. It thus serves as a replacement for my pickup. I drive it for my job on one day trips within my 200 mile radius territory.

The quality of a Sprinter can not be exaggerated. Sprinters are truly remarkable vehicles. They appear on TV as the vehicles of choice for police and emergency forces all over the world. They appear on the news almost every night at the scene of all sorts of problems requiring police or ambulances or various other special uses.

Regarding the move to SC. There is already a factory there that partially assembles all the US Sprinters. That is done to achieve compliance with truck import regs. The jump to full assembly there is not a large one.

Mercedes trucks, and a Sprinter is a truck, are perhaps the most popular brand across the world. They are very tough and can stand the miles with ease.