ArcaMax

Nissan doesn't offer one at all in the NV van (it's available with either a gas 4 liter V-6 or a gas 5.6 liter V-8) and it's extra-cost in the ProMaster, which comes standard with Chrysler's 3.6 liter gas V-6.

For 2015, the standard Sprinter diesel is a fairly small 2.1 liter unit, but courtesy of "two-staged" turbocharging, it produces 265 ft.-lbs. of torque at 1,400 RPM. This is a bit more torque than the ProMaster's standard 3.6 liter gas V-6 (260 ft.-lbs.) and a bit less than the Nissan NV's 4.0 liter gas V-6 (281 ft.-lbs.) however, the torque peaks much sooner - which is what you want in a big, heavy vehicle meant to haul and pull stuff. The NV's gas V-6 doesn't make its peak torque until 4,000 RPM; the Dodge's V-6 has to rev up even higher, to 4,175 RPM.

Benz pairs the new turbo-diesel four with a seven-speed automatic - an upgrade over the Nissan's five-speed and the Dodge's six-speed transmission.

The next-up Sprinter engine is an also-turbo'd 3 liter diesel V-6. It ups the hp ante to 188 (from the 2.1's 161) and the torque to 325 ft-lbs. - more torque than all the competition's available engines except the Nissan's NV's optional 5.6 liter (gas) V-8. The 3.0 V-6 is paired with a five-speed automatic. All Sprinters are rear-wheel-drive.

Mileage figures are not published - officially, by the EPA - for vehicles in this gargantuan class, but the Sprinter with 2.1 liter engine runs in the ballpark of 25 MPG on average, in mixed use (city/highway) driving according to my informal test-drive calculations. After a week of daily use, I still had just under half the 26.4 gallon tank of fuel I started with.This is very, very good for a vehicle this large, which has the aerodynamics of a double-wide combined with the curb weight of a full-size SUV plus a compact car. The Sprinter's mileage is actually better than my '02 Nissan Frontier pick-up (a compact pick-up with a four cylinder gas engine and manual transmission) delivers.

The Nissan NV van's numbers aren't published, either - but to get an idea, consider that the Titan pick-up on which the NV is based rates a suck-a-licious 13 city, 18 highway with the same 5.6 liter V-8 that's optional in the NV. So, probably, the same engine in the much heavier - and far less aerodynamic NV - will almost certainly be in the single digits in the city and low teens on the highway. The NV's 4.0 liter standard 4.0 gas V-6 is not likely to do much better, either. (In the much smaller - and much lighter - Frontier pick-up, the 4.0 V-6 rates 16 city, 22 highway).

The Dodge does better - when equipped with its optional 3 liter turbo-diesel four. It's mileage is probably as good - maybe even better - than the Sprinter 2.1's. But, there is a catch. Though the ProMaster looks like a truck, it's built more like a car - on a front-wheel-drive chassis. It can't haul or tow nearly as much as the truck platform-based RWD Benz, which touts a very strong 7,500 lb. max tow rating, far more than the Dodge's maximum of 5,100 lbs.

The Nissan NV is king of the hill on towing, though. When ordered with its optional V-8, this beast can pull nearly 10,000 lbs.

A note on diesel power: First, even though the Sprinter is a "commercial" vehicle, you'll still be stuck feeding it diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) periodically, to satisfy the Emissions Gods. Pretty much everything that's a diesel that's not an old tractor now requires DEF. There is a separate tank that has to be topped off - and which can run low or empty. When that happens warning lights illuminate at first and later (if you ignore the lights and don't top off the DEF tank) the vehicle's ECU - the computer brain that controls everything - will get progressively more recalcitrant, eventually preventing you from starting/driving the vehicle until you top off the DEF.

The other issue is the cost of diesel fuel vs. the cost of gas - which as I type this review in late fall of 2014 is lower than it's been in years. It's also a lot lower than the cost of diesel, which - in my area - runs about 50 cents more per gallon than regular unleaded. This definitely eats into the cost-per-mile ownership costs of the Sprinter, especially given its much higher price to buy. However, being a diesel (and being built on a heavy-duty platform) it's a good bet the Sprinter will last longer - and rack up a lot more miles - before it needs to be retired. Food for thought.

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