Just got back from looking at the Transit. A little disappointed but I am keeping an open mind. Waiting to see the passenger van. I have looked at Nissan and it is still in the running. Unfortunately, the sales staff in San Antonio is NEVER available. They don't work weekends and have been unavailable the 4 times I have stopped by to look at them. Worried that the NV will not be able to be serviced at ALL Nissan service places. Feel free to set me straight if that is not true. Continuing to look and weigh my options.
Honestly, like I said, I'm in day two and have a tall order in front of me. My first week is simply dedicated to product knowledge and Nissan Certification testing. So to be honest I can't answer that question as I sit here at home now but I can certainly do so on Monday, I'll PM you, or feel free to shoot me one.
Not that anyone asked for it, but my unbiased opinion on the trucks follows simply like this...... (I could speak on this for hours, I'm going to try to keep it short)
Sprinter was easily the truck of choice and in my opinion the only way to go for many fleets and small business owners until the Nissan and Ford Transit. You hear a lot of bad rap on the net about them but then again 99% of the time people only speak up to complain. My personal experience at the dealership was that although there were some quirks, it was a platform that would regularly perform as a solid work tool for 400,000 + miles before needing a major service. There were exceptions, but there always are, not a large amount though. I personally think the sprinter drives the better than the ford but that's simply subjective. The sprinter I do honestly believe will lose the market share it's fought to gain over the last ten years. I believe with the vehicles offered now will sell in many markets to European immigrants (which many tradesman in many cities are), the boutique conversion market (which I worked with very closely), and in colder climate. I think the 4x4 option coming to market will be a no brainer for someone is snow climates.
The Fullsize transit will no doubt take over if for no other reason than the foothold Ford holds in fleet sales. Add to that a vastly greater service network, more power options and pricepoints, buying incentives the domestic manufacturers always have going on, and the comparable space found in the sprinter, it seems inevitable. I can't speak to the reliability so to be honest it's an unknown, it's simply too new.
The Dodge I don't see gaining much traction for many reason, the biggest of which is the experience people received at dodge dealers when they were selling the Sprinter. I simply cannot tell you how many Dodge Sprinter owners had problems with ill trained and unfriendly dealers they needed service from. Being that it will compete for the European client the sprinter vies for this is a BIG problem. When we learned of the Dodge coming out at Benz and customers learned of it, literally 80% of people said they wouldn't even step through the door because of it. So using that same dealer network and having to familiarize themselves with yet another European product......How long will that take and how will the attitude change? With known bugs, and what I feel is not only cheap but relatively quirky construction I'd personally don't think the vehicle will make any waves.
The Nissan NV.... The vehicle doesn't drive better or worse than the above, just different. My first spin in the van felt like I was driving a truck. Some people like it, some people don't. I do, (though keep in mind my favorite personal vehicle is a 78 bronco so I love trucks) There are next to no problems on the truck and I do have to say I think the NV will frequent the service dept the least out of the bunch. I've got to talk to many owners who have come in for oil changes and whatnot that have been burned by Detroit cars from a reliability standpoint and will buy Japanese for that specific reason. I don't feel the dodge is a viable vehicle here for the reason I mentioned so comparing the Ford and Sprinter, Nissan provides more value for the buyer that can accommodate one of it's configurations (albeit more space limited than those two). Also the warranty is by far the best of the bunch. (however I can say that at sprinter we had very reasonable factory warranty options that pushed that to 120,000 miles).
I think they will all have their place and appeal to different people for different reasons. I could make an argument for Sprinter, Nissan, or Ford depending on the buyers needs.
The small transit and nv are an entirely different subject.
