The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van was born in the mid-1990s to replace the T1 Transporter, which means it’s due for its thirtieth celebration. The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart will celebrate this monumental milestone for the iconic van with a marketing campaign called “An Icon for 30 Years,” accompanied by a special display that features a first-gen Sprinter, current Sprinter, and eSprinter, along with Sprinter-themed merchandise. Mercedes-Benz is on-track to sell five million Sprinters over the course of three decades. The United States represents the second largest market for the Sprinter, with abundant recreational, commercial, and private applications.

We’re not ones to get persnickety when it comes to a celebration, but yes, the Sprinter is more like 25 years old in our market; the thirtieth celebrates the European Sprinter. Even more technically, the Mercedes-Benz-branded Sprinter is about 15 years old (2010). We’ll briefly explain.

The Chicken Tax And Mercedes Vans

Success of the 1995 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in the European market spurred Mercedes-Benz to bring the nameplate to our market for model-year 2002, but not directly. As with other vehicles, the Chicken Tax (a 25 percent tariff on imported pickup trucks) posed a major problem when it came to importing the van to our shores. To avoid the tax, Mercedes-Benz would disassemble the German-manufactured vans, stuff them into knockdown kits, import the pieces into the U.S., and then re-assemble the pieces. The complete knock down (CKD) assembly process was a convoluted way of doing business, but it was still cheaper than the tariff.

Due to the complexities of the import process and the way parent companies were aligned during different times, the Sprinter was re-badged in various ways over the years: Freightliner Sprinter (2002-2021) and Dodge Sprinter (2003-2009).

Sprinter Production Moves To The U.S.

Thanks to the expanded production plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, Sprinter vans have been made-in-the-USA since 2018, corresponding with the launch of the third-generation Sprinter. For the past few years, the Sprinter has been solely under the Mercedes-Benz brand.

Current Mercedes-Benz Cargo, Crew, Passenger, and Cab Chassis Sprinter vans are powered by 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel engines in Standard (168 horsepower/295 pound-feet of torque) and High Output (208 horsepower/332 pound-feet of torque) tunes and backed by 9G-Tronic automatic transmissions. They come in rear-wheel drive (Standard/High Output) and all-wheel drive (High Output only). Towing ranges from 5,000 pounds to 7,500 pounds; payload ranges from about 3,300 pounds to 7,500 pounds. The only other powertrain option is electric; there is no gasoline Sprinter anymore.

The vans start around $50,000, but the fully-upfitted adventure vans you see roaming the wilderness can crest $250,000. The mod-ready Sprinter platform offers the tech, style, longevity, and flexibility that upfitters and modifiers want, providing endless opportunities for customization. With up to 533 cubic feet of load compartment volume, the Sprinter is arguably the upfitter’s van of choice, particularly in the RV industry.

Cheers to the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter’s first thirty years. Due to the van’s untapped potential, it’s plausible we could see many more decades of Sprinter.