Early next year, Mercedes-Benz will introduce the industry’s first 4×4 commercial van to the company’s wildly popular Sprinter line.
Since the four-wheel drive system isn’t active full-time, the company considers the van a 4×2 with 4×4 capabilities when needed. Once the electronic traction system has been push-button activated by the driver, a factory-installed all-wheel drive system spreads torque at a ratio of 35:65 between front and rear axles.
The on-demand push-button four-wheel drive Sprinter is only available with Mercedes’ 3-liter V6 BlueTEC diesel matched to a five-speed automatic, both of which ably handled everything thrown at it during my recent test drive at the Daimler’s Charleston, S.C. Sprinter assembly plant.
The 3-liter diesel provided more than enough power to push the 144-inch short wheelbase van up a fairly steep grade and over a man-made off-road track seemingly better suited for ATVs.
Many times, over the course of the brief drive, one wheel was lifted from the ground. Sensing the loss of traction, the onboard computer shut the dangling wheel off and diverted torque to the three tires actually touching the ground. Even when all four tires weren’t on the ground, the van never felt “out of control,” and under some very loose traction conditions, there were times I would have expected that.
