Which base vehicle?

A dealer has now confirmed for me that Auto-Sleeper will be using the new Mercedes Sprinter for the 2019 models.  My wife and I are as sure as we can be that the extra cost is justified on the grounds of a proper TC box together with the helpful electronics which we now take for granted in a car.  These times include the electronic parking brake which is hugely helpful for those of us who are nearer 80 than 70 with shoulder muscles not as good as they used to be.

The new Sprinter is front wheel drive on the smaller models, so I'd hope more manufacturers would start using it because of the flexibility of layouts as BB points out. If they could just keep the price down.

Interesting to read about the reasoning behind some of the new models (ours is rear wheel drive.) Looks like 2019 will also be the year of the e-sprinter, the electric van is on the way. 

We have had dealings with Fiat. Not with a MH, but something else. Never again. Utter tripe. Merc for us should we swop, or possibly a VW. 

One thing people need to remember is that the Ducato is Fiat by name alone, at least for the last 20 years. They're mostly Iveco. (Larger engines) and in the last 10 years Ford. (Smaller engines).

That’s one reason I’ve been wary of the Trannie but it's difficult to avoid certain motors when, for instance, at one time the same 2.2 diesel was used by Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Ford, LR......

Although the various brands often use the same engines, the electronic control systems tend to vary and that can make a huge difference to performance and reliability overall. 

I know my comment is a little bit of a curve ball in this discussion but from experience I would seriously consider local availability of servicing any base vehicle of motorhome I might buy in the future.

The last van I had was based on a Peugeot. It was new so had to be serviced by Peugeot for the warranty. It was only after purchase that I discovered that the dealers that can handle motorhomes are few and far between and even the ones that do book you in sometimes have no idea what they are dealing with. Once I needed up having warranty work carried out in a Sainsbury's car park across the road from the dealer as they had assured me they could deal with me only to discover, after I had driven over an hour to reach them, that the dealership facilities were far to small to accommodate a 7.3m van!

Hallsontour

That seems a particular problem with Peugeot based motorhomes and the have been several posts on here over the years saying a similar thing. I have always had my Peugeot based motorhome serviced at my dealer, they do have a Peugeot dealer locally who can deal with warranty/more complicated work. My nearest Peugeot dealer here in MK can't accommodate the size of vehicle! If I had a Fiat based vehicle there is a commercial dealer with the right facilities  MK. Don't know about Merc but they do have their UK HQ here in MK.

David

Perhaps we’re lucky having Pug, Fiat, Ford and Merc commercial garages within a few miles of us. 

I wouldn’t expect the car garages to cope but the commercial vehicle garages repair and service far bigger wagons than MHs.