High Roof V6 Sprinter 3500XD Extended Cargo Van 170 in. WB 4WD
2020 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500XD

The 2020 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter comes in a nearly uncountable number of variants. Whatever your needs are, there’s probably a configuration that’ll do the job. We happened to spend a week in a 3500XD Crew Van with a high roof and 144-inch wheelbase. Decked out in all-black, the van was impossible to miss. A 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6 sends 188 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque to all four corners. It’s mated to a seven-speed automatic gearbox. Europe can get three-pedal Sprinters, but those aren’t available in the U.S. Our tester had the $7,800 Low and High Range 4x4 Package tacked on that adds exactly what you’d expect: a 4x4 high range with a low-range transfer case. We didn’t hit the trails, but this van sounds like an adventure waiting to happen with its high ride height and true four-wheel drive. It seats five and has a massive rear storage area behind it. The 5,000-pound towing capacity should allow enough overhead to tow whatever you couldn’t fit inside the high roof van to begin with. Before any of the extra goodies, our Sprinter started at $51,885. Its final price rang in at $71,496. The $2,530 Premium Plus Package added the MBUX infotainment system with a 10.25-inch touchscreen, navigation, adaptive cruise control, wireless phone charger, leather steering wheel and an instrument cluster display. A $1,240 Premium Package adds a rear view camera, lane-keep assist, rain-sensing wipers and an active brake assist function. Then the $1,210 Driver Convenience Package adds the multifunction steering wheel, blind-spot warning, heated/electronically-controlled mirrors, a 12-volt power outlet and a number of other trivial features. The electric sliding step costs $1,014, and the illuminated front exits were a cool $143. Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: This Sprinter is surprisingly easy to drive. The wonderful visibility and huge mirrors help, but it’s not nearly as unwieldy as I expected. It’s not slow, either, and I had no trouble mixing it up with traffic in the city and on the highway. The ride isn’t bad, about on par with a Ram Power Wagon, and far more comfortable than a Ford dump truck we had awhile back. The dichotomy of stripped down van and high-tech, luxury Mercedes was funny. It has adaptive cruise control, slick thumb controls on the steering wheel and a great infotainment system, but then there’s no artfulness to put it all into context. Thank goodness for heated seats, though. At 18 degrees, I had the heat on full blast for the first 30 miles of my commute into work. If you’re curious, I got just shy of 16 mpg. Obviously, my four-year-old loved it, calling it “so cool!” We ran around in the back for a bit, and I took him for some laps around the driveway. Now I’m entertaining dreams of decking one of these out as a badass off-road camper. Road Test Editor Zac Palmer: I hopped out of a 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Coupe and directly into the driver’s seat of this lifted Sprinter. …
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