Farewell Odyssey, Hello Sprinter

It's strange how we invest emotion into inanimate objects.  We say they have sentimental value.  I do it, and I don't understand why.  Of all our possessions, we probably invest the most emotional capital in our cars.  We certainly did in our 2006 Honda Odyssey.  We loved that car.

Outside our apartment in Warner Barracks,
Bamberg, Germany

We bought our Odyssey in 2007 just before we adopted our first five kids, and when I returned from Afghanistan, we drove it all over Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia.

Watching the portable DVD player en route to Croatia.

Through it all, the Odyssey carried our family in comfort and safety, while actually being fun to drive.  I'm not exaggerating.  For a vehicle its size, the Odyssey is actually nimble.  It handles like a large sports sedan, not a truck.  I actually enjoyed driving it through the mountains of Slovenia (Isaiah, didn't; he puked).  And it averaged 23 mpg on the autobahn!

We moved back to the States (Fort Leonard Wood, MO) in 2009, and in 2010 Aimee gave birth to Elijah.  Every one of the Odyssey's eight seats was now full.  That summer, we moved to Fort Riley, KS.  Then we loaded up the van again with two adults, six kids, a dog and a rabbit, and went home on leave to WA State.  The writing was on the wall.  We needed more room.  We needed a full-sized van.  Even if we never had any more children, we could tell that our tall, lanky daughters would eventually get cramped as they grew.  As much as we loved the Odyssey, we had to replace it.

Loaded to the gills for Croatia.

Of course, with six kids and our first mortgage, we didn't have much disposable income, and we weren't excited about taking on more debt.

Then I got Aimee pregnant again.

After months of research, test drives and internet searches, we settled on a replacement; the Mercedes Sprinter 2500.  We chose it over "similar" offerings from Ford and GM because they're not all that similar.

When I drove the Ford and GM, I could tell the kids would still be cramped.  How is that possible?  There's very little leg room between bench seats.  Worst of all, there is zero, and I mean zero, cargo room behind the last row.  Aimee couldn't even take the kids grocery shopping if we'd bought one of those!  The Mercedes has a cavernous space behind the last row.  Furthermore, the bench seats are immensely more comfortable in the Mercedes than the domestics.

Our new Mercedes Sprinter 2500

Sheba cleans the interior after I washed the van.

Then there's safety.  The Mercedes comes standard with an electronic stability, traction control and anti-lock brakes.  The Ford and GM don't even have head rests for the passengers.

The Mercedes has a 3.0L turbo Diesel engine, so it's mileage is as good as our old Odyssey's.  Diesel is more expensive than regular gasoline, of course, so it's still more expensive to drive than our Odyssey was, but Ford and GM don't even offer a Diesel, and their gas engines get a maximum of 18 mpg on the highway.

On top of that, the Mercedes has two batteries, one to run the accessories and one to run the starter, so the starter battery never runs out and will never leave Aimee and the kids stranded.  The windshield is heated, as are the front seats.  The heater has electrically heated ceramic elements that warm up in 30 seconds.  It has a separate air conditioner just for the back to keep the kids cool.  It has a Diesel burning furnace to heat up the back in seconds on really cold days.

As you can probably tell, I already love this van.  I particularly love the whistle of the turbocharger when it accelerates.  I miss the automatic double sliding doors, leather seats, sun roof and great handling of the Odyssey, among other things.  Still, I think we'll quickly grow as attached to the Sprinter as we did the Odyssey.


The biggest drawback is price.  It's far more expensive than the Ford or GM, but you get what you pay for.  Aimee and I reasoned that we'll keep this van for many years, since our newest baby isn't even born yet.  Besides, if FedEx gets an average of 300,000 miles out of these, I figure we can do the same.  We don't drive it nearly as hard as a parcel delivery business, after all.  We are extremely have this new van.

Ford and GM seriously need to step up their game.

Abigail cleans Elijah's car seat.