2019 Volkswagen Crafter vs Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

What's the difference?

If you’re in the market for a large van, the VW Crafter is well and truly worthy of your consideration. The new model is a big improvement on its predecessor, and there are multiple options available to choose from. And there’s only more to come, with RWD and AWD models on the horizon for 2019. 

You might want to see what else is out there for less money, because competition is fierce in the large van market. But if you’re sold on the Sprinter - maybe having owned one before - then there is a lot to like, provided you’re happy to pay more than the market odds.

I have to admit I was shocked when I showed up to collect this VW Crafter and it was finished in Deep Ocean Blue. I mean, I don’t think of vans this size coming in anything other than white or maybe black, which are of course also available. But with other colours available like Cherry Red, Luminous Orange, Reflex Silver or Indium Grey, there’s a Crafter to suit different business needs. These could essentially be billboards on wheels. 

There’s a typically Teutonic approach to the exterior styling of the Crafter. It is boxy, yes, and it probably isn’t as attractive as some of the other big vans out there, even if the subtle chrome trim line across the grille is a welcome flourish. You can option a Trendline Styling Package which adds more chrome inside and out, too, but the large halogen headlights and simple 16-inch steel wheels combine to scream ‘work-focused’. 

Of course, being a commercial van, there are options aplenty in terms of customisation. This tester was almost as it comes from the factory - fitted with one sliding side door only, and the rear barn doors which come as standard, too. 

If it were me, I’d be considering a second side door, and - if possible - probably some side glazing because it’s a bit hard to see over your shoulder. That said, the split side mirrors with a lower wide-angle lens help to see what’s lurking in your blind spots, and the high-mount reverse camera is very helpful.

The dimensions of our test vehicle are 6836mm long on a 4490mm wheelbase, 2590mm tall (that jumps to 2798mm with the super-high roof), and 2040mm wide (the mirrors are big, though, pushing width to 2427mm). 

Inside the cabin of the Crafter, things are impressive - there’s a nice small steering wheel (the same as you’d get in a base model Golf, if VW sold one without leather wrapping), and the controls are all very logically positioned. It feels like a car from the driver’s seat, and there’s excellent adjustment on offer to find your perfect driving position, which is important to professional drivers.

We’ve already done a bit with the new Sprinter, and I think the van is quite a nice looking thing. But in mid-wheelbase high-roof spec, it does look a little bit like a bread box. 

That aside, this a handy size for a broad range of trades or business uses. The dimensions of our test vehicle are 5932mm long (on a 3665mm wheelbase), 2020mm wide and 2620mm tall. If you get the regular roof height you’ll lose a bit of height, but at 2331mm it’s still too tall for most car parks.

Because it’s hard to make a big box on wheels look like anything other than exactly that, the interior treatment is where Mercedes-Benz has focused a lot of its energy. Check out the interior pictures to see what I mean.

If you’ve sat in - or happen to own - any current VW, the cabin of the Crafter will feel familiar to you. That’s a pretty decent accolade for a big work vehicle, but the interior design and materials are what we’ve come to expect from VW.

Admittedly the plastics are a little more ‘hard wearing’ than in a Golf or Passat, but the controls and layout are smart and even a bit stylish.

The media display is an 8.0-inch touchscreen unit with decent usability - there’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to sync and mirror your phone, plus Bluetooth phone and audio streaming, AM/FM radio, CD with MP3 playback, two SD card inputs, auxiliary jack, voice control and four speakers. There is no GPS / sat nav as standard, but you can get a system with that tech if you want it. It’s optional, because VW rightly assumes that van drivers might bring their own tracking telematics devices. 

There is storage aplenty, with enormous tiered door pockets, an array of cupholders in and on top of the dash, a couple of dash-top folder holders and overhead storage pockets, too. Plus there’s under-seat storage, and a fold-down table in the backrest of the middle seat.

Yep, the three-seat Crafter has a double bench on the passenger side with armrests for both occupants, plus the driver’s seat has the captain’s chair style to it, too. There are two 12-volt outlets to keep things charged, and the sun visors are huge (with a mirror on the passenger-side only, weirdly). 

In the cargo area there are 12 lashing rings for LWB models (10 for MWB), plus a pair of 12-volt sockets, a bulkhead partition with a safety grille over the glass, and there’s a grab handle to help you get in and out. There are two roof lights fitted standard, but you can upgrade to four LEDs as part of the Cargo Area Upgrade Package, which in turn adds grab handles on either D-pillar.

A couple of things about the cargo zone; the plastic around the step area was badly fitted, the paint on the inner walls wasn't very well done (if that matters to you) and a non-slip mat or liner might be a good idea, as the floor area was scuffed after just 100km of loaded driving.

Let’s talk about interior dimensions.

The cargo area measures 4300mm long, 1832mm wide (and 1380mm between the wheel arches, meaning it can easily swallow pallets), and 1961mm tall. VW says that equates to a 14.4m3 cargo capacity (or 14,400L, if that’s how you prefer it).

The side doors are tall enough for a six-foot adult to juuuust walk through without ducking (1822mm) and the width is 1311mm, good for loading in big boxes, and wide enough for a pallet to be side-loaded too. 

The load sill height at the rear is 570mm, or just over knee-height for an average height male. The opening behind the rear barn doors is 1552mm and it’s 1840mm tall. 

For what it’s worth, I stacked up a three-bedroom-house-load of boxes in the back, and I had room to spare.

There are four cupholders down low plus another two in front of both occupants on top of the dashboard, which is where you’ll find loose item storage, too. It runs the width of the dash, and in the middle there’s a bin with twin fast-charging USB-C ports.

There are huge door pockets - big enough for a 1.25-litre bottle - while above your head you’ll find storage for folders and workbooks. 

The materials are quite work-hardy, and we noted a couple of rough edges to the hard plastic on the dash of our tester. That said, visually it’s pleasant to behold, particularly kitted out as our tester was.

Our van had the optional big 10.25-inch 'MBUX' media screen fitted, and its crisp colourful display is lovely - but using it might take some learning. I struggled with the menus at times, plus I tried to show off the capabilities of MBUX (Mercedes-Benz’s new AI-driven media system that learns what you want and should be able to do what you ask of it using voice commands) and managed to fail dismally.

Much as I chatted with it, the system failed to comprehend sat nav address inputs and other commands (which, hellishly, resulted in me having to lower the climate control temperature manually because ‘I’m hot’ didn’t trigger any sort of reaction from MBUX).

If the leather steering wheel looks familiar to you, there’s a good chance you’ve also been looking at the C-Class and E-Class. It has a pair of tiny touch-sensitive track pads on either side to scroll through either the driver info screen or the media display. Fine, in a C or E they might be good - but for tradies or drivers with dirty hands (as I had on test)? Maybe not.

Just like the cab chassis model I drove recently, this version had the 'Comfort Seats' pack with lots of adjustments (base tilt, base extension, height adjust, backrest tilt). But again, I didn’t truly find them that comfortable. There are inner armrests for both seats, though. 

As for the cargo zone, the measurements of our van are: 3272mm maximum load length; 2079mm maximum load height; and 1774mm load width (with a pallet-friendly 1350mm between the wheelarches.

The height differs between the RWD model and the FWD model, but not a huge amount. A FWD model with the high roof would be 29mm lower than the equivalent RWD, but the RWD loading height is 107mm higher, which could make for sore quads at the end of a day of continuously stepping up to get in and out (he says with experience).

Our van had the standard door set-up - a pair of barn doors at the rear, with a single sliding side door. The side door with is pallet-friendly, too, at 1260mm, while the rear doors offer stepped opening, from 90, to 180, up to 270 degrees.

The higher roof gives you a huge advantage when it comes to storage in the cargo area, with 10.5 cubic metres of volume as opposed to 9.0m3 in the regular roof version. If you’re doing a lot of delivery trips, that could mean the difference between making it in one journey or having to return for a second run. 

Hauling heavy stuff? The payload of this Sprinter is 1316kg. If you need more, you could opt for a LWB model. 

If there’s a major criticism of the Sprinter, it’s that it could be more affordable. 

There is strong competition from brands like Renault, VW and Ford in this part of the market, and Benz’s position as a premium offering might scare some potential customers off. 

For instance, our MWB RWD 314CDI model has a list price of $56,474 including GST but before on-road costs, making it considerably dearer than the equivalent versions from either of those rivals. With the auto transmission, the price is $59,349. 

Comparatively, a VW Crafter MWB auto is $55,490 (in FWD, admittedly), while the equivalent Ford Transit RWD auto is $51,990, and the closest Renault Master is a manual MWB at $51,990. 

But it helps justify the cost with good levels of standard equipment in van guise. You get cruise control, keyless start, the company’s MBUX multimedia system (with a smaller screen unless you option the big one seen here), electric folding side mirrors, cloth seat trim, rubber flooring and daytime running lights.

Plus the safety story is strong in this body style: blind-spot monitoring and a reversing camera are standard, plus lane keep assist. More on that in the safety section.

Our loan vehicle had a number of options, including the Comfort Seat Pack ($715 inc GST), the aforementioned auto transmission ($2875), a wireless phone charging tray ($185), active distance assist radar cruise control ($1067), the leather-lined steering wheel ($231), the 10.25-inch MBUX screen ($1584) with digital radio ($246), a chrome grille ($415), metallic paint ($2000) and the high roof ($2050). Total extras: $11,568. Price as tested: $68,042 before on-road costs.

See what I was saying about it being more affordable? 

Every version of the Crafter currently sold in Australia is fitted with a 2.0-litre twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel engine - it’s the EA288 Nutz (Nutzfahrzeuge - commercial vehicles) engine, in case you’re wondering.

Power is rated at 130kW (at 3600rpm), and torque is 410Nm (at 2000rpm). Those engine specs are decent, but don’t change the game. The way it drives, however… read more on that below.

There’s the choice of a six-speed manual transmission or an eight-speed automatic - that’s right, there’s no dual clutch DSG transmission here. And to begin with, all Crafter models were front-wheel drive. But the range is set to expand, and soon.

There will be a couple of rear wheel drive (RWD) models available with single- and dual-wheel layouts at the back, plus VW’s 4Motion all wheel drive (AWD) variants will be sold here, too. It’s Volkswagen Australia’s most complex model line. 

The kerb weight of the LWB High Roof van is stated at 2308 kilograms, with a gross vehicle weight (sometimes called gross vehicle mass, or GVM) listed as 3550kg. That means a payload capacity of 1242kg, but remember, that number has to factor in the driver and any passengers.

If you need towing capacity, the Crafter offers 750kg un-braked or 2500kg braked trailer capacity. The Crafter has a gross combined mass (GCM) of 5550kg, so you can run a load and a trailer if you need to.

Powering the 314CDI version of the Sprinter is a 2.1-litre twin-turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine producing 105kW of power (at 3800rpm) and 330Nm of torque (from 1200-2400rpm).

Those figures aren’t massive, but as you can tell by the torque band, the grunt is readily available and there’s minimal turbo lag to contend with - especially when the seven-speed auto transmission is fitted. 

If the cargo area isn’t enough space and you need to tow a trailer, the towing capacity of this Sprinter is 2000kg (braked) or 750kg (braked). The gross combination mass (GCM) is 5550kg, and the gross vehicle mass (GVM) is 3550kg. Kerb weight is 2159kg.

The Crafter plays in a segment of the market where manufacturers don’t need to provide claimed fuel use figures. But we can tell you that over our week of testing - which involved about 600km of driving between the Blue Mountains and inner-west Sydney, with and without loads, in traffic and in free-flow driving, we saw a return of 10.9L/100km, which is commendable.

Fuel tank capacity is 75 litres - there is no long range fuel tank option, either. It’s worth noting that the engine doesn’t just need fuel, it also takes AdBlue and has a diesel particulate filter to meet Euro6 emissions compliance levels.

Claimed fuel use isn’t required to be stated by Mercedes-Benz because of the classification of the Sprinter, so it’s hard to say how it stacks up against what it’s supposed to use.

But on our test, which involved a few hundred kilometres of driving loaded and unloaded, on back roads, city streets and motorways, I saw consumption of 9.2L/100km. It should be noted that I didn’t have any heavy loads on board this time around, which explains the low figure.

Fuel tank capacity is 71 litres, but you can option a long range fuel tank that pushes the capacity up to 93L.

It’s hard to make something this big feel like it shrinks around you when you’re driving it, but the Crafter is surprisingly simple to drive and easier to pilot than you might expect.

You have to be aware that its as long as one-and-a-half VW Golfs, but it turns with such ease thanks to the accurate and nicely weighted steering that you could forget the size of it… provided you can handle that it has a huge 16.2-metre turning circle, which makes urban driving, and particularly reversing, a bit of a task.

The sheer size of this box on wheels is something you need to consider, because underpasses might be out of the question, garages almost always are, and branches that look oh so high up in the air from human height are likely to give the paint a hard time if you’re not careful. But you know that if you’re considering a van this large.

The suspension does a spectacular job of things. Admittedly the enormous wheelbase helps keep the body under control quite well, but there’s less of a top heavy feel to the Crafter than you might expect. There are anti-roll bars front and rear to help reduce twist, and even exiting steep offset driveways it handle its size really well. 

Over speed humps and rough sections of city streets you might notice some thumping from the rear suspension (leaf spring rigid axle with load adaptive dampers) when unladen, but the front suspension (MacPherson strut double wishbone) is really well sorted in all situations.

The engine mightn’t have the biggest grunt numbers, but the way its power and torque are used by the eight-speed auto is excellent. It isn’t fast, but its strong enough in its response, and it never felt short of torque in any situation - even with about a tonne of household goods packed into the back. 

The only thing that could deter you is that the front wheels can spin or scramble for traction under hard acceleration, particularly in the wet. 

My only other issue was the hill-start assist system - from my time behind the wheel, it seemed to only work in forward gears; when I reversed up a hill it didn’t hold and started to roll away on me, which was somewhat disconcerting. 

Just a week earlier I’d driven the VW Crafter FWD in LWB guise, and I was very impressed with the ride comfort and steering response of the van.

The Benz van bettered it for steering - obviously, accounting for the extra length and bigger turning circle with ease, but also with a more direct and positive feel to the steering.

The ride, though, wasn’t quite as well sorted. The Sprinter felt a little more jittery unladen over the same roads I’d driven the Crafter, but it was never clunky or uncomfortable.

My biggest grievance was the amount of rattling and noise from the rear of the cargo hold. It was so loud that I even stopped to check if there was anything in the cargo area that was rattling around, but even empty, it was like clattering a tin full of bolts.

If I were buying a van like this, pretty much no matter the intended purpose, I’d want it to have a bulkhead behind the seats - not only for added safety to stop things flying forward in the event of heavy sudden braking, but to keep the cabin a bit more hushed. You can option one with a window, if you want. 

The drivetrain is hardly a powerhouse, but it was well suited to the duty I’d put it to. I remarked that in the cab-chassis model the engine could feel a little underdone with a load, but the van felt a lot more energetic. 

The gearshifts were mostly hassle-free, and I was impressed by the reactiveness and response of the transmission and the engine start-stop system when taking off at traffic lights. 

One thing I noted in both Sprinters I’ve driven was an odd behaviour of the adaptive cruise control. Mercedes-Benz has introduced a sensor system in the driver’s seat which will deactivate the adaptive cruise if it can’t detect stable weight. Shuffle in your seat? It’ll turn off. Lean over to reach something on the other side of the cab? It’ll turn off. It’s an interesting - but ultimately annoying - feature.

The van version of the Sprinter gets the full gamut of safety gear, however there’s no ANCAP or Euro NCAP crash test rating as yet.

There’s a reversing camera as standard, auto emergency braking (AEB) which works at low and high speeds and includes pedestrian and cyclist detection, plus there are daytime running lights as standard, and it has the latest ESP91 stability program with crosswind assist, trailer stabilisation and load-adaptive control. 

Airbags fitted standard include dual front and curtain protection, but side airbags are optional, at a cost of $726. Other safety options include adaptive cruise control ($1067, as fitted to our van), auto lights and wipers ($510), auto high-beam lights ($352), fog lights ($310), a reverse warning system ($405) and traffic sign recognition ($385). Again with the value thing…

Volkswagen now offers a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty on all of its models, which pushes it to the front of the pack alongside Ford. The warranty is a class standard-setter, with Mercedes offering a shorter three-year/200,000km plan, while Renault offers three years/unlimited mileage.

There’s a capped-price servicing campaign for the Crafter, with maintenance due every 12 months or 20,000km, whichever occurs first. That cover extends to five years/100,000km, though if you’re a courier / delivery driver you might exceed that level a bit sooner. A Sprinter can do with maintenance every 24 months or 40,000km - but would you really want to let it go that long?

The servicing costs are on the high side, though. Volkswagen’s public site doesn’t stipulate exact pricing for this model, but you can bank on needing to budget (on average) $700 per visit.

There’s a three-year/200,000km warranty for Mercedes-Benz’s Vans division - solid cover for business purposes, plus it includes 24-hour roadside assist for the duration.

Service intervals are every 24 months or 40,000km, though the vehicle may suggest maintenance sooner if its deemed to be required. There’s a pre-paid service plan that you can roll into your finance, or you can pay ‘as you go’. Costs vary depending on the specific Sprinter model and interval (between $905 and $1575).