2015 Chevy Express Updates & Changes Detailed: RPO Central

Comments

1. 

   I’ll take the GM products over the other two. I haven’t seen the Transit, but the MB/Dodge Sprinter is POS. Here in the midwest, you can’t find one that isn’t rusted out. I mean really, those Sprinters aren’t going to last much past 5 years. They’re nearly as bad as the Japanese products from the 70’s and 80’s.
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   1. 

      I can vouch for the Sprinter body rust.

      The lure of their fuel economy, the torque of their diesels, the dash, and the 6′ of headroom is appealing. But Sprinters after their first 12 months are showing inexcusable body rust. Every one of them I’ve seen, unless their are in fleets that rotate annually, are showing visible body rust; rust that according to owner forums I’ve read are being described by dealers as being brake dust.

      The Express/Savanna, despite their age, can give at least last 8 years before the body rust starts forming around the rear licence plate assembly, and even then it’s negligible.

      I really wanted to like the Sprinter and have it replace our oldest Express, but it’s not going to happen.
      Reply
      1. 

         Yeah, I’ve heard of the rust issues before. That’s something that MB should address, and probably will if they want to get rid of the negative rep. But that new Transit… it’s hot. And seems to be quality-laden too.
         Reply
2. 

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   Reply
3. 

   GM has a ready-made state of the art solution with the European range of Vauxhall-Opel Combo, Vivaro and Movano, built in conjunction with Renault and Fiat. The City Express (Nissan NV 200) is just not in the same league.

   Sure the current Sprinter has some rust issues, but I reckon M-B will have sorted these with the latest model just launched in Europe.

   Ram has the Pro-Master (Fiat-Citroen-Peugeot) and previously the Sprinter (Mercedes-Freightliner-Ram) and will soon have its NA version of the Fiat Doblo/Vauxhall Combo.

   With Ford’s range of three Transits spanning the light to heavy categories, the Econoline is just marking time till they pull the plug on that.

   GM, you’re behind the curve again! These Euro vans are the future – low loading height; high roof; huge volume; front, rear and all-wheel drive options; spacious comfortable cabs; torquey economical diesels with great lugging power; no more bad-backs and sore heads … what’s not to like? And their chassis-cab platforms make a decent base for mid-range RV’s too.

   Get a grip GM … we’re in the 21st century – the stone-age is behind us!
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   1. 

      MarcH1 you are right. Every other vehicle market in the world seems to get along fine with vans that don’t have big V8 or V10 engines at the front and based off 70s truck chassis. I can’t see how this would even be a desirable trait in a van these days since these vehicles don’t even have anywhere near the sex appeal of even pickups or SUVs.

      GM is lacking an appropriate global van range. Perhaps for now they should look at introducing the Renault based Euro van range to North America and other markets that lack a GM van for the interim (pretty much everywhere except NA and Europe to the best of my knowledge). Then they need to develop a global Euro style van range on their own suitable for all markets.

      I don’t know if GM have the necessary in house experience to develop a competitive global Euro style van straight off the bat at the moment. Anyone know? Where’s Scott when we need him. 🙂

      Perhaps once they gain experience with building the rebadged/tweaked Renault based van range they will be able to develop one in house. I imagine this would largely use a lot of Opel’s expertise.

      Also torquey economical diesels are great for global markets but in the US they would probably need to equip any such product with a larger range of petrol engines. This is what Ford have done with the Transit. Only one Diesel option in the US. A turbo charged eco-boost V6 tops the engine range which is the equivalent replacement of the V10 Econoline. Still 40% more economical than the V10.
      Reply
      1. 

         Michael, the Vivaro and Movano are perceived as Renault, but they are in fact a 50:50 joint-venture with GM Europe, both parties sharing the design, engineering and development costs. All variants of the Vivaro A (Vauxhall, Opel, Renault, Nissan) were built at GM’s Luton plant in the UK.
         Vivaro B has just launched. Luton manufactures all the chassis, body, panels and sub-assembly units, though as extra line capacity is required to meet demand, it is now just building the Vauxhall and Opel variants.
         Renault and Nissan variants are now assembled at Sandouville in France with components shipped-in from Luton.
         As I understand it, the Movano is built entirely at Renault’s Spanish facility.
         So no doubt at all, courtesy of its Euro outposts, GM does have the technical ability to deliver decent vans.
         This summer the whole family (5 of us) took a European touring vacation, using a rental Opel Movano 2.8 diesel automatic 6-berth RV. Plenty of space for all, including bathroom, kitchen and pop-out side-awning. Yeah, smaller than what we’re typically used to in NA, but it’s overall performance was a revelation. Fully laden at over 3 tons, it returned an overall gas mileage in the mid 20’s (almost 3,000 miles) and had no problem cruising at 120 kph (75 mph) all day, even on the gradients, keeping-up with the crazy Euro traffic!
         I’m completely sold.
         Reply
         1. 

            The Movano is actually produced by SoVAB (SOciété de Véhicules Automobiles de Batilly) at Battilly, Lorraine, Eastern France. SOVAB is a strange beast; it presents itself (on sovab.com ) as “Usine Renault de Batilly” (Renault Batilly factory), is a subsidiary of Renault, but goes with a different name and is registered as what in English is called a “General Partnership” (Société au nom collectif).

            Nissan has a factory at Barcelona, Spain, where they also produce their versions of the Opel/Vauxhall Trafic.

            BTW, interesting to read that the Luton factory provides parts to the Renault factory in Sandouville. Do you have any sources for that which could be publicly cited as reliable, e.g. on Wikipedia?
            Reply
            1. 

               Hi Observer 7, the article dated 25 Aug in the following link clarifies the Luton/Sandouville relationship.

               http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/why-general-motors-keeping-its-faith-vauxhalls-luton-plant

               Also of interest is that the new Vivaro/Trafic was designed by Malcolm Ward, who was born in Luton and on leaving university followed his father and grand-father into working for Vauxhall. GM Europe’s Technical Design & Engineering facility for commercial vehicles is based at the Millbrook proving-ground near Luton.

               ‘Vauxpedia.net’ is a great site for all UK based information about GM and Vauxhall – both past and present.
               Reply
               1. 

                  Thanks for the links, especially the ‘autocar’ article on the Luton plant!

                  Just one remark on that article: “Pressed parts are also shipped between Luton and France, which takes 12 hours via the Channel Tunnel” — does not spell out the direction of those shipments – island to continent, the reverse, or both?
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                  1. 

                     In reality, I guess it’s two-way traffic between the two. Drive-train engine and gear-boxes are imports to Luton, with chassis and body-panels being shipped to France and as you suggest, Spain.
                     As for these new 1.6 diesel engines … are they made at GM’s JV plant in Italy or are they manufactured by Renault and if so, where?
                     The co-operation between European light commercial vehicle manufacturers seems to have no boundaries … eg. Mercedes/VW; Renault/Mercedes; GM/Renault/Nissan; Fiat/GM; Peugeot/Citroen/Fiat/Ram/Iveco (the latter shares same engines and chassis). It seems that only Ford now stands alone, albeit with its ‘One Ford’ global vision.
                     Perhaps the politicians should take note – all strong examples of different entities working together for the greater good!
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                     1. 

                        Those Diesel engines are Renault products, engineered and built by Renault.
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