May 16, 2026
Before we start with this crazy story we want to mention a couple of things.
First, the van was listed as a 2016 by the state of Washington. Colorado goes by the VIN year which was 2015. The 2016 year came from the Airstream conversion completion year.
Second, I have included a link to the brochure for the van:
Now for the crazy story (so far)
Even though we’ve only owned this sprinter for a few months it has been a very long and almost unbeliable story. If you want to follow along, grab your favorite beverage and sit in your comfortable chair.
Background:
In 2025 we took a 4000 mile trip in our beautiful Dodge truck and Sunset camp trailer. The trip first took us to Corning, IA and then West to Nevada and California for some sightseeing, soandme automotive events, and a convention for Pat.
During that trip we were on some rather difficult roads and in terrible Las Vegas traffic. Pat began to express her anxiety about the large vehicle combination on some of the roads. In addition, just traveling in the truck by itself in Las Vegas was often a challenging experience.
We talked about what would make Pat feel more comfortable and what kind of vehicle would be easier for me to drive in heavy traffic and narrow roads. The more we talked the more we decided that a Class B RV (a van type of motorhome) might fit our needs. As we traveled back from Las Vegas, we talked to every van owner in our campgrounds and they all were positive about their vehicles. Several folks actually live full time in their van.
The purchase:
As soon as we got home, we started looking at our options. Fairly quickly we honed in on an Airstream Interstate model built using a Mercedes-Benz sprinter. I have attached a brochure that shows this model.
We did an extensive search (all of USA) for this type of van. As we looked, we knew that we would have to stretch to afford the van. However, our plan was to sell both the trailer and the truck to help offset the cost. We made a spreadsheet of all of the candidates that were within our budget. We worked with a person at Camping World who was extremely helpful.
In the meantime, an Airstream Sprinter van that met all of our criteria kept appearing on marketplace. It was the right color, floor plan, and had reasonably low miles. We were hesitant to purchase from a private individual, but it kept coming to the top of the list. It was located in Crestone, CO about 100 miles from our house. On December 15th 2025, we drove to Crestone to inspect the van. It was in great condition, and we were fairly sure that it was the right one for us. We did a lot of negotiating with the owner. The negotiations occasionally got a bit adversarial, but we finally arrived at what we deemed an appropriate compromise.
On January 28th 2026 we took possession of the van and drove it back to Evergreen. It was our dream vehicle. I began to update the 120 Volt and 12 Volt electrical systems with more modern technology and battery capacity so that we could boondock comfortably.
Now for the rest of the story:
We put a few miles on the van and on the 28th of February while returning from Denver, the engine had a major failure and seized. We were stranded on the side of Interstate 470 for about 3 hours until we could obtain a tow truck. Fortunately, A CDOT Courtesy Patrol vehicle parked behind our van to ensure safety and stayed with us for the three hours.
For the next week Jim explored all of the options — all extremely expensive. We finally settled on the option of having the van towed to Mercedes-Benz of Littleton. They confirmed that the engine was “toast” and ordered a Mercedes rebuilt engine. They had a very large backlog of repair tickets and could not get to our van for three or four weeks. Finally on April 24th we received word that the engine was installed and running. That sounds like the end of this long story — not so.
On April 27th we received word that the replacement engine also failed and seized. They reordered a replacement engine and began working on the van with the second replacement engine about a week later.
You had better go get your second drink and hold on.
On May 13, we received word that the engine was in the vehicle and had started. They still needed to assemble the van, but it sounded like we would be able to pick it up on Friday the 15th. I called on the 14th to confirm that the vehicle would be ready Friday. However, I had to leave a phone message. When our contact called me back, he informed me —are you ready?— the 2nd replacement engine also experienced a failure and seized up.
So as of this writing (May 16th 2026) we are starting all over yet again.
In case you got lost in all this minutia, we had possession of the van for exactly 4 weeks before it went to Mercedes. They have had the van for over 9 weeks now
As a side note, one of the main reasons we focused our search on Mercedes-Benz sprinter vans is their reported reliability. All of my research continues to suggest that is the norm, but we seem to be the exception.
We will update this story as it evolves.