Demers Sprinter Ambulance

[firemedic37]

Just got done going looking at a Demers Sprinter and WOW! is what pops into my head! Personally I have only seen them from the outside and usually a AEV model and everyone talks about how much they hate them. So of course that's what everyone at work hears and they didn't want anything to do with them so they always got pushed away, until this time around.

We started looking for a new ambulance and the committee got cut from four people to two. I have served on the last two and was asked (more like told) once again to be on the committee. So we finally found one and just one Sprinter Demo out there and it was made by Demers. Called them and they set it all up and brought us the demo today. We were both surprised at how nice and finished the product seemed to be. This demo was nicely made and equipped, no doubt about that.

Things that stood out to me is the room compared to a non-Sprinter type II, lots of room and places to store everything. Very nicely laid out work area. Everything was finished very nicely, all aluminum cabinets. All of the exterior doors are very large and I found it very easy to get in and out of. They even let us play around and put our equipment into the van to see how it all would work out. And of course we were all impressed with it. So now we have to wait on the final bids and get a few more bids from other manufactures even though we are set on the Demers.

We found the cab to be more than spacious and enjoyable for all of us, we had the day crew join us. We had one very large male, average male and two smaller females all try out the rig and we all found it very comfortable to work in and drive. It was very responsive and fun to drive, we are used to the Chevy Duramax and Ford Powerstrokes. Our only concern was how it would handle in really wind conditions, however we have had to deal with that for years in our modular units.

So here are my questions are:

If you currently work in a sprinter what do you like or dislike about it?

Quality issues with Demers?

Issues with the Mercedes Sprinter Chassis?

And your general likes or dislikes about it?

[island emt]

Demers makes a very nice quality ambulance up in Quebec.

They are a small builder with a great reputation in the northeast.

As far as the sprinter chassis, I know one company here that bought several of them 6-8 years ago and were very impressed with the roomy cab and especially the fuel mileage from them. more than double what their other rigs were getting.

As far as maintenance: they are a mercedes benz chassis , so parts are not inexpensive.

[IanOlson05]

Wow that ambulance looks gorgeous! How easy was it to access everything while remaining fully harnassed in? I've heard several people mention that the sprinters make it easy for the medic to access equipment while remaining safe.

[mikeymedic1984]

I have not bought one of these, but before you buy find out where the neareast authorized service dealer is that can do repairs. I live in a major city and there is only one dealership that can work on them within 200miles.

The good is that the room and gas savings are huge -- a local private ambulance service provider in our area boasted that they would save over $2 million in fuel costs by swapping over.

The bad is that I am told that most parts have to come from Germany, so when your vehicle breaks down, it will be down for weeks, not days. And as mentioned, if you live in a remote area, your nearest service dealership may be in another state. The salesman's counter to this question was "how many broken down FedEx trucks have you seen on the side of the road" (claiming they rarely break down) ?"