well, we drove both a promaster 136 and a sprinter 144 yesterday, both 2015 models, at dealerships.
we're really worried about the seating situation for my wife (5'1") in the promaster, since her right heel doesn't touch the floor with the seat adjusted all the way forward -- i.e., she has to work the gas with just her toe. while we might be able to raise the floor with foam, we're also talking about adding a swivel adapter, and who knows how comfortable she'll be after all that? buying a vehicle in hopes of making it comfortable for long-distance driving doesn't seem like the best plan.
in contrast, she was completely comfortable in the sprinter. (well, as comfortable as she is in any car these days -- let's face it: she's probably not in the middle of the design parameters for any vehicle maker.)
in addition, we both felt the sprinter felt much better to drive -- more responsive to both steering and throttle inputs, etc, and overall more confidence inspiring. the promaster did have an amazingly small turning radius, which was nice, but the other comfort factors would win out over that.
so... now we're looking at used sprinters, which are of course a lot more plentiful than used promasters. and i need to do some research on engines and other variants. (the one we drove was the 2.1 liter 4-cyl turbo.) i think we'll restrict ourselves to 2007 and later models.
paul
p.s. she did try sitting in a ford transit a couple of weeks ago. with the seat close enough for her to drive, her knee was hitting the steering column or lower dash when moving her foot between the gas and brake pedals.
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