Stone Hardy lifts mpg performance with new Sprinters17 December 2013

Tail-lift servicing business Stone Hardy is reporting "encouraging" fuel savings, since taking delivery of its first new Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vans.

The Northampton-based company has ordered 37 vehicles from dealer Hughes of Aylesbury: 32 are 3.5-tonne Sprinter 313 CDI BlueEfficiency models, powered by the 129bhp engine, with five smaller Citan 109 CDIs.

The new Sprinter claims to offer 7% better mpg performance than the outgoing model and the BlueEfficiency variants improve this by a further 6%. While too soon to gain accurate figures, Stone Hardy's managing director Paul Clark says drivers are "definitely making fewer visits to the filling station, which is encouraging".

The Sprinter's safety systems include Crosswind Assist, which detects sudden strong gusts of wind and helps to prevent the van drifting out of its lane by applying individual brakes on one side of the vehicle. Stone Hardy has also specified reversing cameras and bleepers.

The company acquired its first Sprinters on five-year contract hire in 2007, and these proved so reliable and cost effective that Stone Hardy ran them for an extra year.

"They've been good for more than a quarter of a million miles each and have given us virtually no trouble at all," says Clark.

"We work our Sprinters hard: they're typically loaded to around 3.3 tonnes and spend much of their time pulling weight test trailers at up to 1.5 tonnes."

The latest additions are being supplied on contract hire from Lex Autolease. The compact Sprinters serve as mobile workshops, and are racked out and fitted with work benches by Motoron Services. On-board equipment includes welding gear for making hydraulic hoses.

Author
Laura Cork

Related Companies
Mercedes Benz Uk Limited

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