Good morning ladies and gents.  Today, Mercedes has put out a press release showcasing the sticker-laden Sprinter you see pictured above.

What makes this Sprinter special, however, is not the plethora of stickers you see plastered on the side of the van; instead, what makes this fugly Sprinter unique is where it's been - 900,000 kilometers (559,234 miles), to be precise.  To put it in perspective, that's equivalent to circling the globe 22 times. 

But the distance alone is not enough.  To make headlines, your car (or van) has to be truly bad ass, or at least peform some additional type of spectacular feat.  This Sprinter has done exactly that.  Despite its immense travels, this Sprinter has not needed a single repair (aside from the usual wearing parts, of course).  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

To celebrate the fact his van is still running, Klaus Schade has done what he does best: plastered another sticker on the van proclaiming "Over 900,000 km on the clock."  If you look closely, you can find it next to the "Don't tailgate me, or I'll flick a booger on your windshield" bumper sticker.

In all sincerity, congratulations to Klaus, we wish him the best of luck.

Sixty-one thousand C-Class owners, on the other hand, are reading this and probably getting even more pissed.  To those C-Class owners, I say this:  come one guys, settle down - it's just a stupid airbag. Why do you think they invented the windshield?

For more info, you can check out the full press release below.


OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Circles The World 22 Times Without Repairs

Stuttgart, Dec 21, 2005

Quality pays. Especially when you have to use your van every day. Klaus Schade has been driving his Mercedes-Benz Sprinter for 10 years now and has clocked up over 900,000 kilometres since purchasing the vehicle. That’s the equivalent of circling the globe more than 22 times. And, apart from the usual wearing parts, the van has not needed a single repair. The newspaper courier relies on the Mercedes-Benz van for his work and this constant companion has never let him down yet. As a sign of his appreciation, the words “Over 900,000 km on the clock. You know where you are with Mercedes” are emblazoned on the back of his van. And even if his Sprinter will, inevitably, be put out to pasture one day, one thing it clear to Schade: whatever happens, his next van will be another Sprinter. It’s perhaps fortuitous, then, that the new Sprinter is being launched on the market in April. And Herr Schade suspects that the new version will be even better than its predecessor, not just in terms of quality. Since its market launch in 1995 well over a million models of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter have been sold and it has enjoyed tremendous success – as numerous “Van of the Year” awards and a wealth of satisfied customers can testify.

Copyright ©2005, DaimlerChrysler AG