Would You Rather Daily Drive a Huge Pickup or a Sprinter Van?
We borrow a Ram 2500 to see whether our giant van or a giant truck makes more sense.
We took on a yearlong test of a 2024 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 AWD to see if a van is a reasonable substitute for a pickup truck. So far, we’ve learned firsthand that a van is better for hauling, not so great for towing, surprisingly capable for off-roading, and is quite a bit more flexible than a truck. But what about, y’know, living with one? With nearly a year of Sauntering—er, sorry, Sprintering—under my belt, it was time to spend some time with a pickup truck to find out.
If You’re Gonna Compare, Compare to the Best
I called Ram, because why sandbag? The updated Ram 1500 recently won MotorTrend’s 2025 Truck of the Year award, and the 2025 HD trucks just got many of the same upgrades. The Ram trucks have long been favorites of the MT staff for their handsome, modern interiors and day-to-day comfort. The Ram PR guy and I debated a bit on whether a 1500 or 2500 was more appropriate. My Sprinter wears a 2500 label, and its 2,988-pound payload is right up there in three-quarter-ton-truck territory. But the Sprinter’s 5,000-pound towing capacity is less than a midsize pickup, whereas the Ram 2500 tows between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds—put another way, twice as much as the Sprinter plus the Sprinter itself. That requires pretty stiff rear springs, which affects the ride quality, and, given this was an article about daily driving, that was Ram’s concern. In the end, we—and when I say “we,” I mean “I”—decided the Ram 2500 was the way to go.
I had a brief road trip to take in New York, and Ram just so happened to have the perfect truck, a midrange 2500 Laramie crew-cab 4x4 with the high-output Cummins diesel engine, a 2,200-pound payload rating and 19,600 pounds of towing capacity. With a sticker price of $80,350, it was in the same ballpark as MotorTrend’s $80,824 Sprinter 2500 AWD.
One of the major pain points of the Sprinter is climbing into it—I’m only 5-foot-6—but this was even harder in the pickup truck, as there’s no intermediate step between the ground and the floor. (My technique is the same for both vehicles: Grab the steering wheel and hoist.)
Owners vs. Employees
Once there, though, it’s obvious the Ram was designed for owners while the Sprinter was designed for employees. The Sprinter’s dash layout, though nicely arranged, is built of industrial-grade plastics, while the Ram, like most pickups, is designed more like a car. That said, I did miss the Sprinter’s four 44-ounce Bladder Buster–sized cupholders. And the Sprinter’s seats, while not as ornate as those of the Ram, are just as comfortable. Both vehicles have big, supportive, roomy back seats, but the Ram feels plusher, largely because the Sprinter makes back-seaters feel like they’re sitting in a hallway.
One thing I did miss was the view out. Like the Sprinter, the Ram gives you a commanding view of traffic ahead, but I missed the Sprinter’s gigantic windshield. In the Ram, I felt like I was jammed into the left-top corner of the cab. But while both vehicles are the same width—79.5 inches without side mirrors factored in—the snub-nosed Sprinter feels way easier to line up on narrow roads. In the Ram, I often felt like I was encroaching on the oncoming lane, but a check of the side mirrors showed I was well inside the lines.
Ram was concerned that my biggest gripe would be ride quality, but while the Ram’s ride was definitely busier than the Sprinter’s, I can’t say it was significantly less comfortable. The Ram is one of the better-riding three-quarter-ton pickups, and it did a nice job rounding the edges off the bumps. When the pavement turned bumpy, the pickup got very uncomfortable, but the same is true of my Sprinter, with the height exaggerating the sense of pitch. Both are fine on smooth pavement and markedly not fine on rough roads.
Much of my trip was on the open road, and here the Sprinter had an advantage: It tracks better, whereas the Ram has more of a tendency to wander and requires more constant steering correction. But the pickup is largely immune to the crosswinds that can turn a blustery day into a white-knuckle Sprinter drive. The Ram felt more stable at high speeds, and I could pass trucks without getting blown around by the bow wave, another big challenge with the slab-sided Sprinter.
