The FINANCIAL — Its name is synonymous with its segment, in which it is the world’s best-selling van: The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is truly in a class of its own.
The model’s versatility is also reflected and confirmed in its minibus version, of which the 11,111th unit was recently built by Arobus.
Mercedes-Benz and the Turkish minibus specialist Arobus enjoy a highly successful partnership. Arobus manufactures a large number of Sprinter-based minibuses in the city of Tuzla, which is located near Istanbul. All the vehicles are sold and serviced by Mercedes-Benz Türk. As Daimler AG said, the partnership was launched five years ago with an order of 250 units. Since that time, sales have skyrocketed to approximately 5,000 minibuses per year. Most of these vehicles are used as share taxis or schoolbuses.
The Mercedes-Benz Vans Body Manufacturer Center in Istanbul serves as link between Mercedes-Benz Türk and the body manufacturers like Arobus. As central interface, the Body Manufacturer Center is responsible for managing all partnership activities and provides body manufacturers with a complete range of services — everything from marketing and product management to development, design, sales, and distribution, as well as information, system, and process management services.
The specialists at the center provide body manufacturers with all of the required vehicle data, drawings, and guidelines. Conversely, the body manufacturers coordinate all necessary conversions of the Sprinter base vehicle with the center. The highest level of cooperation even results in a single-invoice system, which means that the body structure becomes part of a comprehensive Mercedes-Benz offer that includes sales, service, and warranty repairs for the entire vehicle.
“We’re very pleased by the trust Arobus places in the Sprinter,” says Michael Pflüger, Head of the Body Manufacturer Center at Mercedes-Benz Vans. “Our joint success demonstrates the tremendous opportunities offered by the extensive co-operation between Mercedes-Benz Vans and the body manufacturers.”
Arobus currently manufactures six minibuses modeled on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. The base vehicle is a van with a wheelbase of 4,325 mm. This wheelbase expands to 6,945 mm in the long version and 7,345 mm in the extra-long version. The base vehicle also comes in two basic weight classes (3.88 tons and 5.0 tons GVW). The buses offer between 13 and 22 passenger seats and, depending on the variant in question, are either completely filled with seats or else have a cargo area in the rear. All the buses are equipped with a four-cylinder 2.2 CDI engine with 2.15 liters of displacement and an output of 110 kW (150 hp).
Arobus was established as a small workshop around 20 years ago. Today, it builds van bodies and carries out body conversions, and is one of the top companies in its sector in Turkey. Arobus employs about 280 people in Tuzla only. Other products manufactured by Arobus include box trucks and refrigerated trucks, as well as flatbed bodies and special-purpose vehicles.
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