Story and photos by Grant Yoxon
January may be the beginning of the calendar year but for many people, especially families with children, the real beginning of the new year is September. That is the time when children return to school and the time when most activities for children begin. If you have children in Hockey or Basketball, you know what I mean.
While getting up at 5:00 a.m. to take a child to the rink in the dead of winter can be a challenge, an even greater challenge for some parents is transporting the hockey player and their team to tournaments and competitions in far off places. It depends on the level at which your child competes, but for many involved in competitive sports, overnight travel is part of the normal course of events and adds additional expenses to an already expensive activity.
We have one child involved in competitive synchronized swimming. In the course of a year, she will travel three or four times from Ottawa to cities hundreds of miles away. She competed at level six for girls under 15 years of age. At this level, competitions take place at the local, regional, provincial and national levels. Last year, she travelled to Quebec City, London, Ontario, and Toronto, Ontario (twice).
he Gloucester Synchro Tier 6 team performs at the 2006 Canadian Espoir Championship at the Etobicoke Olypmium. Click image to enlarge |
This past June the Canadian Espoir Synchronized Swimming Championship took place at the Etobicoke Olympium in Toronto. This competition brought synchronized swimming teams, competing at level six, from across Canada, including a team of eight swimmers from the Gloucester Synchronized Swimming Club in Ottawa.
We wanted to keep expenses down and the budget for transportation was limited. Normally we would have used several minivans to transport the team and chaperones to Toronto, and back and forth from hotel to pool while in Toronto. But it also made sense, to optimize team bonding, to keep the team together while travelling. We made a phone call and DaimlerChrysler stepped in to assist with a Dodge Sprinter passenger van.
The Sprinter was a 140-inch wheelbase 2500-series model with a high roof. It was right in the middle of the model range offered by Dodge, which has Sprinter vans with 118-inch, 140-inch and 158-inch wheelbases, with both standard and high roofs. The high roof model allows even six-footers to stand inside. It also has seating for 10 people including the driver.
The Gloucester Synchro Tier 6 team. Click image to enlarge |
The seating is not crowded, like on a school bus, or even a minivan, but gives each passenger a separate, comfortable captain's-style seat. We had no complaints from anyone on our trip down to Toronto. The girls had room for personal things and enough space to fall asleep without bothering anyone else. And there was plenty of room for all our gear behind the rear seats.
The Sprinter is powered by a 2.7-litre turbo diesel six-cylinder engine that produces 154 horsepower and 243 lb-ft of torque. That doesn't sound like much, but it was more than sufficient to move ten passengers and all the luggage without ever feeling underpowered.
2006 Dodge Sprinter. Click image to enlarge |
The big van quickly picks up speed once the rpm enters the 1600 to 2400 range. Acceleration onto the freeway and away from stoplights was no problem. Our van was equipped with cruise control and ambled along the freeway at 110 km/h with no strain at all. And despite our reservations, the Sprinter returned excellent fuel economy, averaging 12.5 litres/100 kilometres in combined highway/city driving. With a 100-litre fuel tank, we were able to drive from Ottawa to Toronto without filling up.
The Sprinter is big, but not so big that you would feel intimidated driving it for the first time. You very quickly get used to the size and on the highway, it seems to shrink as you become more comfortable with it. Lane changes in traffic can be a bit challenging, but only because you feel you need more space than you really do.
2006 Dodge Sprinter. Click image to enlarge |
Around Toronto, the Sprinter was easier to drive than we expected. We used it every day to ferry the team from the hotel to the pool. One evening we took the team to a banquet at Ontario Place, then decided to drive up to Queen Street for dinner. The Sprinter is not as long as you think it is and certainly not as wide. We found a spot to park in a municipal parking lot and parked the Sprinter in an ordinary spot as we would have done with any other vehicle. It was deceptively easy to manoeuvre in tight places.
2006 Dodge Sprinter. Click image to enlarge |
Our experience with the Dodge Sprinter proved that this is the ideal vehicle for team transportation. But then we discovered a problem. You may need to buy one to get one (ours listed at $54,690 including options). Apparently, no rental agencies in Canada have Sprinter passenger vans available for short-term rentals. You may find one through a limousine company or other specialty equipment rental companies. Best to check the yellow pages and call around.
Grant Yoxon is an Ottawa-based automotive journalist and managing editor of CanadianDriver
