Trump kills MPG requirements...

[airbiteses]

This Peugeot 308 has never been sold in Brazil? Because on the Peugeot website this model is not there but 208. Unless it was imported from Europe ...

[JSH]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

OK, but it's still basically the heavier and inherently less efficient body-on-frame layout, even though many commercial operators could benefit of the unibody and front-wheel drive setup.

Truck buyers in the USA do not want unibody, FWD, or independent suspensions. If they did the Honda Ridgeline would sell more than 33,000 trucks per year.

CUVs are almost exclusively unibody today and built on car platforms.

So are the best selling commercial vans. The only body-on-frame Commercial vans left in the US market are the Chevy Express (and it's GMC twin) and the Nissan NV.

The best selling commercial van in the USA is the Ford Transit with 36,836 sold in 1Q2020 (up 15.7%) Unibody, V6, RWD or AWD. Body-on-frame vans are down to 20% market share.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Sure an unibody FWD van might not cater to the average rednecks who just want to show off in a lifted 4WD truck, but they're a good option for commercial operators. A lower boarding height compared to RWD also makes it a good choice for special applications such as ambulances.

Originally Posted by airbiteses

This Peugeot 308 has never been sold in Brazil? Because on the Peugeot website this model is not there but 208. Unless it was imported from Europe ...

AFAIK that red one was imported from France for tests by the local branch of Peugeot, and sold after it was deemed economically unviable to turn it into a captive import to replace the previous model which had been suorced from Argentina.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Sure an unibody FWD van might not cater to the average rednecks who just want to show off in a lifted 4WD truck, but they're a good option for commercial operators. A lower boarding height compared to RWD also makes it a good choice for special applications such as ambulances.

FWD unibody commercial vans are available for sale in the USA. People can buy them if they want. The best selling FWD unibody van is the Ram Promaster. Ram sold 56,410 of them in 2019. Ford sold 153,867 RWD Transit vans in 2019. Both are available - the US market picked RWD instead of FWD.

The same with ambulances. In the USA the vast majority of ambulances are built on a van or truck cut-away chassis. Unibody van based ambulances are available but not very popular because they are too narrow for patient care.

A typical Ambulance in the USA:





EDIT:

RAM Promaster Cutaway:

[Piotrsko]

Not too narrow, dont hold enough easily accessible supplies/equipment, also lack monster engine options to accelerate the 1 1/2 ton box strapped on briskly.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by JSH

The best selling FWD unibody van is the Ram Promaster.

AFAIK it's the only FWD full-size van available there.

In the USA the vast majority of ambulances are built on a van or truck cut-away chassis. Unibody van based ambulances are available but not very popular because they are too narrow for patient care.

Vans are still prevalent as ambulance in Brazil, and width is not so much of an issue at all. A few years ago I even used to see Kombi ambulances once in a while, and the major issue is the height, even more critical due to the position of the engine compartment.


A vast minority of ambulances in Brazil are built on a truck or cutaway van chassis, even though some truck-based ambulances are more compact in order to enhance off-road abilities.


When it comes to "too narrow", seems like you have never been in Brazil...

A typical Ambulance in the USA:

There used to be similar ambulances based on a typical American full-size truck in Brazil too, either imported or based on local versions. Nowadays due to their size which is less practical for local traffic conditions, most have been taken out of service.

This one is an import, now converted into a motorhome:


This is locally-made, but I'm unaware of its present-day usage:


Another regional example, repurposing the pick-up bed as part of the module:

[oil pan 4]

When this country was founded they said let's make the roads this wide, I'm sure some one said that's a lot wider than over in England is that really necessary. Seems to have worked out pretty well.

[redpoint5]

Ambalance



Who you gonna call?

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

When this country was founded they said let's make the roads this wide, I'm sure some one said that's a lot wider than over in England is that really necessary.

Seems like Americans feel the need to display wealth kinda excessively in order to impress the former colonial power. This goes from the wide highways to the landyachts with engines larger than many Euro truck engines.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

AFAIK it's the only FWD full-size van available there.

The Promaster is the only full-size FWD sold in the USA. It was introduced to the USA in 2013 and has run a distant 4th behind the offerings from Ford and GM despite selling for thousands of dollars less. The Ford E-Series is 28 years old and being retired this year but still manages to outsell the Promaster. The 17 year old Chevy Express outsells it 2-1. The new Ford Transit outsells the Promaster 3 to 1.

Both the Transit and Sprinter are available in a FWD versions but Ford and Mercedes decided not to sell the FWD versions in the USA. I would guess the poor sales of the Promaster has something to do with that.

FWD is a rather poor fit for a cargo van intended to actually do work. Putting weight into the van shifts the weight distribution away from the drive wheels. Yes, it saves a bit of weight (the FWD Sprinter is 220 lbs lighter than the RWD version) but that is a small weight savings for a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight of 10,000 lbs.

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Vans are still prevalent as ambulance in Brazil, and width is not so much of an issue at all.

That is fine for Brazil. In the USA Ambulances have to meet these 50 pages of specificaitons: http://www.groundvehiclestandard.org...l_7.1.2019.pdf

Those specs include things like a minimum distance from the jump seat to the gurney and minimum widths for the aisle around the gurney. It is rather difficult to meet those requirement and carry all the equipment necessary. It also means that you can only have an aisle on one side of the patient which makes care more difficult.

But again - The USA market has all types of vans available. FWD unibody, RWD unibody, and RWD body-on-frame. Today the commercial buyers in the USA choose to buy RWD van. It isn't about redneck showing off since nobody buys a commercial van to show off.

If you want to talk about over-sized ambulances here you go. A Chicago Fire ambulance built on a Freightliner Class 6 truck chassis