It's DK and I'm back. Guess what? Happy New Year. Happy New Year to everybody that is watching this video. I told you guys that I have a one year review on smoke. If you're new to the channel and you do not know what smoke is, smoke is my 2022 Mercedes Benz Sprinter Van 170 wheel base, 2500 with the high roof. So they're going to do a one year review on this baby. I want to tell you guys the pros, the cons, how much I paid for it. And if I think it is a good buy or not. But first, before we get into that, I want you guys to take a look at the outside. It's time for us to slide. The first thing that a lot of people would like to know about the Mercedes Sprinter Van is the price. For this particular van, I paid $62,000 for it. Now that's out the door price. That's taxes, title and registration. Why did I go with the Mercedes Sprinter Van versus going with the Ram Pro Master or the Ford Transit? The reason why I went with the Mercedes Sprinter Van was because after doing research, we found out that it seems that the Mercedes Sprinter Van holds its value longer and also is a better buy. And I personally found out it was a better buy over the Ford Transit because at the time when we went to the dealership, they were trying to charge $80,000 for the Ford Transit 250 with the high roof. And out the door, you probably would pay like $87,000. And then we also went to Ram Pro Master and tried to figure out how much that would cost. And that was $52,000. So out the door, you probably would pay like $59,000. Now, everybody had a preference on which van they liked the most. Some people do like the Ram Pro Master because it's front-wheel drive and they say it's easier to drive. But after doing research on that, we also did find out that sometimes the Ram Pro Master has transmission problem because it is front-wheel drive and you're carrying on that weight in the back. As far as the Ford Transit, I did hear some good reviews on that, but as far as longevity, for the most part after doing research, it seems like that one is not gonna last as long as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and they wanted $87,000 for it. Absolutely not. I would not pay $87,000 for a van. Just so you guys know, I'm gonna be very transparent with you. We did pay like $3,000 over sticker price for this van, but the Ford Transit they wanted like, I think like $20,000 or $30,000 over for that one and then the Ram Pro Master was actually the right price. So we decided to go with the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van and that is the reason why. Now, let's go ahead and get into the van maintenance. We currently have 42,477 miles on the van. At 45,000, we will have to go in to get some more maintenance done. So it's every 15,000 miles. With the Sprinter vans, they have two different types of van maintenance. They have an A maintenance and they have a B maintenance. The A maintenance is gonna be $210.70 and the B maintenance is going to be $634.89. We have to actually have two maintenance is done. So total in maintenance, we have paid $845.59, which honestly is not that bad to me. Now, I know a lot of you are saying that I could have done the maintenance myself. I absolutely agree. But the reason I did not do the maintenance myself is because I want everything documented. Currently, we're still under warranty. And when the warranty is up, we're gonna extend the warranty again because I do not want any problems with the dealership. If something goes wrong, I want everything documented. And if I don't go to the dealership and I do it myself, they might say, well, we didn't do this service. So we don't know if you did something wrong or someone else did something wrong. So I just want everything documented. I want to protect myself at all times. I understand that, you know, it's gonna cost more. It may cost more now, but it's gonna cost more in the long run. So that's the reason why I continue to take it to the dealership. Let's go ahead and get into some pros and cons. We're gonna start off with lighting. And we're gonna start off with a con. One of my biggest issues with the Mercedes Sprinter Vans is the headlights are just too dim. Now, if you're on the highway, you're not gonna notice this because there's street lights on the highway.  But when you get into those dark roads where there's no street lights, you're gonna have issues seen. To the fact, we're actually almost here like one or two deers driving at night time. Mercedes should have done a better job with those headlights because that's a big safety risk for me. We may be getting a bar up top. I'm not sure yet.  So say you're about to turn right. It's dark outside, you're about to turn right. When you're starting to turn the wheel, the fog lights come on at the bottom so you can see everything on the floor when you're making your turn. So that's a very good pro to have. Also, they have a lot of good ambient lighting. They have lighting up front in the van and it's easy to see. Like you can turn on the, you can see it's nice and bright. You can see everything you need to see inside the van. Also, when you're on the back and it's say it's night time and you have a low sharp down, they do have a light in the back of the van and it's very bright and you can see perfectly. Another issue we have with the Sprinter van is the seats. This is actually the comfort setting. It was absolutely terrible. My back was hurting for like the first week or two when we got the van. Now it does have a lot of different settings, you know, to move the lumbar, you could switch it like lift this part up or down, actually have adjustable thing here. You can move that in and out. You can also lift this seat up or push the seat down. But for the first week, it was absolutely terrible. My back was hurting bad, but we have it set right now. That's the reason why I do not want to bother it. But on the pro side, bingo! It does have heated seats through different levels. So whenever you're cool, you can go ahead and warm up some buns. I'm scared, I'm sorry. I'm hitting this button right here. Now, let me list a few more pros for you. Number one, look at that. The door opens all of the way. You don't have to hit any levers or anything. It opens right away, all the way. Open out. Got that. The next pro is the D-rings. The Mercedes Sprinter Vans has D-ring galore. There's actually 12 D-rings in here. There's six on each side. So it's six right here. One, two, three, four, five. And that's number six. And then there's six on this side. So you have 12 D-rings in the Sprinter Vans. You can't beat it. The next pro is the paddling. I absolutely love the paddling. It has a nice, clean look to it. And honestly, customers love to see it because it's nice and clean. The thing that I love about it the most is it prevents you from getting dings on the outside of your van. Have you ever seen those vans? All those little dings on it is because they didn't strap down something. They probably turned you fast. And then something hit the inside of the van and they poked it out on the outside of the van. Another thing that I love about the paddling is I actually took the paddling out because first I was trying to save it. I wanted it to be nice and clean and everything. But when I took it out, it was absolutely terrible. It was sold out inside of the van. Everything, you can hear everything jang, jang, jang, jang. You can hear everything while you're driving down the street. So we actually put it back on and it was one of the best decisions that we ever did. The next thing I wanna go into is this bulkhead. This bulkhead will save your life. If for some reason you do not strap down something properly and it flies up here, it's gonna hit this and not you. It's true that they have cases on people actually passing away from not having a bulkhead. So if you're gonna get a sprint of van, I definitely recommend that you get a bulkhead. I know that you might not wanna get it because it costs more, but it may save your life. So make sure you guys get one of these. Also, another great thing about having a bulkhead is it prevents the heat from traveling throughout the entire van. So I do wanna be nice and toasty in the van. It's turning the heat on. You don't have to worry about the heat pushing all the way back to the back of the van. One more thing that I do love about it is we can actually fit three full pallets in here with no issues at all. Any pallet that is 48 by 40, we can fit three of them in here and we still have a little bore room. And that is because we do have the 170 wheel base. I absolutely love that we made the decision to get the 170 wheel base instead of the 144. I'm just gonna tell you guys the truth. Honestly, the 144 looks better. Like when you see it driving on a roll, it's short and it's stocky, it looks better. But if you want to haul pallets, I recommend that you get the 170 wheel base. So I do have a few more cons. This one is kinda irritating.  And that is the brake squeaking. It's like one of the most irritating things. So sometimes it doesn't squeak and then sometimes it does squeak. And sometimes it squeaks louder than it normally does. I actually got the brakes checked out and they said that everything is fine. But this could be my fault because I don't clean the van as often as most people may do. I have only cleaned the van like one time. Maybe I should get some spray to try to clean the brake dust off or maybe when I get the brakes replaced, I do need to get a better quality brake. But I'm not sure. I'm not sure, but I do know that the brakes squeak and it's not very appealing. Now, the van also did make a weird noise. When I took it to the dealership, they said they could not get it to duplicate but I actually have it and here it is. I don't know what it is. Majority of you said you think it's the heat shield. I'm not really sure what it is but the next time we do get an oil change, I'm actually gonna have them take a look at it for a second time. I do wanna say this. It has not done it since it's been cold outside. It's only like when it's hot outside. So maybe you guys are right. I'm not sure what it is but we're gonna get to the bottom of it. Now, these may not be problems that everyone else has had with their van but these are just the cons I have had with mine. We have another excellent pro. This is excellent. I love that they did this on the Sprinter van and that is the 360 camera. I mean, you have multiple different angles. You can see whatever you wanna see. You can see right here. Even if you turn the wheel, you can see where the wheel turns. You see how the wheel's going, right? See the wheel's turning like that? See how it's going straight and it got cameras on every angle of the entire van. You can actually watch them loading everything. You can see what's going on. Sometimes they'd be bumping the van. So you can see everything that's going on right there. They have that and then they have that. This is actually a excellent addition that they added to the Sprinter van. They couldn't have done it better. You also can see ups like seven miles per hour. You can see everything around the van still while you are driving. As well as when you put the van in reverse, you see everything that way as well. Let's check it out. There we go, reversing. Reverse, reverse. You see everything you need to see while you're reversing. When you're driving, this is how it looks. It looks excellent. You can see everything. And another thing that I love about it is the camera is crystal clear. You can see a bugger in somebody's nose. You can see everything you need to see in the Sprinter van. Now there's something I definitely want to talk to you guys about. And we first got the van. It was a huge, huge con for us because it was, it's something you have to get used to. It's very unique and it's kind of, I'm going to be honest, it's kind of scary when you're driving. And that is the cross-wind assist. Mercedes has a thing called a cross-wind assist. And after Rand pushes the van a little bit to a certain way, it actually locks two of the wheels on the other side. So if the wind is blowing this way and the van is getting pushed over a little bit, it locks those wheels on that side so it doesn't push it any further. And it's honestly, it's pretty scary. It's like, it's kind of like, it seems like it's traction control, but it's really not. And in order for you to understand what I'm saying, you have to have driven a Sprinter van to understand what I mean. And honestly, it's very scary when you first do it. It's very scary when that wind blowing, it's like, it's like, it's kind of, it makes that noise. And then it's like, and then the van just like kind of shifts a little bit. It's kind of scary. I ain't gonna lie, especially if you do have a heavy load in the back, it's very, very scary, but you have to get used to it. Once you get used to it, it's no problem at all. Honestly, it's probably a great safety feature that they added to the Sprinter van. So I did want to let you guys know about that. Now, I've gave you a lot of pros and cons for the Sprinter van. One of the things that I love about this van the most, this is the most important. One of the most important to me is the way it drives. It drives amazing. It feels like you're driving a car. It does not feel like you're driving a van. It drives smooth, whether it's heavy loads or non-heavy loads in there. It just drives amazing. It drives like a Mercedes should drive. That's one of the biggest pros and it is also well built. It's not cheap plastic, janky stuff. It seemed like they took their time building this van and I absolutely love it. Now, the question is, if I had to do it over, would I do it again? Would I purchase this van? Honestly, I don't have any complaints. I would definitely recommend if you are into getting a Sprinter van, you should go ahead and pull the trigger. I like it. I like it a lot. I already haven't had any issues. Everything has been fine. It's a great, it's a great buy to me. To me, personally. Me, I'm picking a Sprinter van over the Ford Transit as well as the Ram Pro Master. That's my personal opinion. I know others may have their personal opinion, but to me, I like quality.  And honestly, it was at the time cheaper than the Ford Transit. So I had to go with this. It was a no-brainer. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the video. The one year review on our 2022 Mercedes Sprinter van, 2,500 170 wheelbase with the high roof. We're going to show you the truth. I hope you guys really enjoyed this video. I enjoy making a video for you. If you are not subscribed, make sure you subscribe and also give me a thumbs up. I need you guys to get this video to 1,000 likes. This is going to be a great year. I need you guys to stay tuned and stick around. It's going to be a lot of amazing things going on on the channel. And we're going to continue to go and grow. And you already know, we're here to go in 2024. About to get a pop like Chris Go.  Cause 2024, you already know we're about to win up this dough. Let's go. I'll see you guys on next one. Be going, be going, be flowing. You already know it. It's DDK and I'm on my way.


We are here at the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I am very pleased to be joined by Mr Nasser bin Hamad who is Senior Manager for International Affairs for the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of the UAE. Mr bin Hamad, thank you very much indeed for being with us in the studio today. Thank you so much. I would like to start off by talking about the venue here. We are here in the United Arab Emirates. It has been the venue here for a number of ITU events. I wanted to ask your take on this. Well, thank you so much first of all. Let me start by saying, following the successful hosting of the three major ITU events back in 2012 here in Dubai and here in the premises of Dubai Water Center was a very successful story for the government of United Arab Emirates and very special to the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority. Following the successful of these mega events for the first time in the Middle East and in Dubai was giving us a very good experience actually. The government of United Arab Emirates therefore and following that successful hosting of these major events had decided back and had decided again to bring back again the one of the mega events of the development sector of the union that is the World Telecommunication Development Conference. So here we are. We are honored and pleased to have again the one of the union conferences, the World Telecommunication Development Conference 2014. WTDC is a major event on the ITU calendar. It's once every four years. I'm just wondering in terms of your perspective, in terms of perspective of the UAE, why is this conference important? Well actually this conference is considered to be the conference which looks after the needs and requirements of the telecommunication sector in the world. ITU being a major player in this field worldwide. I think the conference is really a very good opportunity basically for those involved parties concerned but is worldwide to come under one roof and discuss their needs very openly, very transparently and join together in drawing the path for the telecommunication sector for the coming four years. That's why I strongly believe that the World Telecommunication Development Conference of ITU is the conference which is looking after basically these needs, these requirements of both the developing countries and the developed countries as well as the least developing countries through the discussions, negotiations, debates that goes all over the two weeks, a period of time discussing a variety of resolutions, discussing a variety of recommendations, issues here and there until they come to a close consensus between them and approving the resolutions which are going to really set the path for the future. And very much also for the planning potential conference happening later on this year in Busan. Yes that's right because the planning potential conference which is going to take place in Busan by the end of this year is going to set the strategic plans and goals and objectives of the union, the entire union with the individual sectors for the coming four years. And of course in this year we have the World Telecommunication Development Conference which is going to give its output and results that is going to be resulted from here into the agenda of the planning potential conference. So I believe the entire world is just waiting for the planning potential conference to come in Busan in this year so that they participate all together in defining the goals, objectives and the plans for the entire union. The theme here is broadband for sustainable development. I know UAE is making great strides in terms of broadband connectivity. What are the outcomes that you hope will come from this conference? Well I believe talking from the perspective of the government of United Arab Emirates and more especially the telecommunication regulatory authority, we don't have an individual agenda in this conference. The agenda is basically regional agenda. That's why you see there is the Arab regional proprietary group which has took the role to look after the agenda and the theme of the conference. That's why you see many resolutions have been set, have been defined, have been drafted by the Arab group and basically discussed here in the conference. Moreover, there are a set of initiatives being presented and proposed by the Arab regional proprietary group itself. And one of those initiatives is basically talking about the broadband connectivity. And this came actually from the strong need and the strong requirement of the Arab region itself to look after this part of the broadband connectivity. Not all Arab administrations today having equal sizes of the broadband connectivity. It varies between the Arab countries themselves. That's why we really need to see by the efforts and help and assistance of the BDT and the experts in the BDT in the next agenda of the four years, the four coming years after the conference to really engage together the private sector and the government sector to engage in shaping the future of such broadband connectivity. Nasser bin Hamad, thank you very much indeed for being with us today. Thank you so much for the support. Thank you. And thank you for watching too.