2022 MERCEDES-BENZ Sprinter 2500

The vehicle will lose power at high altitudes. I will push the gas pedal all the way down and the RPMs do not move nor does the vehicle move. This has left me in dangerous situations at intersections. I have spoken with a Mercedes dealer in Denver and they have multiple reports of this problem. The vehicle only has 1800 miles and this has happened multiple times at altitude.

At elevations above about 6,500ft, the Sprinter is essentially immobile or becomes intermittently unresponsive to the gas pedal when it is depressed. This happens routinely at elevation and has led to unresponsive acceleration while driving. The unresponsive accelerator has compromised safety when trying to pull out onto roads. This issue has occurred frequently to other Sprinter owners in similar conditions. No warning lights, lamps, or messages appear or are associated with this issue. This issue appears difficult to replicate at Mercedes dealerships/service centers as they are all below the affected elevation. When describing the issue to a MB service representative, I was told it was “normal”. Though an unresponsive accelerator should not be written off and discarded as normal when it has the easy potential to inflict harm its passengers.

Brand new van with less than 1000 miles on it. Driving in the High Sierras 8600 - 9000 ft. Altitude seems to be related to this problem. I have not had the problem in San Francisco on steep hills. Problem: When leaving a stop, on any uphill slope RPMs will stay well under 2000 and the van barely moves or not at all. Occurs even with full throttle, manually in lowest gear and in low range (low range 4wd helped a little), warmed up, etc. The to get the rpm's up to back up to a flat spot. This was very scary when entering the highway. When that was impossible, such as in a dip in the road certainly would have have to call a tow truck. Driving as slow as desired on an uphill was possible because if the RPM's dropped below 2000 the van would slow to a stop even with the pedal to the floor. If I managed to anticipate a hill while driving slowly I'd have to depress the accelerator pedal fully it prior to incline. If successful, RPM's would stay above 2000 and the van would have all the power needed (and more would develop instantly) requiring extreme finesse to prevent spinning the wheels.

The distronic cruise control system cuts out after a period of seeing no vehicles in front, sometimes an hour, sometimes two hours. But when this happens, it then begins disabling other safety systems like emergency braking. There is no way to quickly reset the system. I spoke with the Mercedes Benz Dealer about this (van is brand new and this happened twice on my first trip) and I was told that this is both common in the 2019 and older Sprinter Vans, and that it is just a idiosyncrasy of the system. How is this safe? How have there not been any changes to this system in 3 years?