Batmann:
Flux capacitors and reaching 88mph comes to mind…
That’s uncanny. I had a hire one, and it maxed out at 88mph (on my own private racetrack, of course)
When the government changed the goal posts on VAT that killed at lot of the carousel Freud, movements of electronics, CPU’s, RAM chips,Mobile phones basically anything that was small in size and light in weight that was very high in value, was often moved from the uk, to other member states and sometimes back again, they used to use armardas of vans, the sprinter being the choice of many, Probably because it was the only 3.5t van with any guts to pull you up hills fully freighted at a reasonable pace, maybe the dramatic reduction in this type of activity is in part responsible for less of them on the roads?
As for them being unsafe, i only felt unsafe once our’s where limited to 85mph lack of power at the rear wheels,
Also great fun on roundabouts in the wet, they slide sideways like a good un if you give em too much gas , but foot of the gas and it will straighten up again , 
Was suprising though how many couldn’t drive them without damaging them, a lot seemed to hit the nearside sil below the side door , gateposts?
tommy t:
When the government changed the goal posts on VAT that killed at lot of the carousel Freud, movements of electronics, CPU’s, RAM chips,Mobile phones basically anything that was small in size and light in weight that was very high in value, was often moved from the uk, to other member states and sometimes back again, they used to use armardas of vans, the sprinter being the choice of many, Probably because it was the only 3.5t van with any guts to pull you up hills fully freighted at a reasonable pace, maybe the dramatic reduction in this type of activity is in part responsible for less of them on the roads?As for them being unsafe, i only felt unsafe once our’s where limited to 85mph lack of power at the rear wheels,
Also great fun on roundabouts in the wet, they slide sideways like a good un if you give em too much gas , but foot of the gas and it will straighten up again ,
I ran two at the height of the mobile phones work, a 313 and a VW LT35, both same year vans, you could load the veedub with loads more than the Merc as it had a helper spring whereas the Merc had a single leaf and sank like a stone on the back end with any weight on it, also they both had traction control so grip wasn’t an issue, both nice to drive over long distances and about the same on fuel, the Merc would top out at 100mph but theveedub went faster and would easily outpace the Merc as it had no limiter on it, I do have a snap of the clocks at 114mph - a Saturday morning outside Frankfurt.
The demise in my opinion has come about initially because of the eastern European influx cutting rates to impossible levels, still lots of work for this type of vehicle though, not just vans disappearing from our roads I don’t think there as so many trucks at night these days either.
My old work had a sprinter, 06 plate and had done 250,000 miles. It was absolutely knackered. Used to get abused by everyone but still started first time. Gear stick was like stirring soup and pot luck with what gear you got. Seen a few of the new sprinters about, they look smart. Seeing a lot of the new transits around too, that’s a van id actually like to own 
My two,a 211 nearest next to an older 216. Both good vans.
You see loads about on a night on the M1 and M6, often in convoy, so probably doing urgent pallet runs. The rest of them can be found at the newspaper wholesalers in various states of disrepair.