Airstream 2022 Interstate 19 Touring Coach Walkthrough
well welcome to airstream my name is justin humphries i'm vice president of sales here at airstream and today i have the pleasure of sharing our interstate 19 model with you today and i'm really excited about it this unit pound for pound might be the hardest working motorhome in north america it is just absolutely fantastic both with what mercedes provides us and what we're able to put in such a small compact package you really don't have to compromise on a whole lot with this interstate 19. so we're going to talk about that today and you know the first thing you're going to notice is the mercedes-benz star this is a mercedes van it comes completed as a shell and then airstream upfits the interior and turns it into an rv so a lot of mercedes uh components here and a lot of things to talk about let's take a step back though mercedes benz uh their sprinter vans they're built for a variety of reasons they could be a local uh service truck a plumbing truck um some other type of services vehicle and a local community all the way up to a high-end rv like we've had so as a result mercedes-benz doesn't know if you're a delivery driver or a luxury rv uh owner that would enjoy all the luxury creature comforts that a mercedes car be so let's let's talk let's walk you through that and airstream i can tell you right away is gonna select every option available for mercedes-benz that we can and many of them are safety items which we're really proud of and i think is a difference so if you go out and look at two rvs they're both sprinters they look the same right they're both sprinter vans but they might be equipped completely different and that's why i'm going to talk you through some of those things because they really aren't visible with the naked eye just to say okay that's intuitive it has that let me walk you through a few of those so right away on the windshield if you were here you would notice tiny little lines if you caught the light just right in it this is a heated windshield in fact we get the winter package which includes the heated windshield heated seats and a heated steering wheel now all of those features are fantastic when it's cold clearly but those features also help you in other circumstances for example if you're a tall guy like myself with a bad back sometimes that heated seats is a nice um reprieve on those sore muscles to kind of heat and loosen up your back when you're driving so that just just doesn't happen during the winter that could happen anytime and then on the windshield yeah it helps get frost and ice off but if you have any type of fog situation going on that'll really clear up the windshield which becomes a safety feature at that it's an expensive option but you wouldn't notice that just looking at this van that it has it and this 19 certainly does so we're really excited about that in the windshield area you'll notice there's a little black box and that houses a couple other options that we select from mercedes-benz the first is lane assist if this is detecting that you're starting to veer outside of your lane it's going to signal you to get back in your lane maybe you're falling asleep maybe you're becoming distracted it's a great safety feature in addition it has adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance so it's measuring cars in front of you making sure it's keeping the distance breaking when it needs to break similar to your luxury car if you have one or if you have a vehicle with that feature i tell you on those long road trips it's great you set the cruise control and you forget it the van will throttle and decelerate as needed so fantastic feature not inexpensive we included standard really keep an eye on if you're shopping us against other competitors because it's likely that they have not included it there's some things we do differently to enhance the styling of the mercedes this portion down is a piece that we've added here at airstream our designers have done a great job of adding a little more muscle to the front end a little bit more weight to the front just by having that nice airfoil here it's a tooled piece that we've actually designed and set up fixturing for it's it's uh it's money well spent i think from a design and aesthetic standpoint also has the airstream brand there too so in an understated way people will know that this van is an airstream upfit we also include led lights that's an option for mercedes-benz not only is the styling better in my opinion but i can tell you the performance is unmatched so whether you're on a country road at night you don't want to hit deer or animals or pedestrians god forbid this is really going to light up your entire road and really becomes a safety feature you'll notice these little buttons here these are parking sensors that's an option for mercedes that doesn't come standard we select it and what's nice is not only is it on the front bumper but it's also on the rear bumper so as you're tailgating and you're in a really tight spot or you're pulling into a campground it's going to really let you know how close you are because it's tough to see over that hood so it's a fantastic feature to have included you'll notice this fan is sitting a little higher this is actually a 4x4 option we offer that on our interstate 19. we also offer that as an option on our 24 interstates both the gl and the gt you'll notice this has a little more ground clearance and it is a true 4x4 this isn't an all-wheel drive um this will shift into all-wheel this will shift in a full 4x4 coach it's fantastic when you are dealing with winter weather but that added clearance is nice in case you want to go off the grid a little bit you need a little bit more clearance overall it's a great option for you and this particular coach has that option as we come down the side of the driver's side of this coach i like to kind of point out where the fuel fill is it's actually behind the driver's door and there's a little latch here that opens up and that's where you fill up your fuel it's a diesel engine got great fuel economy they estimate 16 to 18 miles per gallon on this shorty it's on the high side of that i call it a shorty because it's 19 it's not our 24. that's an inside name that we've called it but so this guy's great fuel efficiency for your long road trips for a van the size and weight to get in the high teens is really remarkable and what i like about the fuel fill where it's positioned is when you pull into a gas station you're driving the vehicle you know exactly where you are you're not having to line up something in the back and making sure you get it right where the the hose can reach your fuel fill and because it sits behind the door it's protected so if you lock the door no one can access your fuel so it's a safety feature there as well one thing i like to point out on the airstream interstate 19 is how understated it is there's no graphics we really want this to look like a mercedes vehicle and so when we do have devices that you have to access to camp and some appliances here we make sure they're the same color as the van itself uh this particular van is silver but we offer some other colors too where we'll also match those colors so they blend in they don't stand out nothing's worse when you're looking at an rv and you've got all these boxes really it's kind of uglies on the side of the coach really takes away from the understated elegance that this van offers so really uh like how that looks now what's under these doors is you've got a potable water fill so on you have a water tank on board so if you're not going to be at a campground where you can hook up a hose which is the other thing on the outside you hook up your city water if you're going to go off the grid and you need to pull out of your tank this is how you fill your tank also down here this is your dumping station now that's not the fun part of rving but for those of you who have dumped you know it's a critical part so what's nice about our our dump station is this is a macerator pump the best way i can explain it is it's like a garbage disposal with a pump so it's going to take the contents of that black tank it's going to chop it up it's going to put it through a smaller hose that's easier to use and it's going to pump it right out very easy to use the alternative and what a lot of other rv manufacturers use on a coach this size on the 19 foot some manufacturers will have a cassette toilet so the toilet would be behind here there'd be a big box on the side and you'd pull out the contents of the toilet and walk it to dump it it's kind of a dirty job that's one option the second option that they'll give you is you will have some dump valves down here and it'll be a manual operation so you pull the valve and you'll have a hose that is gravity fed to dump the contents into the septic tank or the dump tanks at the at the campgrounds it's not a fun job they actually make movies about that process what i like about ours is it's clean it's easy to use it chops it up pumps it out you're not having to rely on gravity and the nice thing too those valves that you would have to pull down they're all electric valves they're right in here so you hit a button the valve opens and then you push the pump button and it pumps it right out super easy to use it's hard to get excited about dumping but i can tell you after you've dumped on a gravity fed system you'll really love this system it's much improved anything that we put on the outside we try to use high-end components we try to match the the uh the chrome that we have on the vehicle including this is the exhaust for the generator we've actually even updated or upgraded the the exhaust pipe so it has that chrome tip really matches everything as opposed to just a rusty steel pipe this is the the hookup so if you're at a campground this is a 30 amp cord you hook it right up it'll run the entire coach now if you're off the grid or at a tailgating and you don't have access to a hookup it's got that generator and that generator will run everything it'll run your air conditioner run all the lights it'll run everything that we've equipped it with now looking at the rear end of this van it's very automotive and what i mean by that if you get a high-end suv these days you won't see the hitch because they cover it up with a nice nicely tooled hitch cover we do the same that's added costed airstream that's something we do at our cost mercedes-benz does not provide that so we do that because when you're not using your hitch you don't want to look at it it's not aesthetically pleasing so we've covered that now if you do need to use a hitch we got one you just a couple tabs you pull them out now you got a 5 000 pound hitch on the back that you can tow small trailers with or maybe some motorcycles or whatever bike rack that you could put in there lots of uses for that you'll notice mercedes has a camera we utilize mercedes camera on this 19. it'll give you a 360 view on the dash and the infotainment center it's fantastic so between that 360 view and the fact this is a shorter van we think that that one camera is plenty to to give you the visibility you need let's look in the inside real quick so this is the the back end of the interstate 19 and a few features that i'd like to highlight for you first off even though it's night a 19-footer and it's very compact you still actually have some nice storage underneath here exterior wise so if you've got a grill that you want to take on the road if you have some whatever you want to bring back here some chairs you can fit them nicely right underneath the the rear sofa also if you have a nice day 70 degrees you want to keep the doors open you want that breeze to go through the coach but you don't want the bugs to come in so this frame framing here is actually framing for a screen that drops down keeps those bugs out allows the the breeze to come through it's very nice now there's also another blind right here this is actually a shade so at night it'll cover up these windows so it'll give you privacy when you're in retiring for the night and you don't want to be exposed so that will that will shut that right off so some some really really nice features now this piece right here as you can imagine is a high traffic areas you're pulling things out it's not much surface area here but airstream has actually spent the money and we've added a 3m film here so if you do run some stuff up against that it's not going to scratch your mercedes bins so really happy with our team that they they go to the uh measures of protecting your vehicle like that over time that really makes a difference and should help the residual value so on the back now this is really where the party happens when you're tailgating when you're camping you're going to be spending a lot of time on this side of the coach a few things i'd like to point out here uh the first is this compartment right here this is actually your lp hookup so you can actually do a quick connect to the lp system which pulls right off an lp tank and you can have your grill right out here you don't have to bring an extra cylinder propane with you it's all on board you can fill up the coach and that's actually where the fill is as well for the lp and you've got electric hookups here as well that it'll actually also run off the inverter so if you've got a radio or tv or something that you want to play for the pre-game you can do that now this is a commercial vehicle and as such these doors are extremely heavy and the reason i know is because airstream used to provide these doors that were manual mercedes a couple years ago offered a power option and now opening a door has never been easier you just hold up the hand pick up the handle and voila opens up nice and easy you might have noticed when that happened the sensor was triggered so the step to get in and out also came out automatically so really easy to use and just like that back door this also has a wonderful screen door to keep those bugs out so you can really enjoy the fresh air but keeping the bugs out all at the same time now your cam your tailgating or your camping you want to get this awning out really get the party started at the push of a button this is an automatic awning it will come right out a few things i like to highlight about this awning is there's actually led lights at the end of the awning that gives you a real nice lighting at night so it's not going to be in your neighbor's face at the campground or tailgating but it's a subtle light that that really helps you see your campsite but but you're not blinded by it the other thing is there is actually a little black box here and that's a seismic sensor so if you were to step away from this awning and a storm would happen upon the area and winds would pick up as a instead of letting this on and get damaged that seismic sensor like an earthquake it's measuring how much it's getting shaken and once it gets to a point where it's could damage the awning it'll bring that awning in so in most cases it will protect in this expensive investment you'd have in the awning so it's a fantastic one it's a little shorter than our other models are we also build 24 footers those awnings are much larger and they have three arms this is a smaller awning and it has two awning arms but is really secure and uh and rated uh very highly for uh for for wins and and for usage so it's a great campsite area talk about a tailgating machine this 19 can get into a normal parking spot you can get into urban areas but you have all the comforts of any other motorhome that we make and you have the generator you got the awning you've got the refrigerator in here you will be the host with the most to the next ball game or camp out or whatever you want to do it's like the swiss army knives of motorhomes it can go anywhere do anything and support what you want to do most which is typically outside and away from home so you can take your home away from home so that those are just the the start of the features we've gone around the entire outside now let's step inside the interstate 19 and i'll share with you what airstream does on the interior that'll blow your mind okay let's enter the cockpit of the interstate 19 and i can show you many of the features inside this incredible vehicle the first thing you'll notice is the real automotive feel that this mercedes-benz has similar to their s-class or their their cars that they sell in the u.s before the sprinter was a lot much uh was was was much more of a commercial vehicle first passenger vehicle second they've really put this front and center it's fantastic just the feel of this thick leather wrapped steering wheel and the comfort features that this vehicle offers is just state of the art and offers a really really comfortable fan to to take your trips on so first off right away i'm looking at it we have all of these touch controls on the steering wheel if you want to dial somebody up on the phone you got it check you can also deal with the radio volume chain stations cruise control it's all right here at your fingertips and the mercedes-benz is now very smart um she will listen to you and i'll i'll also bring that up so the whole idea of mercedes-benz is to keep your hands on the wheel and having to touch the screen less so there's actually um voice activation on this van so if you imagine yourself driving down the road you got both hands on the wheel and you want to go to navigation uh you simply just say mercedes how may i help you navigation and she'll take you right to navigation pretty cool and then you can actually enter the address all voice activated never having to touch the screen at all it's just really comfortable to drive and very very automotive in nature now a few things that airstream selects from mercedes which will probably respond to me on that is a larger screen so we select from bins this larger screen where standard is a much smaller smaller screen we like this because it gives you more visibility you can see the screen better and all of the camera items that mercedes puts on to the screen too is easier to uh to see so it's a fantastic screen it's just super modern and uh and new now a few things just functional items and uh we've shown this on our 24s as well but the amount of cup holders in this van is just phenomenal you have two interior here for the driver two for the passenger you've got a big one inside each door and then you have two up top here even in the dash area so plenty of area for for cups and drinks on those long trips and that can also be used for snacks and holders of other other things that you may need to have access with so a few things to to notice uh down here is i had mentioned on the outside we have a heated windshield a very easy button that will you hit that when it's frosty or foggy it'll knock it off in seconds it really becomes a safety feature now what's unique about this particular interstate 19 is it's a four wheel drive so there is actually a four wheel drive button right down here that you engage you're going to press that in when you're in park hold it and it will engage in four wheel drive but a fantastic feature that 4x4 feature is available both on the interstate 19 and both of our interstate 24 gl and gt but it's a great feature and it's a true four-wheel drive it's not all-wheel drive this is true four-wheel drive uh technology so it performs really really good in uh in snow and ice and it also gives you more clearance so if you're going to be taking this off the beaten path a little bit 4x4 might be a good option for you because it will lift you up quite a bit as well it is now a push start ignition it used to be this was a commercial van you actually had a key that you had to put in now you put this in your pocket again just like your car and you hit the push button here to start the vehicle super easy to use and pretty stylish key fob to boot so great great unit now um on commercial vehicles as you can imagine if somebody's taking short routes they might not want all the powered seats this is a luxury rv we select that option all sprinters aren't created equal so many of the sprinter manufacturers out there are converters in the rv industry don't use it but there's a switch here that will actually electronically move your seat front to back as opposed to messing with all the levers down below and there's actually a memory setting so if you and your partner both drive there's actually up to three uh memory settings you just hit it where you like it and then when you come back in the vehicle hit that number again just like your passenger vehicle um in an s-class so it's very very comfortable easy to use and most people remember that from their cars so it's an easy transition we have no ceiling over top of the head i'm six foot three i'm in a small 19 foot sprinter van and i have great head room in the smaller vehicle so it's really nice it doesn't feel too claustrophobic and it's really good when you're trying to get up and down you don't have the head knocker as you exit the driver's cockpit area you'll notice down on the floor here this is a plastic material that comes with the mercedes bins it's great if you're going to someplace dirty it's very easy to clean airstream will actually include a carpet kit that will fit nicely it's custom tailored to this area so to give you even that more plush feel when you're driving and so that comes standard with the airstream let's say you hop in the driver's seat and you realize the sliding door is still open well this button right here is the power sliding door so it's really easy right at your fingertips you don't have to go to the back to shut the door like you do on some of our competitors where they still have the manual door you would have to do that with theirs so just really smart really well laid out a few other things that i really like are the storage compartments one up here by the passenger seat and then actually above you where your sun visor is it acts as a sun visor of course you have the mirror but then there's really good storage up here as well which is great to throw up some manuals or sunglasses just you can really find great uses for that um let's see here and then lastly you'll see a secondary radio like our other models the interstate 19 we offer this radio for the house portion so if you imagine driving you're going to use this infotainment center well when you're parked you don't want to have to turn on your car to listen to music or your van to listen to music so this actually operates off of the house batteries and will feed the the house portion of the vehicle so really really smart very ergonomic up front here very comfortable as i mentioned on the outside we have a heated windshield which is nice but that also translates into heated seats the ultra leather covering here is just very soft and supple but yet it's very durable it holds up very well wears very well doesn't scratch very easily and it's easily cleaned so it's a it's a fantastic cockpit area you will have fantastic road trips driving this and with it being as short as it is it's just like a big suv it's it's really sporty and easy to maneuver so that is the front cockpit area now we're going to uh focus our attention to the back where i can show you where this vehicle really shines which is how much we've packed in such a small package so welcome to the inside of the interstate 19. this van may be smaller but that doesn't mean it
can't still do everything our other motorhomes can in just a smaller package we find customers who are solo travelers or couples that use this and are very comfortable traveling across the u.s so there's some areas you're going to compromise right it is a smaller van but yet you're still getting everything you need on this galley uh you still have your two um burner cooktop and you still have your sink and faucet so you can still do everything in this coach you can do in our other offerings not maybe not as much counter space but still plenty of space especially when these covers are down to offer you more more counter space and a really good working area you still have some storage in the galley area it's very thoughtfully designed and really offers you some some space to to store those uh special tools and then the flooring just like our other models this is the uh the tightly woven vinyl floor that we took from the marine industry easy to clean you can get it wet doesn't show wear and tear nearly as much as other vinyl flooring designs so very practical interior you know and it's it's just like its bigger siblings just in a smaller package you still have a refrigerator it is all electric just like every other motorhome model we make this because it's all electric does not have to be level like a lot of the other rv um refrigerators on the market that are lp refrigerators that also requires additional venting this does not so it's very efficient keeps things cool stays cool longer and actually takes a lot less power to operate overall it's a fantastic refrigerator again from the marine industry so it's subjected to a lot of very difficult conditions being on the water you'll notice right away this room here this is your wet bath and it's it's right up front toilet and shower all in one that's what we refer to as a wet bath but uh very functional actually has a soap dispenser in there so you don't have to worry about shampoo bottles so you can kind of keep that space available for cleaning or using the the restroom and of course just like the other models it's very airstream with our porthole window in the door to have that airstream dna in this coach and for that matter the aluminum on the ceiling is aluminum with rivets and this is a great ceiling first off a lot of our competitors will use a fabric ceiling and over time that fabric can absorb odors it can deteriorate our trailers have lasted a lifetime and this is no different this is what it's made out of so it's going to last a long time it's easy to clean it doesn't take on odors like some of the other products out there would and i like the fact that it's reflective especially on a small coach like we're in right now it really gives that airy and open feeling that other fabric choices wouldn't wouldn't provide so it's a fantastic ceiling you still have a microwave now on a lot of our other models of microwaves down below this microwave on the interstate 19 is up above so if you're running your generator you can use this microwave it's a it's a relatively modest size but it gets the job done and that way you can cook either on the cooktop or in the microwave but you still have that capability to do so in the kitchen right above it in the ceiling there is a what we call a fantastic fan this fan will help remove all the odors when you're cooking or you know if you have any smoke as a result of cooking and it's a great ventil ventilation tool just overall if you have a really nice day and you open up the back it'll really bring that air right through the coach keep you very comfortable i find sometimes i don't even need to use the air conditioner with that because you just open up some windows and run the fan and it's got great ventilation really smart storage they have a nice little pantry to the left or refrigerator and then just tons of abundant storage up top here in the back lots of places to put clothes food pots pans plates plenty of space for storage right up front the other thing i like in the back here is the amount of windows for a small coach now i'm gonna sit down here real quick but as i'm sitting here enjoying myself and let's say i'm in the mountains i've got a front row view of everything around me big picture window here to my right another big one's from my left of course right behind me is wide open you know a lot of these smaller vans people pack so much in them and they lose sight of the fact that you're out seeing this great country you want to see it you want to be a part of it and this coach really does a great job of balancing the storage which is really important but then also the openness that you need in a unit like this so you're not not claustrophobic and you have a lot of space all of these seating positions not only do they offer some more seating positions when you're traveling down the road but they also make one great big bed and for a small 19-foot sprinter van it's uh it's the biggest in its class really in the industry we've really maximized the area for sleeping you'll you'll see here where we provide storage above it but it still gives you that room for your legs underneath on this side and even the galley we kind of cut into it we want to give you the cook uh the the counter space to be able to to use this in the kitchen but we also want to maximize our sleeping area here as well so really thoughtfully designed and nice and big for even a tall guy like myself from right around six three and then of course more cupholders but if you do have people here on the back or if you're just sitting back here enjoying the view as i mentioned earlier there's actually four cup holders back here as well so on the interstate 19 we actually have a monitor panel back here on some of our other models it's up front and it's a little different touch screen but it still does everything that you really need on this all in one spot what's nice about this touch screen is it's a multi-plex system that's taking signals from all the appliances all the tank sensors everything on this coach and it's putting it in one spot so as opposed to having all these different monitor panels in here you can go to this one screen and really get everything you need done so you can turn on and off the lights you can actually utilize your awnings climate control you can set your air conditioner to a temperature you can operate your generator just um it's just fantastic because it puts everything onto one screen and you can touch it now we put one here in the back so at night as you're getting ready you can actually access the screen and then we put one at the end of the galley so when you're outside on the patio area you can actually put you can very easily monitor the coach from standing right outside underneath the awning super easy to use and very smart now because this is a smaller coach we do use some different systems we actually use a truma hot water heater it's a little different than the other models but there is a separate monitor for that as you set your water heater in this overhead compartment is also a switch up here for a battery heater now this comes standard with lithium batteries for your house batteries remember there's two sets of batteries for this coach you have a battery for the van under the hood that's to start your engine and to operate the vehicle in motion and then you have house batteries which is going to operate everything you see back here those batteries are lithium batteries and is now standard here at airstream if it gets cold the lithium batteries need to be heated that's what this button does so if you're in some cold temperatures you'll want to make sure your batteries are heated for optimal performance and then they'll also show the solar charger in here that's a critical component because when you're out off the grid you want to utilize mother nature's gift of the sun to charge your batteries and what i like about airstream what we've done here at airstream is there's solar filtering both to your chassis battery which i'm not sure too many manufacturers are doing and then also to your house batteries and why that's important i showed you that infotainment center up that mercedes-benz is offering a lot of electronics there that chassis battery is fueling those electronics so to have some solar making sure that that chassis battery is nice and charged this it only makes sense and then the rest of it is to charge your house batteries so really good system there and then there's also an inverter now an inverter will take those the battery that 12 volt power and they'll invert it to 110 so you can run some some small things that require you to plug in that's that's not 12 volt easy to use you hit the on button and then there's some specially designated plugs that'll allow you to use some some devices that are that are dedicated to 110 so everything's in one spot easy to use very intuitive and i think it's really smartly laid out so your dealer can really walk you through the systems in more detail there's even there's tons more than i've even talked about here but it really packs a good punch for a coach this size quite frankly this is the same type of multiplex monitoring system that you'll find in you know million dollar class a's and it's all in this smaller coach what we find in airstream is a lot of people want a smaller coach that doesn't mean they want a cheaper coach they want all the really high-end functional items but in a smaller package if that's what you're looking for then this is the coach for you that's really the interior of this coach there's so much more to talk about on this motorhome that your dealer can really answer a lot of questions gotta test drive one to just see how maneuverable it is how can it's so flexible in urban areas you can get into tight spots where you can't get even with some of our other models and but yet you really don't compromise a whole lot on the living space it's a fantastic coach there are five colors to choose from you can go to our website and see all five color colors including our tommy bahama collaboration is available in this 19-footer so it's got everything available to it and you can learn more at airstream.com or by visiting a dealer to get more information we really appreciate you tuning in and learning more about the interstate 19 and we hope we can earn your business you
2021-06-28 01:43
