Final Cheetah leaves Plaxton

The last of Plaxton’s Mercedes-Benz Vario chassised Cheetahs has left the Scarborough plant for its new home in Berwick upon Tweed. Perrymans Buses MD, Roddy Perryman, the vehicle’s new owner, visited Plaxton to personally collect the Cheetah where it was handed over by Area Sales Manager, Charlie Middleton and a number of the team who have been building them since production moved there in 2009.

As mentioned in last week’s Bus and Coach Buyer (1284, 11 July) a new Cheetah will be going into production at the latter end of this year and will be based on the Mercedes-Benz Atego chassis. This continues the partnership Plaxton and Mercedes-Benz have had since the first vehicle was built on a predecessor to the Vario back in the 1980s.

The vehicle features 29 reclining seats with three point seatbelts and has automatic transmission. The moquette trim is enhanced with leather and LED lighting is fitted to both the interior and exterior. Security is provided in the form of a six camera CCTV system supplied by Synectics.

Roddy said of his Cheetah, ‘We have a long standing relationship with Plaxton and Cheetah has been a key part of that. We have operated all three variants of it and a number of Beavers before that. They have proved to be very versatile and capable vehicles, ideally suited to the multi-use operation our coaches are required for. We’re naturally keen to see how the next generation of small Plaxton develops but based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s very much a worthy successor.’