Mercedes-Benz Tourismo Euro6 launch
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It was obvious from the smiles on their faces that operators hugely enjoyed their day. I spoke to a number about the experience. Neil Pegg, MD of City Circle commented, ‘I was very impressed. I’ve been impressed by the vehicle and impressed by the place. The presentation was very informative. It was interesting seeing the diagrams showing the various stages the gases go through. It was good to be able to see it like that.’
He doesn’t operate any Tourismos at present, explaining, ‘I sold my last Tourismos last week after three years, but I’d have no hesitation in having more if the deal was right.’ The vehicles he operated were eight straight 53 seaters and he said of them, ‘They held their money well. We had no issues at all with them really. There was the odd recall, but nothing that sticks in the mind. They were pretty much trouble free.’
Neil made a point of looking at the luggage capacity of the Tourismo M. I’m confident he meant it as praise when he described it as ‘not bad.’
Tim Pow of Berkeley Travel told me that he’d had a really enjoyable day. Looking at the coaches he thought they were very well finished, though he found the transmission a bit noisy when out on the road run.
EvoBus are lucky to have such a fine facility at their disposal because while the lure of seeing the latest Mercedes-Benz model was considerable, in combination with the chance to test yourself off road or on the track it was nigh on irresistible. It’s not every day you get to drive up or down a 65% slope, along a river bed or down a flight of steps in an ML350 or to go from 0-62 in 4.2 seconds and then stop again with your hands off the wheel, round a skidpan, or flat out round a track in an 5.5-litre bi-turbo V8 E63-AMG, and my advice is that if you ever get the chance, go for it!
Other developments
On the bus side of the business the recent announcement of the departure on friendly terms of former Bus Sales Director, Andrew Allsop, has come as a surprise to many. Jan Aichinger is handling his duties personally until a replacement is announced. Andrew now plans to cycle the length of New Zealand with his wife.
No orders have yet been announced for Euro6 Citaro or the new shorter length (10.6m) Citaro K, despite Mercedes-Benz being well ahead of the game with Euro6 availability. The primary reason for this has been customer preference for Euro5 because orders have still been taken for the existing product. Cardiff Bus will shortly take delivery of the first of 20 single door Citaros with Euro5 OM906 engines which it chose after extensive testing of a number of alternative products.
Sales of Sprinter derived coaches are going well with all versions offered at Euro5, such as this Sprinter Travel, also offered at Euro6.
With the advent of Euro6, the UK will see not only the new OM936 engine in the Citaro but also the move to the next generation product that has already been available in Europe for a little while. This major upgrade offers a number of other advantages in addition to the enhanced fuel economy. To ensure that operators are clear on exactly what the Citaro will now offer them, Jan recently took a party of operator representatives to the Public Transport Symposium and Mercedes-Benz Omnibus Days event in Mannheim, extending the trip to enable visits to both the Citaro assembly plant and the engine manufacturing facility as well as staging a number of technical presentations. A Citaro K demonstration bus is also carrying out a programme of evaluations with operators.
Jan is pleased with the way things are going in the minibus sector with the Sprinter, where there has been increased emphasis placed in the last 12 months. Working more closely with the truck and van dealership side of the business has seen over 100 Traveliners sold so far this year. The entire pre-Euro6 Sprinter range remains available with the new engines.
Last word
Jan Aichinger commented, ‘I’ve been very pleased with the turnout which shows there is a clear interest in getting more information about Euro6 and also the latest addition to our coach range.’ He continued, ‘We believe our Euro6 product range offers a fantastic value proposition, where we are compensating for the higher capital price of Euro6 by considerably reducing the fuel and maintenance costs.’ He calculated that, despite the higher capital cost of a Euro6 coach, the benefits of longer service intervals and lower fuel consumption would help generate a 3% saving over five years, based on a vehicle on contract maintenance covering 85,000km annually with diesel at £1.12 per litre.
He confirmed that orders had been placed for Euro6 examples of the two-axle Tourismo and for several of the new Tourismo M for spring delivery. He was not yet able to announce the customers involved.
By Stuart Jones