THE SHOWBUS NEW ZEALAND BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Stagecoach Auckland
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 This is an unusual machine, 1146 (YS5352) is one of seven O305 Mercedes rebuilds. When these buses reached their sell by date with Stagecoach Auckland's predecessor, the Yellow Bus Company the company decided on some drastic surgery. They stripped the old bodies off a handfull of them, stretched the chassis, added a third lazy axle and put new bodies on them. The first five, 1140 to 1145 had new bodies built by Faifax Industries. The rest were bodied by Designline, but with the exception of 1146 and 1147, were disposed of immediately to Mana Transport in Porirua and Hamilton City Transport. Driver Doug Lyon, who has provided the above information, reports the rebuilds are very much like an orginal O305 to drive but much smoother and a bit slower due to increased weight. They still run the original 3-speed auto boxes except 1140 which had a 4-speed Allison transmission. |
 The above picture was taken in April 2000 and 1146 is seen here again five years later. |
 Designline bodied MAN buses have been delivered in quantity to Stagecoach Auckland, having found favour initially in Wellington. All Auckland's are in Stagecoach stripes. These two show the contrasting body styles between the conventional bus at the front and the low floor vehicle with the stepped waistrail behind. Central doors on the nearside disguise the step there. |
The contrast between normal and low floor MAN/Designline singledeckers in the fleet is clearly shown here with normal 502 (SS5538) being overtaken by a low floor example, distinguished by its disabled access logo.
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A normal height MAN in downtown Auckland.
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