THarris123
Established Member
Ooh and Marshalls are horrible too. That's my most hated bus actually. Second to that ALX200. ALX300 is fairly low down the like list too.
Any version of the Trident.
Just to mention, i hate the Wright Cadet DAF/VDL SB120 that low engine drone when cruising hurts the ears.
Enviro 200s. The number of rattles on most vehicles is simply unbearable.
Personally for me, it has to be the pacer
Boris bus
The new Routemaster, horrible looking buses in my opinion.
My own impressions on types of buses have are/have been on the market
Mercedes Benz Citaro
First Manchester's fleet of Citaro, are depleting massively now, various problems with them now mean that when one breaks down with a major fault it is game over for it, They are not the drivers favorite either for reasons which I will explain in a few lines further down. The engine noise is one of the best, however that is where the advantages stop.
They are very rattly, almost to the extent of some of the 'finest' ADL products. In addition to that they also seem to have a habit of setting on fire every now and again.
To drive, streetlites and old Volvo eclipses are horrible.
Tridents, Geminis and Enviro 200 are all quite nice
As for other types, another Blunder Bus was the Optare Vecta.
jcollins said:When a Streetlite is used on my local town service it seems the driver struggles to get around parked cars a lot more than you'd expect them to, the same is true of standard Solos (non-SRs) but not really the case with Dennis vehicles.
Isn't this a common problem amongst Citaros?
Yes I thought that Mercedes had fixed the problems as they were becoming quite common however it is clear that there are still problems, as evident with the Cardiff Bus fire last month.
Sam
From my prospective it has to be the Leyland national Mk1. All the weight on the back. try stopping one on a wet road. Noisy as hell also with the 510 fixed head rattle box engine. 2nd worst a Bristol LH. Brakes could never be balanced so always grabbing to one side. rattle like hell. Bounced around the road. Semi automatic ones used to lurch forward when placed into gear. i could go on .......
But compared to the Optare Excel they were brilliant pieces of kit
To be honest, I'm glad all the Optare buses from that time are now all turned into baked beans cans. I always hated the Delta, not only was the noise unbearable but the legroom in the seats was designed for a gnat. And they kept breaking down in a plume of blue smoke. The Sigma wasn't much better, it was just as uncomfortable (but slightly smaller- it was always hilarious when Arriva stuck one on a summer Saturday X93 to Whitby) but at least it didn't have the lovely broken turbo smell.
Are you thinking of the Prisma rather than the Sigma?
Whichever one it was that had the Mercedes Benz chassis?
I might add MCV evolutions too. Noisy, smelly, ugly at the back. But they are unique in my area, so not as hated as the ghastly Omnidekkas.
In a way I'm not surprised, the MCV evolution is the evolution of the Marshall Capital. And that is / was a bus that deserved to go to my all time hell of bus designs. Noisy, smelly and leaking! A standard for a Marshall!
The ones on MAN engines particularly. We also have MCV Stirlings floating around and are even worse with plastic seats, sick inspired seat covers, and just as bad as any MCV thing I've tried.
Such a shambles company.
I used to severely dislike the Irizar Century coaches that First used on National Express diagrams out of Bristol.
The seats were very hard and uncomfortable and there always seemed to be a really foul smell coming from the toilet. Was recently advised by an ex-First driver that this was a known problem with them.
On one occasion when traveling back from Leeds to Bristol I actually waited two hours in Birmingham Digbeth for the following service after one of these coaches turned up on my connecting service to Bristol.