A true son of the similarly long-lasting Met-Camm Class 101!
Just a shame the same factory went on to build the utter rubbish that is the Class 175/180.
Nothing wrong with 175s. Yes they had their teething problems but today I would argue they are far superior to the 170s. Better performance, more comfortable for the passengers and pretty popular with everyone who works on them as far as I can tell. I don't want to derail this thread or turn it into a fanboy argument, and I do have the bias issue of signing 175s but not 170s, but I know which fleet I'd prefer to work and travel on.
I'm sure if the 180s had had the same treatment as the 175s (basing the entire fleet out of the same depot with one TOC instead of being a left over unloved fleet spread across the country) their own reliability issues would have been massively improved by now.
Queiter, Better acceleration, Air con, Comfy seats and higher top speed.
158 air con?
One thing I will say for 170s, their air con is pretty reliable and they're nice to travel on year round. 158s in Summer are a rather less pleasant experience.....