[binaiks]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

Hino does NOT match Volvo in speed and comfort. In a BLR - Chennai travel of 350 kms, Volvos and mercedes takes 6 hours but Hinos, Sutlej et all take 7-7.5 hours. I personally have felt more comfortable in Volvos than non-volvos.

How sure are you on this? (The running time part)

Only two Hino buses operate in the whole of India, and both are with Neeta running on the Mumbai-Pune route. You seem to have quoted run times of "hino" buses in the Chennai-Bangalore route.

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by binaiks

How sure are you on this? (The running time part)

Only two Hino buses operate in the whole of India, and both are with Neeta running on the Mumbai-Pune route. You seem to have quoted run times of "hino" buses in the Chennai-Bangalore route.

I vouch I have travelled by a hino once and a sutlej the other time and it took 7 hours 15 mins from Madiwala to Koyambedu(Chennai Bus terminus) via Hosur

[binaiks]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

I vouch I have travelled by a hino once and a sutlej the other time and it took 7 hours 15 mins from Madiwala to Koyambedu(Chennai Bus terminus) via Hosur

I doubt. Because, till date Hino has brought only two buses, and both of them have been with Neeta right from day one. The buses are officially not launched in the country yet. You perhaps traveled in the "Hispano" or some other bus, or may be you were tricked into believe that the bus your traveled was a Hino.

Sutlej or Prakash would not make a difference in running time - both are front engine buses, and built on much lower powered engines - comparing their running time to a Volvo or a Merc is akin to comparing chalk and cheese.

Volvo is often used as a generic name for all rear engine buses - many passenger hardly care to find what bus it is. I wouldn't call that as cheating - certainly not. All of us often use the words "Zerox" instead of "Photocopy", JCB for all land movers, and so on - aren't we all they "cheating" in some sense?

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Zed

What differentiates a Tata from a Leyland bus in a given category, from a passengers perspective, anyways? Are folks not interested in the difference or are they unable to register any tangible difference? And by folks I mean both the literate & illiterate travelling public.

That's what I was also telling. If there is no much of difference felt by the folks(here its general public), operator will definitely make it as a generic name - Volvo. I am sure the co.driver in that Neeta bus does'nt come to some organised meeting and say all luxury buses are Volvo. He is doing right at that place.

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

Hino does NOT match Volvo in speed and comfort. In a BLR - Chennai travel of 350 kms, Volvos and mercedes takes 6 hours but Hinos, Sutlej et all take 7-7.5 hours. I personally have felt more comfortable in Volvos than non-volvos.

For your information the Hino bus which is in the subject has a 13litre engine with a max power of 380hp (340hp and 9litre in Volvo Multi axle)
Here to give more insight, power to weight ratio is much much higher in Hino than(atleast 35% to 45% ) Volvo multi axle. Also the price of this Hino is also dearer than Volvo and Merc, due to various reasons like higher import content.

I have already said about the price in my earlier post and have quoted that we should not get into operators operating economics.Its only due to advent Internet we understand some products are costlier and some are cheaper to buy and so they should not charge more. Infact by all means Hino commands a premium ticket fare due to higher price.

Here this Hino is a classic case(when informations are not available) where we assume things and speak that it will not do good speed and will have reduced comfort even without travelling.

I am not going to speak on comfort(its a more relative and varies from person to person) but if you speak on speed I can assure, this is faster than Volvo - Provided if its driven so.

Now what is the conclusion? Can the higher fare(or at par) for Hino bus is justified. Let team decide.

(If the Hino specs are known already I think this thread would not have been started )

By any chance this bus has not run in Chennai - Blore route.

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

... but Hinos, Sutlej et all take 7-7.5 hours....

What is this Sutlej bus? I think you have grouped the regular AL/Tata buses. If this is right then what that co.driver(not even Neeta as a whole because officially they have not said so in their website or ticket) is also right. Atleast he has grouped bus brands as one but you are grouping a body builder as a group of bus.

Originally Posted by Selective

But, if I book Volvo and some HINO or other bus comes, I will fume and will shout from top of the roof for sure. And will never trust and go with that operator again!..

I booked a Hino and now comes a Volvo and still I will shout as the later will go slower because it has lower power to ratio?.
Sounds bad right.
The way we criticise Hino based on assumptions also stands the same way (may be after knowing the specification Hino may look better )

But again I will tell its our right to prefer buses based on brands but we should not say its illogical to group some brands for the sake of general public.

[nozzlering]

Well put Ashley2. Some of us have been trying to put forward this thing. Most of us have believed that Volvo is the only comfortable brand. Well now, people must have got slight idea of Hino brand. The idea is
Board a bus as per your needs and pocket limitations. Let the speed, overtaking, etc leave on the driver. And yes demand what you have paid for. There are various factors which make a ride comfortable. Being a Volvo is just one of them.
BTW how come bharath travel in a Hino/ Sutlez. He said he always travels on a B7R or B9R!! Bangalore Chennai takes good 6 hours (approx). And there are so many Volvos running between Bangalore and Chennai.

[libranof1987]

Neeta doesn't have a very good reputation at all; even when it comes to the quality of it's buses.

Quite a few of their Volvos (and I mean real Volvos) on their Pune-Mumbai sector were found to be leaking during monsoons; there was a huge article in Pune/Mumbai Mirror with pictures of passengers sitting inside the bus under their umbrellas.

Passing non-Volvo buses as Volvo buses has been quite a habit.

IIRC, Volvo made the cops of various states (Karnataka esp.) crack down on bus operators pasting Volvo badges/stickers on non-Volvo buses.

[scopriobharath]

Originally Posted by nozzlering

BTW how come bharath travel in a Hino/ Sutlez. He said he always travels on a B7R or B9R!! Bangalore Chennai takes good 6 hours (approx). And there are so many Volvos running between Bangalore and Chennai.

Beggars have no choice. Sometimes if i needed to travel in the last minute, Volvos were full. The only options was these buses from private operators.

[rajeev k]

The comparisons in many posts here makes interesting reading and throws light on the higher end bus sector. Good. But come to think of it. Is comparing a Volvo or Merceds with a Cerita or Sutlej is not right in the sense that the latter mentioned brands are body builders turned bus manufacturers where as Mercedes, Volvo, Hino, AL and TATA are bus core competent bus manufacturers.

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by F50

How much is the difference in price between Volvo and Non-Volvo bus? I feel the rates are fixed irrespective of the bus. I could be wrong as I'm not a frequent bus traveler.

You asked about ticket price but I have a diff perspective (wrt to OTR of the buses) - the latest 10wheeled twin-rear axle Volvo Coach is 1.28Crore INR OTR with a KA01 (Bangalore) Regn (KA Road Tax + TN+AP state entry permit). One of the drivers is a good acquaintance (Bullet rider, we share the same mechanic for our bikes)

The older B7R (single axle) are going at around 97Lakh OTR.

People from Bangy/AP may have noticed the difference between the UPKEEP of KA Vs AP (mostly Govt owned in this POV) - AP's are the most filthy lot and resemble a bunch of scrap vehicle. Possible reason is the average bill for a oil change - around 25K per service. Of course its done only once in 30K Kms IIRC, but again - negligence+corruption (30K!!)

[Warwithwheels]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

I am really suprized that a photocopier offering a 1/- rs service is being compared with a 1 crore rupee Volvo.....

Nobody is trying to do that comparo here. It was told just to suggest how a brand is identified with a product/ service, when it is being excessively over used.

Even if you were to do that comparo, It may be right to compare only your ticket cost to that 1 rupee photocopy thingy and not the 1 crore rupee cost of the bus!!!

[Selective]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

I booked a Hino and now comes a Volvo and still I will shout as the later will go slower because it has lower power to ratio?.
Sounds bad right.
The way we criticise Hino based on assumptions also stands the same way (may be after knowing the specification Hino may look better )

But again I will tell its our right to prefer buses based on brands but we should not say its illogical to group some brands for the sake of general public.

Well, if you are fully aware that the service that you are expecting is comparable with respect to comfort, safety and time to travel, then it should be fine. If not, then it is not acceptable.

And I agree with you that if the operator is genuinely grouping some brands for sake of general public which offer comparable comfort, safety and time to travel, then there is nothing much to crib about. If he is fleecing money from travelers by illogical grouping of brands then what will you do?

[coriollis]

Couple of years back, I was traveling from Mumbai to Pune with my vendor. That was the time when they operated the ridiculous " Mahabus" branded Tata/ Leyland buses.

My vendor then points to one bus saying that " Ye Tata kaa Volvo hai".. Which was in fact a Leyland bus.
He said, he likes the bus because it looks good. He likes anything that probably is Air conditioned.

This is our typical non-demanding Indian customer!
So to him, Operator is not being unethical. To us it matters as we are involved in automobiles.

I agree that if I have booked for a Volvo, I should be traveling in one. Technically it is a very correct statement.
But,
1) In case of a badly maintained Volvo(You do get these regularly)V/s Hino/ Merc ,I would definitely choose a Hino/ Merc

2) I would definitely opt for Hino, for experience and comparisons.

3) These discrepancies are generally in places of short travel, where destination is more important than the journey.
In case of long/overnight travel,worst case you would get a Merc in lieu of a Volvo.The operators just can't afford to take chances on long distance routes.


Also now that the Cerita is a dying breed in India, No need to worry for them either. A truly pathetic product. Err .. Did I say product? Sorry for that folks. Its just a couple of pieces of something screwed together.

Valvo/ Volwo may be offering more comfort than the dreaded Cerita!

[Swanand Inamdar]

Why the hoopla on a non Volvo being called a Volvo? They offer the same comfort, no?
As long as I am not offered a State Transport (or Asiad) bus as a Volvo, I dont really care if its a Merc, HINO, Isuzu etc. The class is more or less the same. The price also is the same.
Volvo, in here, as many others pointed out, has become a local term for luxury buses.

And as far as bottled water is concerned, that's an entirely different ball game. Evian and local water cant even be compared. Not when the price difference between them is enormous. That is not the case here, when a ticket in a "Volvo" and one in, say a Merc, cost the same.

That said, avoid Neeta like plague.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Selective

... If he is fleecing money from travelers by illogical grouping of brands then what will you do?

That's not right for sure. THere is no doubt about it. Since here it was the other way I(many) tried to bring in some analogy

[TaurusAl]

I don't know how many of you have noticed 'VOLGA' sticker behind an ordinary bus which is not even an air conditioned bus, just a normal luxury bus. You call that cheating too ? Maybe it is. Or it is just to call every bus Volvo for lesser educated people.

Here I don't know if we should blame Neeta travels. Maybe all other companies are using a this name. The people working of these buses keep changing form companies to companies. One the name Volvo is stuck in their mouth, they might be just using it without realising it. Just a thought.