[Mpower]

Another piece of news, some kind of JV or merger between Eicher and Volvo. Not sure about the details.

[highwayblaze]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Another piece of news, some kind of JV or merger between Eicher and Volvo. Not sure about the details.

For 350 million USD they will share dealer and service network with Eicher concentrating on medium duty vehicles. I read this news on Google business.

[maddy42]

Well what i heard about the BEST opting for the new buses on the eastern express highway was that these belong to some korean or chinese company. Am not sure which one though.
Also the PMT i.e pune transport guys were angry at tata for their low floor buses. Has anyone travelled in them. You cant sit in the last 2 rows of seats due to the noise created. God used to make me deaf travelling in the rear of the bus. A common feature in pune was to see alot of those tata low floor buses parked in the side of the road or even blocking the highway due to repairs. I am a AL fan and had a chanvce to visit their factory 2 years back from college.
I loved thier trucks from my childhood and also we owned 2 of them before.
Now we have this Swaraj Mazda and its doing good service. Driving it without any load is hell..The cabin jumps but when you got some load on them the vehicle is very smooth. In coorg the number of swaraj mazdas are more than TATA 407 or 609. I remember you can hear the noise made from the 407 from quite a distance and at the time i was at home the 407 was the vehicle used to carry arrack to the shops. It was kinda famous among our labourers cheers:

[hvkumar]

Noise or no noise, the low-floor Tata Starbuses are conquering the cities. DTC now has a full fleet of these buses also now. And all the airlines have shifted to these buses too.

As you mentioned, they are very noisy. I wonder whether BEST has distributed their fleet or the buses are all broken down - I get the distinct feeling that the number of low-floor Tatas is visibly down nowadays. I work near Churchgate and the Churchgate-Nariman Point route had lost of them, now I hardly see them. Besides, BEST is definitely adding to their fleet.

The new buses in BEST are King Long (Chinese) buses, but I am yet to see any of them on teh road - although they were inaugrated with much fanfare by the CM during Diwali.

The new PMT AL buses look great, the same Euro 3 models that now ply with BEST too. I believe they are very comfortable, fuel-efficient and low on NVH.

[maddy42]

Well one more thing is that Karnataka was the place where Volvo setup operations in India. Things didnt seem to pick up well for them for a long time and Then there were orders being done by the KSRTC(KAR) after which there was a drastic change in the way people travelled long distances.
Well somone was telling me that the govt had to do something as volvo was planning on leaving the state so to prevent it from happening they ordered the buses.
We used to use th car always and so did the people in our place now buses are a good option. Well i still remember back in school in 96 we hated the buses to come home from the hostel. All dirty with dirt in the window sills and also noisy no seat comfort no entertainment.
Things changed and atleast in karnataka the ksrtc has done a great job. Not comparing the companies but all the buses are atleast comfy.
Guess if it was not for the ksrtc in karnataka volvo may have had hiccups to pikup the sales.

[fx45]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Noise or no noise, the low-floor Tata Starbuses are conquering the cities. DTC now has a full fleet of these buses also now. And all the airlines have shifted to these buses too.

As you mentioned, they are very noisy. I wonder whether BEST has distributed their fleet or the buses are all broken down - I get the distinct feeling that the number of low-floor Tatas is visibly down nowadays. I work near Churchgate and the Churchgate-Nariman Point route had lost of them, now I hardly see them. Besides, BEST is definitely adding to their fleet.

The new buses in BEST are King Long (Chinese) buses, but I am yet to see any of them on teh road - although they were inaugrated with much fanfare by the CM during Diwali.

The new PMT AL buses look great, the same Euro 3 models that now ply with BEST too. I believe they are very comfortable, fuel-efficient and low on NVH.

the tata starbuses which were plying on mumbai city roads near churchgate are now moved and scattered in many different parts of the city.

they are normally seen nr. kurla, bandra, sion, chembur etc etc suburban routes.

they're gng nowhere.. theyre still here.

[AMATMO]

Kinglong and AMW both are china based companies right?

[AMATMO]

guys i wanted to know why many trucks in india are painted brown?

they would have looked so much better if they were white
is i a code by the RTO having brown colour with a white strip

[dkamath]

Originally Posted by AMATMO

guys i wanted to know why many trucks in india are painted brown?

they would have looked so much better if they were white
is i a code by the RTO having brown colour with a white strip

guess this colour code is meant to indicate trucks with 'National Permit'

[TeddyBear]

Bhpians,
Recently Volvo aquired major stake, so Eicher will be benefited with latest technology.

After the Mitsubishi JV got over, I wonder from where did Eicher got the technology for Heavy commercial vehicles, Muti-Axle HCVs, Buses? I see lots of Eicher City buses (Full sized buses like typical Tata and AL) in Bangalore.
Their vehicles are well accepted, i feel it is a major leap for them, as in the past Hindustan /Isuzu and Ford (by Zimson?) HCV are failed.

I am back to the main question, from where did they get the technology? and what engine is used ( Like Hino / Cummins)?

[AMATMO]

Originally Posted by TeddyBear

Bhpians,
Recently Volvo aquired major stake, so Eicher will be benefited with latest technology.

After the Mitsubishi JV got over, I wonder from where did Eicher got the technology for Heavy commercial vehicles, Muti-Axle HCVs, Buses? I see lots of Eicher City buses (Full sized buses like typical Tata and AL) in Bangalore.
Their vehicles are well accepted, i feel it is a major leap for them, as in the past Hindustan /Isuzu and Ford (by Zimson?) HCV are failed.

I am back to the main question, from where did they get the technology? and what engine is used ( Like Hino / Cummins)?

really i didnt know eicher made buses of this size...

ts only the chassiss right? not the completly built one

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

Just in case you are convinced that this is more a user perceiption - just look at this - BEST, Mumbai and almost all of TN uses AL; almost all of Delhi uses Tata.
And yes, I am aware that we have been discussing trucks. Except for Volvo and that rare buses with rare engine and / or are low slung both trucks and buses in India use the same chassis and engine.

BEST is converting almost all of its fleet (3000+) into the Tata Starbus and the proposed Mercedes low floor bus. So good bye to the antiquated AL, and thank god for that!!!!

[AMATMO]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

BEST is converting almost all of its fleet (3000+) into the Tata Starbus and the proposed Mercedes low floor bus. So good bye to the antiquated AL, and thank god for that!!!!

too be quite frank indian buses are neither antique nor are worthy of being in this age

these buses are jus junk thats all cause india cannot afford anything better
i dont understand whats taking so long for the BEST to launch sophisticated
buses
if a smaller city like bangalore can have volvos,when there are less people above poor calss use buses in bangalore then why cant mumbai which has a higher number of middle and upper middle class people using public transport

[Sankar]

I saw a Toyota Coaster bus today at Trivandrum. KL 01 A(something) 8899. It was not a body built on an indian chasis but a pukka toyota us. It's almost the same size as those Swaraj Mazda buses. Wondering who/which company would be using this in Tvm.

It looked like this

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Sankar

I saw a Toyota Coaster bus today at Trivandrum. KL 01 A(something) 8899. It was not a body built on an indian chasis but a pukka toyota us. It's almost the same size as those Swaraj Mazda buses. Wondering who/which company would be using this in Tvm.

This is a 80's Toyota Coaster. Some of these are in India. I used drive one of these quite often in Nigeria it had a petrol engine. It was very easy to drive.