I just tried to access their website and was turned away. I could be wrong but it looks like they are no longer in operation which is no big shock since they have been saying that updates to bus specs were coming soon for about 2 years now. I guess that's the nice(or not nice) thing about the free market is that either customers like you or they don't and they determine wheather you come to work or not in good and bad times. I run the risk having EAGLE people chasing me down with torches and pitch forks and EAGLE does have a long history and frankly, beautiful coaches with diehard loyalty. But you have to ask the question...If it was really that good, why did it go away in the first place? We all know of our favorite cars and restaurants that are no longer. Sure, we liked them but not enough other people did. Like it or not, the free market always works. Back in the 1970's many were convinced that once the CONCORDE really got rolling, the BOEING 747 would become obsolete. Well, the last CONCORDE was built in 1979 and the 747 is still is production after 41 years.
I tried and was not allowed in also. As an eagle owner I can honestly say that it is a great coach!! I think the problem is the same with a lot of companys. POOR MANAGMENT!!! The list is long: GM, AIG, Chrysler, Goldman Sach, etc....... I watched an interview with Ric Wagner CEO of GM a few years ago. He was asked the question ( how can you justify your 55m salary when your company is loosing 45m per qtr?) His answer, it takes time to turn a company around. Funny thing is he had the job for over six losing years at the time of the interview. Eagle was sold off by Greyhound after they purchased Cont. trailways. The market was not great, amd from what I have read the mgt. thought the bus would sell itself. Bad mistake. It was sold oud of bankruptcy to a mexican company only to be pillaged again. The latest silver eagle was a small start at a bad time. Not enough money as well as the main thing I listed. Never was a real mfg. company best I can tell. Just had the name??? The new model was not much to look at either!!! My thought would have been to reproduce the proven model 15 first, but The hindsight is always 20/20!!!
P.S. We are as loyal a group as the Harley Davidson people. We would rather walk than ride a HONDA>>>>LOL Just kiddin!
Eagle went away because of Dial Soap the owners of Greyhound,Trailways, MCI and Eagle decided that and when Eagle came up with the NJT order after MCI was setup for the order it had to go and when they sold MCI to the Mexican Co MCI it came close to leaving us.
Who knows where Prevost will end up when Volvo get through with it manufactures come and go,there was nothing wrong with Eagle except management they could not see the future
They where years ahead of most manufactures in engineering with their frame design and independent front suspension they used since the 50's still the finest and best looking bus on the American highway IMO,
Fwiw I heard over a month ago he sold the jigs and and other manufacturing equipment to another guy who is going to make parts only for the Eagle so I don't think they are completely dead lol
good luck
While brand loyalty is great, if there arent enough loyalists you can produce enough to keep the doors open. Pacers and Gremlins were good cars, so was the Edsel, but when people dont want to buy enough of them, its time to move on. Once the cost of a conversion crosses over a certain cost, you really start marketing to a different class of people, and when it becomes peanuts difference to that class, between a Eagle and Prevo, and if everyone thinks a Prevo is the sliced bread, goodbye Eagle.
Re: the Concorde. It was retired Nov 23 2003. I got a new hat that year from AOPA, celebrating 100 years of flight, it says 1903-2003/100 years of flight. Different people around the country had spent the previous years trying to re-create replica Wright Flyers, in an attempt to re-create the Wright Bros. historic flight on Dec 17th. I always saw the Concorde as the pinnacle of the achievment of powered flight, and always hoped that one day I would get to see one.
Weve really lost something. Not just a stupid airplane, but our courage. Weve grown so afraid of everything its almost like were giving up. We had the Columbia accident, and all the sudden its too dangerous to go to space. To dangerous to go repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The concorde had an accident and all the sudden its too dangerous to go Mach 2. It feels like weve entered the decades of cant do, rather than can. We walked on the Moon over 40 years ago, and havnt left earth since. Now we have a space station circling the earth that cost us over $Trillion and now we dont even have a space vehicle to reach it, we gotta thumb a ride on a Russian ship. Boy, Kennedy and Reagan must really be rolling in their graves over that one.
Yeah tell me about it. I hate the idea that FORD discontinued the MERCURY GRAND MARQUIS/FORD CROWN VICTORIA last year. So I have no plans to give up my '04 GRAND MARQUIS as it runs great as it did when new and I'll never be able to buy a new one again. But like you said not enough other people share my tastes but I still love FORD.
For the record, I liked that new EAGLE 25. I could easily have envisioned it charter service along side of MCI, PREVOST and VAN HOOLS. VOLVO would be stupid to scrap PREVOST I mean, half the buses thundering along the interstate are PREVOST. I don't know how that new 9700 will pan out since it's too early to tell with that.
Yes we have become cowards in many respects. I love the company I work for the past 26 years as it's been good to me. But, we have so many ideas based on seminar style talking point rather than good old fashioned common sense. Plus these silly rotational training programs where there are always new people in certain positions 6 months to a year. Just place people without this stuff. Excuse me but what did they do in school? Sorry I had to vent.
While I hated to see what has happened to Silver Eagle, I had a hunch it wouldn't work out. How unfortunate for us Eagle folk. We'll continue to support each other the best way we can, heck you see lots of Corvairs out there. ;D
At least this is still available http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/2261672 (http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/2261672)
Paul
You can always do a GOOGLE image search as well. I know there were/are always magazines but it really makes one step back and wonder how in the world we got our "fixes" before the internet. :)