Interesting bus spotted!

[tomhamrick]

On my way to work this morning I followed a Hotel Mexicano Bus Lines coach on US 221 North and he then took I-40 West toward Asheville,NC. Although unusual to see this line in the NC mountains, what was interesting was the bus brand. The label on the bus said MARCOPOLO. Is this a bus brand? Never heard of it.

Tom Hamrick

[tekebird]

marcopolo is a body design company, Brazilian I beleive.  They are on a variety of bus chassis

[belfert]

Marcopolo is a Brazilian brand.  If what you saw was a regular highway bus it was probably a Dina Viaggio 1000.  The Dina Viaggio 1000 was sold in the USA by MCI from 1995 through 2000.

Dina provided the chassis for this bus and Marcopolo provided the body.  There is a Marcopolo logo on the Viaggio 1000 along with the Dina logo.

I think Marcopolo may have sold shuttle buses in the USA too, but not real sure on that.

[jackhartjr]

Tom, there are a handfull of Mexico to USA companies using them.  They usually have 4 to 8 buses that make a circle trip from in Mexico to Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Miami and back to Mexico.
The principals don't speak English, nor do apparently most of the drivers.  (Don't ask me how I know!)
Jack
There is a company down in Mexico that totally refurbishes them too!

[Jeremy]

[RJ]

Hey, Sean -

Jeremy just posted a pic of your next project, once your Neoplan dies, that is!

[tomhamrick]

It looked just like any highway coach and I looked for some other name but did not see one.
Thanks for the interesting information.
Tom Hamrick

[tekebird]

did it look like these

http://www.bargainbusnews.com/dinabuses.php

[Sean]

Hey, Sean -

Jeremy just posted a pic of your next project, once your Neoplan dies, that is!

Sorry, this will be the last one for us.  When we give up on the bus, we're moving onto a boat.  That's a nice looking coach, though.

We did a 35-day cruise around the horn of South America a year ago, and we must have been on two dozen bus tours.  Nearly every bus we rode was a MarcoPolo.  They are the single largest coach brand in Latin America, and possibly in all of the Americas.  Outside of Mexico, where they are generally made by Dina, they are commonly found on chassis underframes from many recognizable names such as Volvo, Saab(Scania), Mercedes, MAN, Peugot, and others.

The introduction of the MarcoPolo name to the US came during the short-lived Mexican ownership (by Grupo Dina SA de CV) of MCI, when many Dina's were imported here.  Dina licensed the Viaggio body from MarcoPolo.

-Sean

[tomhamrick]

Tekebird: Yes it was very similar to the Dina, but the Dina name was not on the bus. Only name I saw was Marcopolo.
Tom Hamrick