Bad quality buses

CrabbyMilton · April 10, 2013, 09:21:58 AM

Here is an example of why even bother if you're not going to do it right anyway. Greed may or may not factor in. A company can make more money when they are building a good product instead of peeing off customers. But maybe it's just me.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/21920623/cta-accepts-minimum-14m-settlement-for-bad-buses

luvrbus · April 10, 2013, 09:28:24 AM

Another one of the foreign bus builders same outfit along with Prevost that owned BlueBird

Oonrahnjay · April 10, 2013, 12:35:31 PM

Quote from: luvrbus on April 10, 2013, 09:28:24 AMAnother one of the foreign bus builders same outfit along with Prevost that owned BlueBird

But they called themselves "American Bus Industries" -- you can always trust a label like that, right?

Iceni John · April 10, 2013, 12:56:15 PM

Quote from: Oonrahnjay on April 10, 2013, 12:35:31 PM
But they called themselves "American Bus Industries" -- you can always trust a label like that, right?

No, they're NORTH American Bus Industries (NABI), which means they could be in Mexico if they wanted! Isn't NABI actually in Canada? I think NABI is the successor to the ill-fated collaboration between Crown in Los Angeles and Ikarus from Hungary, whose bendy-buses were not a complete success here. Apparently they were the only Crowns that did not have Crown's usual 20-year warranty that their school buses had.

John

CrabbyMilton · April 10, 2013, 01:03:24 PM

I think NABI was once known as ORION. CROWN was partnered with IKARUS and those artics were horrible and went away by about the late 1980's.

buswarrior · April 10, 2013, 07:07:52 PM

No, NABI is not from Canada. Down in America someplace, but I don't know if they are manufacturing any more?

Ikarus partnered with Crown in the US and with Orion in Canada back then.

Same bus, just a name plate stuck on.

Remember the Iron Curtain? Hungarian steel from behind there went into those buses. Lots of frame rot.

And turbo lag??? wow! Ours had a 6L71T lying on its side, you mashed the throttle, waited, had a sandwich, and then you heard the tea kettle start to whistle, and off she shot. And a big cloud of inky black smoke out the side exhaust on every start from a stop. The ZF transmission was a devil if you lifted throttle suddenly just after moving off, the 1st gear lurching would throw the customers to the floor.

Ancient history, the young ones' eyes just glaze over when you tell the story.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

luvrbus · April 10, 2013, 08:44:08 PM

They are still building buses they dropped the Orion they manufacture the Optina you see those in Phoenix it is owned by Daimler now so the tell me and has been for several years