[GB] Volvo Merit

好大個 "Sorry!!"...



Warrington Borough Transport 51, Volvo SB120/Wright Merit, Warrington (17 Jul 2006)

原帖由 petcity 於 2006-6-25 11:01 發表
is SB120 manufactured by Volvo?

SB120 manufactured by DAF ,are this SB120  (DK55HMO)manufactured by Volvo?

is it built by VDL instead of Volvo ?

No it's distributed by UK Volvo, it's still a DAF, only with Wright body will call Volvo Merit, the one without will still be call DAF SB 120, this is because Volvo doesn't have it's B6LE anymore, and DAF SB 120 is not that popular, therefore, they joint this agreement.

原帖由 art0925 於 2006-6-25 15:57 發表
No it's distributed by UK Volvo, it's still a DAF, only with Wright body will call Volvo Merit, the one without will still be call DAF SB 120, this is because Volvo doesn't have it's B6LE anymore,  ...

It's not quite the story. Yes, the SB120 was jointly offered by Volvo and VDL Bus (formerly DAF),
but all SB120 chassis were manufactured by VDL. This has to go back to late 2001, when Volvo
decided not to engineer their midibus offer, B6BLE, to Euro3 standard. To help plugging the gap
of the midibus market, they signed an agreement with DAF to offer the SB120 from Volvo UK, but
badge them as a Volvo, instead of DAF/VDL. The Volvo SB120/Wright Merit is exactly the same as
the DAF/VDL SB120/Wright Cadet, except they are sold by different dealer.

The SB120, in Volvo or VDL disguise, are actually selling reasonably well these days, esp. it is
offered at the 9-11m length, which the market has been desperately saturated. It's not as well
sold as the Dart, which is still selling in reasonable number because of 1. Stagecoach, 2. London,
but it's certainly not lagging too far behind recently.