We buy British, when we can
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We were very interested to read (CM May 28) that Leyland has offered to supply the Scottish Bus Group with Leopard coaches fitted with four-speed ZF manual gearboxes.
In March 1974 we were able to buy a Leyland Leopard chassis fitted with this gearbox from British Leyland, and from the paperwork that came with the vehicle it would appear that it had originally been designed for the Scottish Bus Group. We had a Plaxton Elite body fitted, with 59 service type seats, and the vehicle was placed in service on August 1, 1974. The mileage operated to date is 90,000 trouble-free miles and it has proved a worthy successor to the Leyland PSU3/3R, the last Leopard fitted with the Leyland four-speed manual gearbox.
We operate a largely Leyland fleet, with some small Bedford coaches and two new Volvo B58, 68-seater buses that were purchased in order to obtain chassis with manual gearboxes. Although the Volvo has certain advantages over the Leyland, the five-speed Volvo gearbox is much more difficult to operate than the four-speed ZF gearbox in the Leopard. The Leopard is fitted with an SGV exhaust brake and at 85,000 miles the original brake linings were found to be less than 50 per
cent worn. Repeated approaches have been made to the British Leyland representative about the possibility of buying more Leopards with the ZF gearbox but he could not offer any information once he got off his standard patter about the orthodox Leopard coach chassis with the semi-automatic gearbox.
We feel that at a time when more and more small operators are favouring the Leyland Leopard chassis against the light-weight vehicles they have operated in the past, the majority of them would rather have a manual gearbox and normal clutch that could be maintained in their own workshops than the semiautomatic gearbox that involves repairs by specialists.
Any publicity that you could give in an attempt to move British Leyland to give operators the chassis they want rather than the chassis that British Leyland wish to sell would tend to boost the sales of the British-built product and stop the Continental coach chassis dominating the market as they have done in the heavy truck field.
M. T. GIBSON, Managing Director, Weardale Motor Services Frosterley, Co Durham.