Falling psv sales bode ill for Mum
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BUS AND COACH registrations for December 1980 fell by over 100 compared with the figure for the same period in 1979. Though the overall figures for 1980 saw only eight fewer registrations than in 1979, the December figures do not bode well for future orders.
In all 5,792 psv were registered and the manufacturers' top ten list was similar to '79 though the leaders showed a significant reduction in registrations.
Top was Leyland Vehicles with 3,059 registrations against 3,408 for the previous year, second was Bedford with 905 (1,083 in the previous year).
Ford registrations dropped by 36 with 555, and were relegated to fifth place by Metro-CammellWeymann, which increased its registrations from 227 to 574.
The only other British manu facturer to record an increase was Hestair Dennis which recorded 67 last year against 43 in 1979.
Seddon Atkinson supplied 86 psv against the 143 registered in 1979.
British-built Volvos were down by only four on 1979 — a total of 60 was recorded for 1980. Of the importers, DAF doubled its psv registrations for 1980 with 48 last year against 24 the year before. MAN-VW showed an even more spectacular increase, with 25 in 1980 as against only one in 1979.
Volvo showed continuing progress in the British market with 393 Swedish-built B58 registered, against 216 in 1979. Altogether 491 imported psv were registered last year against the previous year's 240.
Despite the progress of the im porters, Leyland Vehicles remain the leaders in the total passenger market, but in the independent heavyweight coach sector importers are making dramatic progress.
With its new B43 due this year Leyland can still hope to pull some orders back, but the signs are that the public and municipal sector of the operating industry is set for a gloomy year.
With the Transport Act and increased leisure, the coach industry could more than hold its own, but the general economic climate does not seem promising for this usually resilient market sector.