Leyland holds on
Page 15
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COACH SALES are the only sign of better times in the passenger vehicle market this year, with Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders figures showing coach manufacturers buoying up an otherwise depressed market.
Figures for the first eight months of the year show the overall market down from 2,906 to 2,808 vehicles, of which Leyland — with greatest penetration across all sub-sectors — took 46.2 per cent (1982: 45.9 per cent). Its share last month, when sales fell from 26510 229 overall, was up from 38.5 to 45 per cent, compared with August 1982.
Volvo is in second place for the year to date, with market share up from 11,8 to 13.3 per cent. While Ailsa double-deck sales rose from 1.2 to 2.3 per cent, B1OM coach sales account for the greatest part of this leap.
Metro-Cammell Weymann, whose coaching ambitions must await CM Coach Fair's launch of the revamped Metroliner range next week, is holding on to third place, taking 9.8 per cent of the year's buisness (1982: 10.3 per cent).
Bedford's fourth position still looks perilous, with market share down from 9.8 to 7.6 per cent, with Daf enhancing its fifth position with a 6.9 per cent market share (1983: 4.6 per cent).
Ford, while also suffering from the lightweight coach's fall from favour, is trickling along fairly steadily. Its sixth place market share this year is down from 6.7 to 5.8 per cent. Hestair Dennis's share has fallen from 4.5 to 3.6 per cent, MAN's has slumped from 0.9 per cent (27 coaches) to 0.2 per cent (six coaches) as it waits to appoint coach dealers, but Scania's sales have climbed from 0.1 per cent (two) to 1.4 per cent (40 coaches).
The miscellaneous importers represented by Bova, Neoplan, Setra, Van Hool and Jonckheere integrals may have reached their peak penetration. Sates this year of 150 compare with 144 last year, or an increase from five to only 5.3 per cent of the bus and coach market.
Coach sales are likely to decline for much of the rest of the year, before they pick up again for the 1984 season, and it will be then that the impact of newer British models like the Leyland Royal Tiger Doyen, MCW Metroliner, and Dennis/Duple Cummins-powered integral can be assessed more seriously.
Bedford's chance for revival is further away as its 12m air suspension "heavy duty" coach will not be ready until the following season.