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AN plans midi attack
Page 18
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• MAN-VW is considering bringing in a new 134kW (180hp) midibus/coach chassis with a body produced by a leading Continental coachbuilder.
VAG's commercial vehicle director Robin Woolcock says that MAN-VW "has no plans to get back into the full-size bus and coach market, but we could do it with a midi-based product."
The company is particularly interested in the 10/11-tonne GVW rear-engined 10.180HOCL midi chassis which features air suspension all round and is sold on the Continent by MAN as the SR182. It is said to be more sophisticated than many comparable vehicles on the UK market. With a 4.2m wheelbase within an 8.75m overall length, it can take 9.25m bodywork with a seating capacity of up to 33.
The 10.180HOCUs in-line, six-cylinder, turbocharged engine is based on the D0826 block fitted in the MAN G90 middleweight truck range. A five-speed gearbox comes as standard on the MAN midi chassis which, says Woolcock, "is a product which we can bring in and support through our truck network".
Late last year, MAN-VW talked to Plaxtons about bodying the 10.180HOCL, but they failed to reach an agreement.
The Portuguese bodybuilder Salvador Caetano is an obvious contender for an MAN/VW deal, but it says that nothing it builds features a right-handdrive 10.180HOCL.
A large number of 10.180HOCUSR182 chassis are operating on the Continent: a German Goppel-bodied example was exhibited at last month's Geneva Transpublic 89 show (CM 26 January 1 February).