Renault in the Vanguard
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• Wadham Stringer is the first UK bodybuilder to take the PP160.09 bus chassis from Renault, to fill the gap left by the demise of the Leyland Swift and Leyland Cub.
The Waterlooville-based builder has won orders for 20 of the PP160.09 chassis with its sixyear-old steel Vanguard H body. Until now the bus chassis, which is based on Renault Midliner truck components, has only been used in bus applications in France, Africa and South America; it is particularly popular in Venezuela.
Since it was introduced 11 years ago production has topped the 3,000 mark.
In the UK the London Borough of Lambeth will be the first operator to take the bus, which costs about £57,000 around £22,000 for the chassis and £35,000 for the body. Lambeth will take four 31-seaters for its education department; other orders are coming from Greenwich and Islington.
"We are not aiming it at stage carriage operations," says Wadham Stringer managing director Geoffrey Bailey.
"We are targeting local authorities which already use truck-based chassis which are not as expensive as purposemade chassis," he says.
in the next 12 months he hopes to sell up to 150 of the units which are powered by Re nault's 5.49-litre turbocharged diesel producing 117kW (159hp) at 2,600rprn driving through a ZF manual or Allison automatic gearbox.
The 7.3m chassis has air-hydraulic brakes and pneumatic two-bag rear suspension, with a self levelling device.
Wadham Stringer hopes that the single-decker will boost its bus production from 110 units last year to 250 this year. Over the past few years Wadham built on around 150 Swifts and 50 Cubs, which is the market it is aiming at with the bus.