Cave for second Cougar
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• The first Cougar chassis to be bodied by Loughborough builder Willowbrook goes into service this week with Cave's Bus and Coach Services of Solihull.
The 10.5m low-floor bus, which is fitted with Willowbrook's Warrior body, joins a fleet of eight on local service work. It is only the second Cougar to be sold since its launch by Huddersfield-based manufacturer Alternative Chassis Engineering at Expo Coach last October (CM 1-7 November 1990).
Willowbrook says it will not take any more Cougars until it has definite orders, which it hopes will be generated by three months of demonstrations with operators.
Waterlooville-based Wadham Stringer, the only other Cougar body supplier, says it is still assessing its Portsdown version which went into service with People's Provincial in Hampshire last November.
ACE hopes to sell up to 15 10.5m and 11.8m Cougars by the end of the year. It had orig inally aimed to sell some 50 units by the beginning of next year and attract two more bodybuilders, but blames the shortfall on the recession.
Wigan-based bodybuilder Northern Counties, which was considering the Cougar, went into administration last May. But the administrator, accountants Grant Thornton, confirms that Northern Counties will definitely launch its single-deck Countybus body during Coach & Bus '91 at the NEC this October.
In the next two weeks Grant Thornton will decide whether t,) sell the bodybuilder to one of the two interested parties immediately or keep operating it until the end of next March, when it thinks it would get a higher price.