POLO, Ill. - Purchases of new motorcoaches by U.S. and Canadian operators dropped again last year, the fifth year in a row of declining sales, reports National Bus Trader magazine.
In its Annual Coach Trends Survey, the magazine found that 2003 new-coach sales fell to their lowest level in a decade -- 1,771 over-the-road buses. The total was 631 fewer than were sold in 2002, or a drop of 26 percent.
Still, the total for 2003 was higher than the early years of the 1990s when the industry was recovering from a deep slump and even earlier times when a 1,500-unit year was considered vibrant.
At the same time, last year's total appears puny when compared to the bubble of the late 1990s when a confluence of factors, including easy credit, an over-abundance of lenders, aggressive selling, cheap insurance, a healthy economy, strong consumer confidence, new models, flush government entities, an energetic travel market and an accelerating transition to 45-foot coaches produced sales of more than 3,500 units in both 1998 and 1999. (See chart.)
Those salad days are but a fond and receding memory as the slide that began six years ago grinds to a slow halt.
MCI's workhorse D4500 was the No. 1 selling coach in 2003, a title that model has held for nearly 10 consecutive years. Sales of the D-coach, long a favorite of tour and charter operators, have been buoyed during the past five years by transit operators buying them for upgraded commuter service. The cruiser is serving long-distance riders in New Jersey, New York, California, Utah and elsewhere.
Other findings in the National Bus Trader survey include:
* Setra's S417 made the best-sellers list for 2003, its first year in the market.
* Van Hool and Prevost models improved their sales positions from 2002.
* The ZF-AS Tronic transmission registered on the survey for the first time.
* All of the best-selling coaches last year were 45-foot models; no 40-foot units made the list.
* Sales of imported coaches increased both in number and percent of market (326 units, or 18.4 percent of the total).
* Much of the sales decline last year, compared to 2002, was because of fewer purchases by Greyhound and government units.
* Four of the seven best-selling models were from MCI, including the J4500 which climbed to No. 2.
* Prevost continued to be the most popular conversion shell.