Sales of new motorcoaches continue to lag behind year-ago levels but the fall off is not nearly as severe as it was at the end of last year and early this year.

Private and public bus operators purchased a total of 373 new over-the-road buses during the third quarter of this year, down from 439 new coaches bought during the third quarter of 2008, or a 15 percent decline.

New-coach sales during the previous three quarters dropped by margins ranging from 18 to 29 percent.

The months of July, August and September typically have the lowest combined sales of any quarter. This year, however, one more coach was sold during the third quarter than in the first quarter, perhaps another indication of the easing of the sales slide that began early last year.

Like many in the industry, National Bus Trader magazine, which serves as the industry clearing house for new-coach sales figures, had expected to report poor numbers for the third quarter given the current economic conditions and the traditional weakness of the July-September period.

But National Bus Trader Editor Larry Plachno was pleasantly surprised by the sales figures, noting that while the numbers were still down from a year ago, the sales skid appears to have slowed.

"I might also mention our numbers are still higher than the 296 coaches recorded in the third quarter of 2004, which was where things bottomed out on the downward slide from 1998," said Plachno.

"Numbers in this third quarter were also considerably higher than the disaster year of 1991."

To a large degree, the third quarter mirrored this years second quarter. (See Sept. 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.) Among the similarities:

Conversion shells are still down considerably from previous years and "can be said to represent much of the reduced numbers from last year."

Public-sector sales were only slightly less than a year ago.

Sales of particular models, notably the Prevost X3-45, the Van Hool TD925 double-decker, and the MCI J4500 and D4505, "continued strong" in the quarter.

Canadian sales were healthy as Coach Canada and Greyhound Canada added new coaches to their fleets.

The three best selling models during this years third quarter represented 55.5 percent of the market, which was up marginally from 54.4 in the second quarter and 55 percent in the first quarter.

The best selling coach in the third quarter was the MCI J4500, followed by the D4500, and a tie between the Prevost X3-45 and the MCI D4505.

The other top selling coaches (in order) during the third quarter were the Prevost H3-45; Van Hool TD925; Van Hool C2045, and Setra S 417.

Sales of new coaches into Canada totaled 75 buses, or 20 percent of the total, during this years third quarter. That compares to third-quarter 2008 Canadian new coach sales of 76 buses, or 17.3 percent of the total, and third-quarter 2007 Canadian sales of 25 units, or 5.5 percent of the market.

A total of 77 imported coaches Setra, Temsa and Van Hool were sold in this years third quarter, or just over 20 percent of the total. That compares to 112 imported coaches, or 25.5 percent of the market, a year ago, and to 103 imported coaches, or 22.5 percent of the market, in the third quarter of 2007.

The conversion shell market remained very depressed. Sixteen conversion shells were sold during the third quarter this year, down from 32 shells sold during the year-ago third period, and 64 shells sold during the third quarter of 2007.

Conversion shells represented 4.3 percent of the market in this years third quarter. Previous years saw the market share of conversion shells as high as 15 percent.

Auto-stick transmissions were installed in 75 of the coaches sold in the third quarter, representing 20 percent of the market. That is up from a year ago and may reflect the addition of the Volvo I-Shift in the auto-stick category, along with the ZF AS-tronic transmission.