After five consecutive quarterly increases, a slump in buying by public transit agencies during April, May and June resulted in the first decline in new motorcoaches deliveries since the final three months of 2010.

Sales to private operators, however, remained ahead of last year.

National Bus Trader magazine reported that total second-quarter 2012 deliveries of new coaches were down 5.7 percent from the second quarter of last year.

A total of 384 coaches were sold during the second three months of this year, versus 407 delivered during the same period a year ago.

"The single biggest reason for the decline in sales is because of the lack of commuter coach deliveries," said National Bus Trader Editor Larry Plachno.

"Commuter coach deliveries were substantially lower" in the second quarter of this year, compared to a year ago . . . "more than account(ing) for the 23 fewer coaches" sold during the most recent quarter.

This years second quarter produced a handful of interesting sales factors.

All of the imported coach models tracked by National Bus Trader had higher sales in the second quarter of 2012 than during the same quarter last year.

The Temsa TS-35 was the fourth-best-selling coach in North America during the most recent quarter, delivering 27 coaches. That means for the first half of 2012, 55 Temsas were sold, putting the Turkish-built coach and its distributor, CH Bus Sales, on track to sell more than 100 for the year, a genuine milestone.

All but four domestic models either equaled or exceeded sales in the second quarter of 2011. Two of the four models that had reduced sales were commuter coach models hit by the slowdown in public transit orders.

"Hence, our private-sector sales are doing fine and, except for (the) four models, we have an across-the-board increase from last year," said Plachno.

Developments at three North American motorcoach suppliers either impacted sales during this years second quarter or will impact sales in future quarters.

Bailing out

ABC Companies, which distributes Van Hool coaches, informed Plachno it would no longer be supplying sales figures for its TD925 double-decker model.

"We will report on Cs (C2045 models) and Ts (T2145 models) but will not be reporting on TDs for competitive and confidential reasons," ABC said.

Most TD925s are purchased by megabus.com, which has adopted the double-decker with success on its intercity routes, but is locked in a tough competitive battle with Greyhound, BoltBus, Peter Pan, Chinatown and other discount operators, and a handful of Trailways companies.

Plachno has decided against adjusting delivery figures for previous quarters to assure more accurate comparisons "since it appears that most of the Van Hool double-decks either replaced conventional single-deck coaches or were expansion of new routes," he said.

This years second quarter is the first that doesnt include TD925 deliveries.

Starting next quarter, sales of Setra coaches likely will be reported by Motor Coach Industries, which is taking over distribution of the German-made coaches from Daimler Buses North America (see May 15 Bus & Motorcoach News).

In addition to Setra, Van Hool and Temsa, National Bus Trader also tracks sales of new models produced and sold by MCI and Prevost Car, plus the Mexican-built Volvo 9700 sold by Prevost.

There is one new model being tracked by National Bus Trader, the Prevost X3-45 VIP conversion shell, which replaces the Prevost LeMirage XL II motor home conversion shell.

The magazine has published annual motorcoach industry sales figures since 1985 and issued quarterly sales reports since 2001.

Old favorites favored

Sales of MCI J4500s, Prevost H3-45s and Van Hool C2045s represented a combined market share of 50.5 percent of all seated coaches sold during this years second quarter.

In recent quarters, the three best-selling seated coaches had a market share below 50 percent. In fact, during this years first quarter, the three top-selling seated models had a market share of less than 36 percent. In the fourth quarter of last year, the market share was 39 percent.

The 50.5 percent figures means buyers concentrated their purchases on fewer models than at any time during the past year or so.

There were 143 Van Hool, Setra and Temsa coaches sold in the second quarter of 2012, up from 128 coaches in the second quarter of 2011.

The market share of imported coaches in this years second quarter was 37.2 percent, compared with 31.4 percent a year ago.

"While the 37.2 percent market share for imported coaches is very high, it should be noted that since commuter coach sales are domestic coaches, the decline in public-sector sales in this second quarter would automatically increase the percentage of import sales to some extent," Plachno noted.

Canada is steady

Purchases by Canadian operators, traditionally around a 10 percent market share, have fluctuated in recent quarters. The Canadian market share came in at 41 coaches, or 10.7 percent of the total, in this years second quarter.

The most popular seated coach models during this years second quarter, following the MCI J4500, Prevost H3-45, Van Hool C2045 and the Temsa TS-35, were the MCI D4000, reflecting a large sale to Los Angeles DOT, the Van Hool T2145 and the Setra S 417.

All five of the reporting manufacturers had a model on Plachnos Hit Parade" of most-popular seated models.

Conversion shell sales in this years second quarter totaled 16 coaches, or a market share of 4.2 percent. That was up from 14 coaches in the second quarter of 2011, but down from 20 in the first quarter of this year.

Auto stick-shift transmissions were installed in 27 coaches in this years second quarter, representing 7 percent of the total. This is down from 59 coaches, or 20.2 percent of the total, in the second quarter of 2011.

For more information, contact Plachno by email at lplachno@busmag.com.