(08 Mar 2018, 9:32 pm)mb134 wrote When they first appeared on the scene, and bear in mind I was only about 10 at the time so my memory is a bit hazy, I seem to recall there was a big push into the fact that these were Mercedes, both for driver recruitment and service advertisement. I don't remember any similar publicity when they were cascaded.
Mercedes to the general public screams premium quality and reliability.
For example, at the time, Arriva Northumbria were still operating a strong fleet of Scania single decks. We know that they were ridiculously good vehicles, yet if you offered the 'average' customer a ride home in a Merc or a Scania, there'd only ever be one winner.
I remember when the Mercs and the Scanias were both used on the 309/310 I used to wait for a Merc if possible not only because they were nicer buses but mostly because the heating actually worked in the Mercs, and having recently used the toonlink service 10 years on I see the heating still doesn't work in the Omnicities!