(20 Aug 2015, 3:47 pm)Jimmi wrote I'd say the Volvo B9s are better performers than the Omnicitys were on the X93 and the Tesma's were pretty similar in terms of performance, maybe even better. The ex Redcar/Whitby have been heavily battered from their days there and now sound rather tired at Darlington, I recently rode 4649 when it made a rare appearance on service 8 from Spennymoor - Newton Aycliffe and it wasn't the best on hills and sounded awful.
I have noticed some Scania's moving about when stationary.
Think 4653 was the one at Jesmond before being MAX'ed.
They're decent motors. Arriva's are actually decent because they're Euro 3 (I think even the 07 reg ones are). However, GNE's Euro 4 examples feel very sluggish and both operators are very rattly. The cooling fans on them can be troublesome beats too.
When GNE ran a mixed fleet of Mercs and Omnicitys on the Cobalt Clipper, the Merc felt alot quicker off the mark and a bit more oompph. Nout can beat a B9TL though. Very smooth motors, wonder what they would have been like with with a ZF Ecomat gearbox instead though if they were still in production rather than the ecolife.