I can understand some of the comments regarding the inconsistencies of the MAX and Sapphire but then again I fail to understand why some are making such a big deal about some things, how many regular passengers on say the 7 actually care what colour the LED screen is - I can't imagine anyone from Aycliffe going on a bus day out to Redcar using the 7 to Darlington then the X3/X4 Middlesbrough - Redcar, I imagine most people won't care that the X3/X4 StreetLite's have white LED screens while the 7 Pulsar's have orange screens I doubt that would cause people to suddenly think that the 7 doesn't get these fancy pants white screens. The Omnicity's is another one, I admit the colour scheme on them isn't brilliant but as I use the X66 a lot I ride them quite a lot and it isn't the prettiest but I don't think it is offensively hideous like some people on here are making them out to be and again I don't think most of the passengers care what colour the floor and panels are so long as they have a nice comfortable ride and there bus is on-time and when the X75/X76 becomes MAX do we really think most will make a big fuss about how the Pulsar looks different to the Omnicitys on the X26/X27, X66. I am sort of happy that the floor on the Omnicity's weren't done as lets face it they are 10 years old now and some of them having taken quite a battering especially the ones used on the X93 and I'd say they have 5 years left at most before they are withdrawn so to spend all that money making the floor a different colour would be such a waste of money in my opinion as most people don't care what colour the floor is and I don't know why some people on here are making such a big deal out of it, also no-one seems to be making the same deal about Go North East replacing the seats in their older vehicle's such as the MPDs and Lolynes - admittedly that is slightly different as they are mainly used on less demanding and spares work whereas Arriva are doing this on a service with enhanced features but again few people care what their bus looks like inside.

The thing with non MAX and Sapphire buses gaining some of the features from MAX and Sapphire buses is a weird one but in most cases it only gets one or in some cases two of the features like Darlington gaining next stop announcements I believe that this is happening because the council are wanting announcements on Arriva's buses in Darlington, not sure why charging points were fitted to the Enviro's on the 64 and was incredibly surprised to see that they had been fitted with them. Also it seems that many buses are starting to gain WiFi now and not just on Arriva as it seems to be a feature that many people seem to want (I know I do). I do sort of think when I'm sat on the 5/5A when are we getting WiFi on our buses and feel a bit left out with the 7 getting all the nice features and to a point the 21 too where all we've got from the Sapphire experience so far is next stop announcements and it's not the feature most would have wanted so I do feel a bit left out at times although at the moment I'm happy if a Solo doesn't pop up.