Great post Jim, i just want to comment on a few thing that you've said.

The SP's as you say are designed for long distance touring work, with high class people using them. In Bus Eireann's case they are using them on routes such as Rosslare, Clonmel, Cork, Limerick, Ballina, Sligo, Galway, Donegal & Letterkenny to Dublin, and are never off the road, as well as other routes such as Tralee-Limerick and Killarney-Limerick (which i think is a joke as these runs are only 2 hours long, and they have 04 reg SC's on route 40 from Tralee to Cork, they should both be 04 SC's on these routes, Tralee don't need SP's, unless if they even put them on the 40 Tralee to Cork, even then thats only about 2 hours 15/20 mins journey aswell). My friend works for the Private company Whartons are she does tours over to the UK and at this time of year goes around Ireland with tourists, she was in Lisdoonvarna last week. Her bus is always spotless. Also Chambers from the north also have SP's are they are in good condition too. The Bus Eireann SP's are in bits because they are never off the road long enough to be cleaned and checked etc (except for the safety aspect of things obviously). But if you look at, for example, the air-conditioning units on those SP's overhead, (the Bus Eireann one') are in an awful state. They are all broken and either won't close to stop the cold air hitting you right in the face, or it won't open properly to let the air come to you. Also the heating/demister systems on some of them are banjaxed aswell, you could put on the demisters for the windscreen an the cool air for the passengers comes on, or you turn off the heating around the front and it comes on full blast down the saloon of the bus, silly little things like that. Also things like headlights are terrible on the Scania's, they're blowing bulbs left right and centre, more so on the new SC's but the SP's do aswell. Thats something you don't see on an LC. Yes the LC do have their drawbacks, i forget to mention the mirror's on them, you are right when you say that because they are in a bad location, the wipers stop half way up the windscreen while the mirror is way over on the sides, thats daft. As far as i know they have not given as much trouble at all lately, not as much as they did when they were new. Although LC19 broke down recently 2 days in a row while operating route 33 to/from Derry, then LC20 broke down about 3 weeks ago, also on the Derry route. Having said that its been a while since i heard of an LC breaking down. Those LD's (the deckers) i have hardly ever heard of breaking down, but as you say the Turbo's are an issue with these, 3 LD's have already blown turbo's, all last year, so that was when they were only 2 years old. or even 18 months old in some cases.

As you mention the "grubby hand syndrome" around the blue/grey cloth covers surrounding the AC/Reading lights area's are all down to maintenance pure and simple, and it looks dreadful. Also the seats on many SP's, when they are out in the reclining position, as in pushing the seat back as far as it goes like a bed (which i have to admit i do all the time as its alot more comfortable), on alot of the SP's they won't come back up. SP12 is one that springs to mind.  I know the radio issue more to do with the company than the bus itself, and thats amazing the amount of money you say that the company can save by putting in cheap or hi-tec radio's. But there is something wrong with those Blaukpunk radio's on the Bus Eireann SP's, when you press the 1-6 button for the stored channels, the screen says "AF OFF", or if you try to press the LOC button which allows you to go into Manual setting and move the arrows up and down til you find a station that you want, when you press that you will get AM frequency, or it will keep flying past a station even though you could be sitting outside the radio's broadcasting premises! Also countless numbers of them have cd's still stuck inside them because when you press the Eject CD button it will nor work, something like AUX appears on the screen, or BASS and other things like that show up, so the cd will not come out now matter how long you try pressing (or beatingsmiley: laugh) the button to get back the cd, it just won't happen. And i'm not joking when i say that it affects some of the SP's, but ALL of them! At some stage or another. However the LD's have the exact same radio and have no problems with them whatsoever. The LC's funnily enough have a different radio and they are all fantastic, great radio's and reception. It makes all the difference when you are going on a long distance trip.

And regarding the door issue, the new SC's have a sensor on them which means you cannot drive away unless the door is fully closed, they just won't move, same as the LC's, but the LC's wait about 2-3 seconds even after the door is closed, also there is a sensor on the LC's and LD's which means the luggage door has to be fully closed before the bus pulls away, it just won't let the bus move an inch until the entrance door and the luggage door are fully closed. The SC's do not have a sensor for the luggage door and will pull away while the luggage door is closing, (once the handbrake is released the entrance door and luggage doors will close), but the entrance door must be fully closed before the SC pulls away, now having said that i know 3 or 4 SC's which have their sensor disconnected, so they will drive with the door open, but i mean they will pull away with the door open, once the handbrake is released the door will close anyway. I know some of the lads used to do it on the DWR's, because they wouldn't move until the door would close either, and you also had to be stopped or almost stopped before the door would open on the DWR's, what you did was put an elastic band between the 2 switches above the door in the cabinet and that would hold of the sensor, but i heard that it was bad for the bus in the long run as it was blowing fuses every so often or something like that.  But anyway the sensor that still exists for the new SC's still give problems for the door's. The SP's don;t have anything like that, and once the handbrake is released the entrance door and luggage door will close but the bus is able to move off, which i have to admit bugs me too as it wrecks the door and strains it.