I hadn't realised that the latest BE SC's had a full handbrake interlock to prevent moving beofre the door has fully selaed.  I travelled recntly to Dundalk on an 04 SC and at each and every occasion when the driver had picked up/dropped off , he simply released the handbrake and planted his boot with the door having to close with the vehicle in motion.  Not once did the door fully seal and he's not the only driver doing so.  Most of the BE SP's are driven the same way in my experience.  Private guys, as i've said, are as bad but most private operators give thier drivers a mouthful when the doors eventually need adjusted.  Once a door goes out of adjustment it's a tricky, awkward, finicky operation to get them back to perfect order as a lot of the time the door has strained or twisted due to the ongoing abuse.

Regarding the radios, firstly the PA equipemnt goes far beyond the units your see in the dash.  Most private guys spec powered or amplified aerials, blaupunkt speakers etc.  All stuff the passenger doesn't see.  I know for a fact that most, if not all, BE vehicles have cheap, nasty, generic speakers and bog standard aerials.  I don't know what's in the LC's but chances are they have a better system in the background.  If buttons are broken that's normally a driver abuse thing.  Most of this summer i've been driving a 2005 PB (with just over 500k on the clock) with full Blaupunkt Pro PA gear, I have no issue with radio stations, I'm playing CD's most of every day and I've never had one stuck.  I do know that a BE driver once asked me in Monaghan Bus stattion how to tune his radio as he hadn't a clue.  Not being picky but the "LOC" button does not give you manual tuning - according to the manual here in my coach it is for "Local/Distance" selection which gives prefernce to local or national broadcasts in an auto tune mode.  Again there are coach audio specialists nationwide who can sort out any issue with PA gear, to be honest if there's such lingering problems they probably haven't been reported, why I wonder?  Probably because most of those issues are down to ignorance and abuse by drivers who down't know how to work the gear.  That's my reckoning anyway and I'm out driving using this gear day in day out.  The reason most operators specify that setup is because it's viewed as "bullet proof".

Regarding the heating in Irizar's, once again, I fear, driver  ignorance could be a large part of the probelm.  Most Irizars, and to my knowledge, all BE ones are fitted with Hispacold climate control.  This is a fully automatic system giving individual control for drivers area and passenger saloon.  The most efficient way to operate this sytem is in full auto mode.  For some strange reason alot of drivers (both private and BE) insist on trying to beat the system by operating it manually.  For instance, if the driver has set an appropriate temperature for the cab and saloon there is no reason, summer or winter, when he needs to turn the system off (or a portion of it - driver area/saloon).  When it's too hot the system brings on air through the vents and when it's too cold the system automatically brings on heat and turns off air.  I do agree that in some instances the temperature sensors may seem a little off - display too high/low temperature for settings or current situation but this is normally down to lack of checking/cleaning/replacing the sensors (very cheap and easy to do - a lot of private drivers can do this themselves while stopped).  I've had Irizars throughout Ireland and the UK, and even did a contract about 6/7 years ago from October-April taking skiers form the UK to the Frencah Alps and find that by setting the temperature at 21 for the front and 23 for the rear I rarely need to adjust by a degree up or down in each case.  The demister button is badly marked in that it is not the internatioanlly recognised symbol but is just 3 droplets.  It does take about 3-5 seconds to come on as the system has to go through a process of assessing & adjusting before it comes on.  I have colleagues who insist on trying to set it manually to circumvent this but in my experience if you let it work as it's supposed to it rarley lets you down.  I do agree that the vent covers in the racks are flimsy in a service situation but again if BE maintenance was on it's game they would replace them when needed - those vents cost pence and take seconds to change.  I really like the Hispacold system as it's fully self contained and automatic, whereas I spent a summer tour sseason driving a 2003 Volvo B12M Jonckheere Mistral which had 4 separate control units for saloon heat, front demisters, aircon and rack blowers.  It took me most of the summer to figure the system out fully and in my opinion it was overly complicated and almost impossible to get a good setting for passengers & crew.  

The front bulb problem is a definite one of Irizars, my mate in Scania tells me it is down mainly to drivers turning the engine off with the headlights turned on and then starting the engine again whihc causes a surge and blows the bulb.  To be honest I now try to turn the lights off before the engine and make sure they are off before starting up, I definitely see and improvement but I have no scientific figures.

I do know that BE drivers get vehicle familiarisation training but to be honest I don't think they spend much or any time on things like heat and radios.  I've come across way too many situations where drivers simply haven't a clue how to use these ancillary devices on vehciles they are driving.

I suppose what I'm getting at in all this is that I far prefer the SP to the LC for many reasons.  I make no secret of the fact the SP is not ideal at all for BE operations and I have questioned now and before how durable they will be.  That said I do not agree with condemning any vehicle class for faults like radios, heating etc when we don't understand the background to the problem.  Maybe as I'm a driver I here and see more about the technical side but everything I've said is common knowledge "on the road" as they say.