Yes I very much agree that past experience should count but my own experience of government tender based procurement finds that the cheapest option to tick the boxes is the winner bar none.  Yes they may build restrictions into the tender to eliminate certain makes or models but if these suppliers can address these issues in some way they can easily get their foot back in the door.  In terms of back up alot of the time all the tender can do is require a certain spread of dealers, guaranteed response for breakdowns and something like a mandatory parts stock which must be held for BE vehicles.

VC105 Setra are by far the dearest coach in the market place and considered as being at the pinnacle of European coach building along with Neoplan.  Coincidently both bodies are German.  VanHool would follow close behind in terms of pricing and Jonckheere would fit in just below that.  I was just speaking to a private operator just now and he said, taking Volvo B12B as a case in point, the dearest option for a 12m coach from Volvo is the 9700, then Plaxton Elite, then VanHool Alizee, then Jonckheere SHV, then Sunsundegui, then Plaxton Paragon.  If you just read some of the trade press like Bus & Coach Buyer, RouteOne etc you will see this borne out time and again.  This comparison is on list prices only and may change slightly with negotiated NETT prices but will remain largely as is.

It makes sense that for a small order BE should buy for the tours fleet and cascade present vehicles.  If it (which it probably will) goes to a tender process I'd say it could come down to LC's or some Scania option (the minus button on the calculator would have to be in overdrive to get the price of PB's down to match the LC but could happen!!)  I wouldn't rule Volvo out purely on the gearbox as I believe, form trade press, a resticted I-Shift may now be available with only D, N and R gear selection and no manual option.