I guess maybe it's just because of the fact that the Mistral's and other models are not really head turners. Perfectly decent coaches and decent interior, but the SHV for me is the first coach where Jonckheere have created something nice looking, striking and imposing that people will sit up and take notice of., I don't think you can attribute that to earlier models, the Mistral 50 outside, to me at least, was plain ugly, It does seem however that a lot of people who have never ordered Jonck's have been impressed by the SHV as well as those big Mistral fans not buying them, so guess it works both ways, the likes of City Circle in the UK bought a load, having previously been a Setra only company, Aircoach here switched from Setra's whilst you have quite a lot of other privates here such as Gobus and a few smaller privates who never really bought Jonck's who have bought/leased the SHV.

To be honest having been on a few Berkhof's and Bova's from the VDL range, they're all pretty poor, to me the Jonck is miles ahead in terms of design, although admittedly that is reflected in the bigger price! I would be surprised if they did axe as the Jonck's, as my experience on vehicles with VDL chassis or integrals has not been that good, but then again I've only been on ones with the cheaper bodies,, so I guess we will have to wait and see what else they come up with.

What I have seen of the new Futura, from the outside looks nothing like the old Futura, looks like a cross between most of their coach brands, to a degree and the two piece bodywork at the front bottom bit and the black part above the two panels reminds me a lot of the SHV, The lights look strange though and I'd have to see an actual real coach of this to see what it is actually like as the artists impressions just look a bit strange. The lights are strange too, but distinctive!

Edited 2 times by Dublin Commuter 07 10/10/2010 21:23:50.