Side-by-Side Gasoline School Bus Comparison
Last month, ROUSH CleanTech’s Ryan Zic and a Blue Bird dealer performed a side-by-side evaluation of two gasoline buses: a Blue Bird Vision and an IC Bus CE. We’ve heard accounts of IC Bus swooping in and winning with the low-cost bid. We performed the test because we want to provide you with real life data to help you sell more gasoline buses against the competition.
Both buses were driven on the same route with the same driver. The buses were judged based on multiple benchmarks, including vehicle specs, acceleration, grade performance and sound performance. Although not an official third-party study, Zic and the dealer used their combined bus knowledge along with basic economic tools to determine the results.
In our informal test, we found that the Blue Bird / ROUSH CleanTech gasoline school bus:
- Tested better in performance in all categories compared to the competition.
- Tested better in fuel efficiency compared to the competition.
- Offered the lowest total cost of ownership when comparing both gasoline school bus models.
The total lifetime savings for a Blue Bird Vision Gasoline bus is $24,000 LESS than an IC gasoline bus. You’ll find more details on these results in our one-pager entitled, “Gasoline Bus Comparison Test,” which is for dealer use only and is not intended as a marketing piece for end users.
We encourage you to tell your customers to do their own research and due diligence on the gasoline products. And stay tuned for more materials that will help you sell against a low-bid option. We also want to extend a big thank you to Tim at United Truck for helping make this comparison possible!
