Plaxton Prestige

The Plaxton Prestige is a low-floor single-decker bus body built by Plaxton at the Wigan, England factory of its Northern Counties subsidiary, and at its main Scarborough, North Yorkshire factory, during the latter half of the 1990s.

Plaxton Prestige Northern Counties Paladin LF
Arriva North West and Wales Prestige bodied DAF SB220 in Liverpool in 2007
Overview
Manufacturer	Northern Counties Plaxton
Assembly	Wigan, England (Northern Counties) Scarborough, Yorkshire (Plaxton)
Body and chassis
Doors	1 or 2 doors
Floor type	Low floor
Chassis	DAF SB220 Volvo B10BLE
Powertrain
Engine	DAF ATi 8.6L GS160M Volvo DH10A-245 9.6L
Capacity	35 to 42 seated
Power output	218bhp (DAF) 245bhp (Volvo)
Transmission	ZF 4HP500 (automatic) ZF 5HP500 (automatic)
Dimensions
Length	11.9m
Width	2.55m
Height	3.0m
Curb weight	9,615 kg
Chronology
Predecessor	Northern Counties Paladin

The Prestige was mostly built on DAF SB220 chassis, although small numbers were built on Volvo B10BLE chassis. Several of the DAF vehicles were LPG-powered; gas tanks were located on the roof. Arriva was a major purchaser of the Prestige, with a number for Transport for London and for provincial areas, all on DAF chassis. It was only a short term affair, however, being in favour of its sister, the Pointer.

In Plaxton's body numbering system, the letter H identified the Prestige, although not all Prestiges received a Plaxton body number (early examples being numbered in the Northern Counties series).

At one stage, the Prestige was provisionally given the name Paladin LF. Northern Counties' contemporary step-entrance single-decker bus body was the Paladin, and LF would have stood for low floor. However, the name Prestige (which had earlier been briefly used for an export variant of the Plaxton Excalibur) was given to the model instead.