The Plaxton Paragon and Plaxton Panther are closely related designs of
coach bodywork built by
Plaxton in
Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Scarborough () is a seaside town and civil parish in North Yorkshire District, the district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. With a population of 61,749, Scarborough is the largest town on the Yorkshire Coast and the No ...
, England, since 1999,
[Millar, Alan (2007) ''Bus & Coach Recognition'' : Ian Allan Ltd., ] and still in production as of 2024.
For part of their design life, Plaxton was part of
TransBus International, during which time the designs were officially referred to as the TransBus Paragon and TransBus Panther.
The Paragon and Panther replaced the
Premiere and Excalibur respectively, with the Paragon being the standard and the Panther the premium specification coach. Externally, the main distinguishing feature between the two models is the front end, which is more upright on the Paragon, although the difference is not as pronounced as that between the Premiere and Excalibur.
One important new feature of the designs was the use of a stainless steel structure, to resist corrosion and prolong vehicle life expectancy.
The Generation 2 Panther was launched at Euro Bus Expo at Birmingham in November 2010. It shares some of the external design with the
Plaxton Elite and will comply with the new European WVTA requirements as well as the older domestic Certificate of initial fitness (COIF) standards. New 12.8m version will be available on
Volvo B9R with 53 seats. The Generation 2 15m Panther will be built on the
Volvo B13RT for Megabus with 65 seats and the latest PLS lift. Production of the Paragon ceased afterwards.
The Panther Cub is a short
wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...
version launched in 2012.
The Generation 3 Panther launched in September 2013 and is a more substantial facelift with a similar rear to the Elite and new headlights similar to the Elite Interdeck.
Body numbering
From the 1989 build season up until the 2010 build season, Plaxton's body numbering system used a letter to identify the body style. The following letters are used for the Paragon and Panther:
*L Panther
*T Paragon
Since the 2011 build season, in which the body numbering format was changed to match that of parent company
Alexander Dennis
Alexander Dennis is a British bus manufacturing company based in Larbert, Scotland. The largest bus and coach manufacturer in the United Kingdom, with a 50% market share in 2019, it has manufacturing plants and partnerships in Canada, China, ...
, the Panther is now assigned the identifier letter P.
Gallery
File:Eddie Brown A3EBT (8693813088).jpg, Eddie Brown Plaxton Panther bodied Volvo B12B in April 2013
File:First 23208 WM04NZU (4326422036).jpg, National Express
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
Plaxton Panther bodied Volvo B12B rear in January 2010
File:Lakeside of Ellesmere BX11VOF (8716897225).jpg, Lakeside of Ellesmere Plaxton Panther 2 bodied Volvo B12B in May 2013
File:SLEAFORDIAN COACHES Sleaford - Flickr - secret coach park.jpg, Sleafordian Coachees Plaxton Panther 3 bodied Volvo B8R
The Volvo B8R is a 7.7-litre engined coach and intercity bus chassis manufactured by Volvo since 2013 for Euro VI markets. It was designed as a replacement for the B7R and the B9R.
In 2017, Euro III and V versions were launched worldwide with ...
in April 2018
References
External links
{{Alexander Dennis
Paragon
Vehicles introduced in 1999
Coaches (bus)
Single-deck buses