What did you pay for your bus?

[Necro]

Please list condition, repairs needed, repairs that had been done before you bought if known. This will help people judge what they should pay for there bus in the future.

1997 International 3800 Blue Bird. 175HP 7.3 Allision AT545 tranny, 4.33 Rear. 53 passenger, front and rear AC. 167k miles. Front AC had leak, was able to fix without replacing any parts. Rear AC had bad compressor. Broken washer res. Holes Where the mirrors bolt to the hood.

In the past year before I bought it had new:
HPOP
Tires
Batterys
couple lights
ALL new filters
Oil Change

PAID: $959 not including travel or fuel.

[FamilyCircus]

My bus landed in my lap, I wasn't looking for a bus.

2000 Amtran 3900 FE 30' handi bus high roof.

DT466E HT 215hp/620tq. MD3060 transmission.

Paid $1750

[StatTarget]

2001 Thomas RE 3126 Allison...
No Rust. From VA/NC .
$3900

[ewo1]

1999 Amtrans, 72 pass.
DT466E, MD3060 Trans, 207,000 miles, air ride, air brakes and oh yeah, lots of underbelly storage to boot!

Paid $1,567.00

Rear gears are 5.83 I believe...
Cruises 70 MPH at 2200 RPM. Can't wait to get 6th gear unlocked!

Some rust here and there but no problem, I'll just sandblast, patch and paint!

Bought the bus in Shelbyville, Kentucky and drove to Miami without any problems!
Picked it up with a full tank of fuel, the first leg of the trip from Shelbyville to West Columbia, South Carolina (521 miles) the bus averaged 8.8 MPG, up and down all those mountain ranges...
Did the same on the flat roads from SC to Miami at an average of 70MPH all the way, 8.9 MPG!

[Danjo]

2007 5 window Thomas Minotour with lift on a Chevy Express cutaway

Overall good condition

Zero rust

Tires 60%

Needs turbo replaced

$5K

[Johnny Mullet]

1996 International 3800 T444E and AT545 with 4.78 gear ratio. It's 28 foot long 7 window with 173,000 miles on it. Has some rust, but not rotted out. Needed no repairs and was Pennsylvania state inspected. Paid $2500.....

[Mr4btTahoe]

'93 E350 based shuttle. Was ROUGH when we got it... but I drove it home after bleeding the brakes. Had new tires and a few parts replaced... was mostly gutted.


7.3 IDI... jasper reman E4OD. 250k on the chassis.



Free.


Probably have 2-3k in it now.








We're shopping for a big bus now... looking at spending around 2-3k in my area for a good condition driver.

[EastCoastCB]

Lifted, minty 1999 5 window Thomas. LOW miles, high headroom, air ride, highway gearing, no rust. A real dream of a bus.
Paid $1625 on Public Surplus. Wishing I'd bought more of them.


Good tires, Reman transmission- it does 80 on the highway and cruises at 65 at 1700 rpm. Haven't put enough hours on it to tell mpg's but it gets well in excess of 10mpg. Its smooth and quiet. The quietest bus I've ridden in.

[musigenesis]

DT466e (in-frame rebuild with 30K on it), 2000-series transmission (albeit terrible gear ratio 6.17), bought randomly on eBay for $3600 plus another $300 to have it delivered, making it the mystical price of $3900. Bought it before learning what to look for, totally lucked into the engine and transmission from pre-2004. Totally un-lucked into severe rust which the seller hid ("some rust" lol) but it's proving to be manageable.

[farok]

2003 Chevy/Collins 6-window shorty with the 6.0L gas engine, 98K miles, mechanically in great condition, engine pulls strong, shifts strong, all electronics work fine, etc., and tires at about 60-70% (though I plan to replace the brake lines just because of age). Minor rust from a few recent leaks (fixed), but nothing not easily fixed without welding - no real rot. I may have paid a little high at $3500, but it was also only a 25 minute drive from where I live, so no real transportation costs.

Oh wait, I forgot it needed a sway bar bushing, so add $10 to the cost!

Chris

[PatrickBaptist]

2004 IC RE 7.3 MD 3060
Very little rust, ran great had over 3/4 tank of fuel.
89k miles fired up super easy in the cold. Not a problem making the 450+ mile trip home, not a penny spent on getting it back home.
Tires are ah so so, starting to crack a little and will need a set before I take on a long road trip, atleast the front tires anyways.
I measure 39' from bumper to bumper.
Full air everything.
Only thing it HAS to have done is trans output shaft seal, not a big deal at all. Cleanest 7.3 I've ever seen, oil pan looks brand new.
$3.5k
Got to test drive it without anyone going with me to get on my nerves, kept it out on a test drive for an hour before buying. Also had about 70 buses to chose from, bought from a salvage yard that buys out whole fleets of buses.

[ol trunt]

I wanted a mid '30's Superior school bus body on a Chevy chassis to restore for a particular Chevy car show. I found the body on ebay but on a '35 Ford chassis. So I bought a '35 Chevy 1 1/2 ton cab and chassis to put the Superior body on and then a Chevy W3500 turbo diesel (Isuzu re-badge) for the running gear to keep it all Chevy. One thing lead to another and the Skoolie conversion bug bit me. It took me 3 years to build it out.

'35 Ford cost about $3500.
'35 Chevy C&C cost about $2000.
'05 Chevy W3500 cost about $4000.

Jack

.

[SolomonEagle]

1989 Thomas/international 28' dognose. Dt360-5 speed Spicer, air ride rear suspension, 7 window tall bus. Alcoa wheels.407k and on at least it's second engine.$5,000 (ouch!) Bus is in pretty good condition considering the age and millage. I forgot to ask overall mileage as I was rushing out the door to get on the road but assumed it couldn't be too high, my mistake! I was also told that the engine was a DT466, but figured out halfway home that it was indeed a dt360 as I didn't know what I was looking at at the time. I have a California inspection certificate that shows the bus still in service at over 401k! Very minimal rust, the only damaged spot I can find is behind the license plate on the back. Payed too much, but like many newbies, I had several get sold out from under me and had this one locked down. I should of asked more questions before I drove 700 miles to pick it up. Needles to say, there were a few surprises. All things considered in the end I decided to buy it anyway but don't claim to have had any fantastic deal. I do however love my bus and plan to keep it forever! I've had to replace the air compressor and various small parts. Air bags and front tires are next..probly followed by a new clutch and flywheel ect. Learn from my mistakes!! Lol!

[cofrari]

We just bought ours this month: a 2008 IC CE300. Bus appears to be in excellent condition with new tires, had the EGR Cooler and PCM replaced a year ago. We received all the service records. Minimal surface rust on frame behind back tires. No inside rust or body rust. 118,000 miles.



We ended up paying a total of $4300 which included them doing an oil change before delivery, the delivery charge, and all taxes.


(if interested, they have 3 more in Connecticut)

[Seriousracer]

2003 ce300 7 window dt466 with 8000 miles on an inframe, full radiator and after cooler, remained Allison 2000 fresh brakes ,5:38 rear axle with air ride. good rubber ,some rust but not rusty , ever heater option.
3000 off Criag’s list got to drive it and give it a good going over. Also have all the maintenance history. It was worth spending a little extra on to me.

[bigskypc50]

1995 Amtran Genesis DT466/MT643 4.44 gears 40FT 15 window 123,000 miles lots of factory storage down both sides. School system did new radiator new brakes all the way around, new airbags. Paid $2500.00 run though the shop with all new fluids.

Under my ownership, I have had to replace the front axle seals (under $500), and a full PM service was like $400-500 (New fuel filters, Oil Change, Coolant flush, trans fluid and filter, chassis lube etc). It's going to need a new belt and some coolant hose's pretty soon spent maybe $150 on parts.

That's it, as the past owners said "it's a good bus"

[BriteLeaf]

1990 model International Carpenter 3800. 5.9L dog nose with a 4speed Transmission. I bought mine from a mechanic that worked on the local school busses.

I paid $2000.00 for it, and it cost me in the neighborhood of $500.00 to get the tags current because he had dated the title when he bought it at auction. After that it costs me about $230.00 per year to keep it registered here in Texas.

It has run like a dream for the little bit of miles that I have driven it. (Maybe 200 miles total. I’ve had one minor repair since I bought it.)

I have 1140 watts of solar on my roof. I have about $3000.00 tied up in my solar and incidentals. All together I have about $5000.00 tied up in my bus.

[Buck Honcho]

1989 Crown supercoach. 186,000 miles. Paid 11,500. Cost included 7 Alcoa aluminum wheels, and 7 newer tires.

I rebuilt the air compressor myself for 250.00
New air filter was 65.00
New air brake air filter and pressure relief valve 215.00
Bus has a 2 stroke 6 cylinder diesel with turbo 270 hp
4 speed allison mt 647 tranny
Rear air bags

[Mtrdrms]

2001 bluebird all american
75k miles
ISC Cummins
MD3060
Gross inside
I think I paid $3000

[PagosaDosa]

$3,250.00 for a 2003 e450 bluebird cutaway w/7.3 PowerStroke Turbodiesel - 5 window shortie with 190k from Wyoming (zero rust) and already painted white / a few other upgrades.

dumped ~$2k into routine maintenance to make her perfect (tie rod end, added dual steering stabilizer, new fuel pump, new batteries + cables, etc...)