Eagles International Forum

We're in the process of getting our Eagle insured, and our agent needs to know for some inexplicable reason the original value of the bus. Anyone know what one of these sold for in 1980? Ours was made in Brownsville, TX in March of 1980. Model 10, serial 30195. No one has posted here (that I can find) the TX production information, but someone in another forum showed me our bus on their copy of a production list and it was sold to Longueil Transportation, Inc. in MA.
THANKS

I have moved this to the General Chat forum.

You mentioned that you did not see product information for your serial number. We have two different databases (Bowman data and Richards data) in our Eagle History forum. The Bowman data tends to be the most frequently used. In my opinion I think that Joe Richards' data is more accurate.

As far as the original price, I looked through my documents and did not find anything. I suspect they did not publish prices - rather that was a negotiated value

Jim

OK, did a bit more research. Many sites suggest that a highway bus costs between $300-500K in today's dollars. If you use one of the inflation calculators on the internet (I used: http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/), that would equate to $100K-$150K in 1980 dollars.

Not sure why they need that data, but I hope they are not trying to use the data for some sort of tax base.

Jim

Hello

Your bus was the 20th Model 10 built for other than a Trailways, Inc. carrier. It was sold new to Longueuil in Quebec, Canada. I believe that is now Keolis Canada and trading under the name of Orleans Express.

To put it context, Trailways only bought 14 new buses in 1980. 11 of them were the last Model 05's built but they had Model 10 front and rear caps so they looked like 10's on the outside but were 05's underneath. They were followed by three real Model 10's, the first ones built. Trailways wanted wanted to make as Many Model 10's as possible for independent carriers during the first year of production so they gave preference to independent operators during that one year.

It's worth a try to ask Orleans Express directly via their website...

https://www.orleansexpress.com/en/contact-us/

Under Object, choose number 10, Other.

Explain to them that Longueuil bought the bus new in 1980 and see if that gets you anything. It was not the only Eagle they bought over time but they never had many of them.

If they give you an answer, it will be in Canadian Dollars, so you will have to figure out what that was in American dollars at the time of the purchase. That should not be too hard using various online converters to adjust for the exchange rates and inflation since then.

Also, Michaud Trailways of Massachusetts bought several new Model 10's in 1980. If they are still around, they may be able to help you.


Good Luck!

Thank you for moving post to the appropriate place...

Also, thank you for the bus information! I'm not sure why they needed the information, the agent's office was baffled as well. They ended up using a 1985 40' Monaco as the closest comparison, and gave us the insurance value of $15,000 for now. Once we do some repairs and upgrades we'll re-evaluate that value. Our bus is running, and in sound condition, but not very pretty and we have no idea of the real condition of the conversion right now, so we're good with that.

Putting together what y'all have supplied with what I was able to find out on my own, ours is definitely one of the model 5s with cosmetic upgrades. It's the non-turbo diesel, manual transmission. We'll know more on Tuesday when we take possession, hopefully

A 8v71 with a 4 speed probably with no power steering either

The 8V-71 engine along with four and five speed manual transmissions were available on Model 10 Eagles from the start. The 71 engine was only retained for the first year or two before being dropped but the manual transmissions stayed on. A number of early 10's were leased directly by the factory. When the leases were up, the buses were returned to Trailways and added to their fleet. Trailways drivers hated the five speed versions because they used the shifting pattern normally used on big trucks with first gear being at the lower left, where second gear was on the Spicer four speed and reverse was on the upper left, where first was on the Spicer units.

The dashboard will be the best way to tell if it's an 05 or a 10. 05's had a bunch of switches for things like lights and airco on a small separate panel to the driver's left. 10's had all of the controls on the dash, including the parking brake and entry door.

And given that your bus was built for a Canadian customer, there may have been a few differences from the American standard version such as more insulation for the body and an engine block heater. The gauges would have been metric (speedometer in kilometers per hour as an example) rather than our versions but that's easy to fix if it hasn't been done so already.