Mercedes-Benz O 500

The Mercedes-Benz O 500 is a series of body-ready bus platforms with a rear engine and fully pneumatic suspension, built in Brazil by Mercedes-Benz since 2001. It definitively replaced the O 400 series in 2008. The article stresses that since 1996 Mercedes-Benz Brasil no longer builds monocoque buses, only platforms for outside coachbuilders. It is the American variant of the European OC 500, which replaced the O 400 and its O 405 and O 404 variants in Europe, and is derived from the platform of the Citaro O 530. It serves urban work, where it sits above the OH range, as well as medium and long distance, and its competitors include the Agrale MT17.0, Volkswagen 18.280 EOT, Scania K series and Volvo B series.