Berliet Cruisair

The Berliet Cruisair was an intercity and touring coach built by the French maker Berliet and shown at the Paris motor show in 1968, after a prototype had been presented the year before. It replaced the ageing PH range and came in two lengths, the Cruisair 2 at 9.30 metres and the Cruisair 3 at 11 metres, while a 12 metre Cruisair 4 was never built because it would have been too long and too heavy, and its successor became the Berliet PR 14. The engine sat at the rear, as on other European coaches, and was either the Berliet V-800 of 6.92 litres developing 175 horsepower or a two stroke General Motors V6 developing 200 horsepower, on a beam chassis with Airlam suspension and a Telma electromagnetic retarder. It seated 32 to 49 passengers, and its luggage hold of 3.6 to 6.5 cubic metres was a first of its generosity for a French coach. Corrosion of aluminium panels, light plastic parts, an awkward driving position and brake faults hurt its sales, and it was one of the last Berliet coaches to carry the Berliet badge before the 1978 merger of Berliet and Saviem into Renault Vehicules Industriels.