MAN SD 200

The MAN SD 200 is a double-decker bus designed for the city bus services of West Berlin and introduced in 1973 as the successor of the Büssing DE for the Berlin transport authority BVG. Berlin coachbuilders including Gaubschat, Waggon Union and Orenstein and Koppel built the bodies on MAN chassis with MAN diesel engines and Voith automatic transmissions placed under a platform at the rear. Two prototypes were shown at the IAA in September 1973, series production began in August 1974 and the first series entered service in February 1975. The BVG took 956 buses of the series and eight more went to the Lübeck-Travemünde transport company, while an order from Baghdad that began at 400 double-deckers and grew to 600 was built on a modified chassis. Production ended in 1985, the last SD 200 left regular Berlin service in 2003, and many were later converted into open-top sightseeing buses.