MAN SL 202

The MAN SL 202 is a service bus of the second generation of the German standard bus specification, introduced by MAN in 1984 as the successor of the MAN SL 200. Mercedes-Benz offered a parallel second-generation standard bus, and the coachbuilder Auwärter Neoplan joined the field with its own. Like the SL 200 it had a double-width entrance and a wide front destination sign across most of the body, though it could also be fitted with the narrow sign of the Ü80 intercity bus. It sold far less well than its predecessor because the low-floor MAN NL 202 appeared in 1989 and is regarded as its successor, and production ended around 1993. In 1993 one SL 202 in Nuremberg was fitted with natural gas drive and tested in service, the first gas-powered service bus in Germany, and the experience led to the NL 202 CNG; that bus is now in the museum of the historic tram depot in Nuremberg.