Mercedes-Benz O 345

The Mercedes-Benz O 345 was a mid-floor city and regional bus that Mercedes-Benz began building in 1996 at its plant in Hosdere, Turkey, mainly for the markets of Eastern Europe. It was sold as a standard-length bus and as an articulated version, the O 345 G. From 1998 the 12 metre bus was also marketed in France as a low-cost school bus with inter-urban seating and a single door at the front, known as the O 345 Ecolier. The bus received a facelift in 2000 with a new front end and black-painted window bands. At the Busworld show in Kortrijk in October 2001 Mercedes-Benz announced that the O 345 would be renamed Conecto, which took effect from the 2002 model year, with the city buses becoming the Conecto C and the articulated Conecto G. Production of the first generation ended in 2007, when the Conecto LF and the Intouro took over its work.