Talk:Volvo C10M

The Volvo C10M project was started by Rolf Soderhielm ( at that time Volvo Bus President) and later followed up by Stig Arne Olson, his successor, after they had made several drawings the model was so designed tht the gravity point was perfectly balanced in the middle and at a very low point. Tp prefent rust they made the complete structure in stainless steel, which was very unique for that time. Volvo Bus Coorperation asked at van Hool factories to make the body part at this C10M structure which was already shaped with a very good safety package like three roll-over Bars and a drivers cockpit which had a 3 mm steel plate behind the polyester front. Van Hool refused to built it, it was therefore already the biggest mistake what was made by the Volvo Bus Management. Van Hool was aware of the fact that Volvo Bus was designing a complete Coach which they wanted to introduce as top of the Bill special against the SETRA S 215 HD and the Mercedes Benz O 303 RHD which were the strongest competitors in Germmany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden and Norway. So the management choose for a bodybuilder which could garantee; Exclusivity and Quality,they found that at a nice Body Builder in Switzerland called Ramseyer and Jenzer.

In Oktober 1984 we were asked as sales team from the Netherlands( The importer at that time was still NEBIM Bedrijfwagens in the Hague)to come to Goteborg and the introduction was done there at an air-strip of an old air-field and we were allowed to witness the C10M for the first time. Volvo announced it as one of the safest buses at that time. At the introduction they even produced the Sign of Rolls Royce at the screen, as if they were saying that the C10M was the Rolls under the Coaches. Nevertheless the Coach was avilable for us to make a testdrive and than i was completely convinced about the the Drive ability of the Volvo C10M. It had such a good predictable roadbehaviour and was so well balanced, that you had to do your very best to get one wheel in front or back up. We saw that our competitor's like Mercedes and Setra did give a much less stability behaviour as our C10M. So than it all started we went back and ordered our first Demo Vehicle which we could show on the RAI Exhibition in Amsterdam in Januari 1985. All our competitors like van Hool and Bova were laughing, what do they think, they will never be able to sell it, it is to heavy, it is too expensive, Dutch Coach operator's don't want to pay for safety features. But they did finally in the Netherlands we have sold more than 20 units during 2 years and we were convinced to be able to do a lot more and than in 1986 the people from van Hool put out the flag because their former sales director Harrybus (talk) 17:10, 28 July 2018 (UTC)Mr. Lars-Erik Nilsson from Svenska Bill in Sweden became President of Volvo Bus and this blody Idiot took the decission to stop the C10M project immediately. That the Management of Volvo Truck and Bus allowed him to do so, was one of the biggest Mistakes ever made. It caused the Bank rupcy of Ramseyer and Jenzer in Switzerland who just had opened a brand new factory. More about this topic you can read in my book which i will write in the near future called; Bus Firing Powder in Dutch language Buskruid(t). Harry de Muinck former Coach Manager of Volvo Bedrijfswagens in the Haque and later in Waddinxveen from 1981 till 1995.