Premiere Designed over the course of three years under the codename 'Project X' and costing £3.5 million () to develop, the Plaxton Premiere was revealed in August 1991 as the successor to Plaxton's versatile Paramount body, later receiving separate official launches at the 1991 Bus and Coach Show on
Scania K93 chassis at the
National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham and on the
Volvo B12 export chassis at the 1991 European Bus and Touring Coach Fair in
Kortrijk. At launch, the Premiere was available for bodying on the
Volvo B10M,
Volvo B12B,
Scania K93 and
K113, and
Dennis Javelin coach chassis, with all but the then-new Volvo B12 previously offered for the Paramount; The Premiere was built with a welded steel frame compliant with
ECE-R66 rollover safety legislation, with galvanised Durasteel panels fitted on the top half of the body and lower panels manufactured through
resin transfer moulding; decorative side mouldings and inset window panes as seen on the Paramount were omitted for a smoother and more aerodynamic shape. A new rounded front end was a notable feature of the new Premiere, which could be bodied at heights of either or , had a seating capacity for 53
recliner seats, and was fitted with tinted double-glazed windows, an updated heating system with options for air conditioning, and improved plug doors. Plaxton claimed that the Premiere and Excalibur had the lowest
drag coefficient of any coach produced in the United Kingdom at the time. Early Premieres built between 1991 and 1993 featured air intakes below the front number plate and a rear window which curved aerodynamically into the roofline, Volvo launched an SE variant of its B10M chassis in 1995, featuring a longer wheelbase and shorter rear overhang, changes which were achieved via the installation of a side-mounted radiator and intercooler as well as the relocation of the fuel tank above the rear axle. Plaxton's Premiere 350 was the launch vehicle for this new chassis in the United Kingdom, achieving nearly of luggage space in the front luggage lockers while also seeing a reduction in rear overhang.
Expressliner II Plaxton Expressliner II bodied Volvo B10M at
Manchester Airport in April 2003 The Expressliner II was launched in August 1992 as a variant of the Premiere 350 built to
National Express specification on the Volvo B10M and Dennis Javelin chassis, serving as the second iteration of the Expressliner concept that was first applied to Paramount 350-bodied B10Ms. These coaches were sold or leased through National Expressliners Ltd, a joint venture between Plaxton and National Express that intended to form a uniform fleet of Plaxton-bodied National Express coaches across the United Kingdom. Features adapted for the Expressliner II included flipdot or rollblind destination equipment, a three-piece windscreen and heavy-duty pantograph wipers, while premium 'Rapide' models featured waste disposal bins, a servery area and a chemical toilet. Each coach was also equipped with reclining seats trimmed with the National Express moquette design.
Excalibur on the
Isle of Wight in June 2015 The Plaxton Excalibur was launched at the same time as the Premiere in 1991, being marketed as a premium version of the Premiere 350 in competition with both the newly launched
Mercedes-Benz O404 and the
Setra S 300. Although it shared most of the same components and chassis configurations as the Premiere, the design of the Excalibur differed by having a distinctive 'swept-back' fascia featuring a raked windscreen, and internally, the Excalibur featured a plug door as standard, as well as including reclining seats with optional drop-down armrests and luggage hooks, enclosed luggage racks and pull-down sunblinds as standard, and a
Blaupunkt speaker system. The Excalibur was also bodied on the long-wheelbase Volvo B10M SE variant, allowing for an underfloor luggage compartment, accessible by lockers on both sides of the coach, to be equipped as standard when compared to conventional B10Ms.
Prestige The Plaxton Prestige was a
left-hand drive export version of the Excalibur that was built on a tri-axle variant of the Volvo B12 chassis, uniquely utilising a 'lowcab' design that enabled the driver's cab to be lower than on standard B12s. The body and chassis combination was briefly marketed by Volvo towards French luxury coach operators, competing against established designs by
Jonckheere and
Van Hool. The name was later revived by Plaxton for the
Northern Counties Paladin LF low-floor bus when production was moved from
Northern Counties'
Wigan factory to Plaxton's
Scarborough factory.
Prima Plaxton Prima bodied
Volvo B7R in
Weston-Super-Mare in September 2015 The Plaxton Prima was launched in November 1997 at the Coach & Bus 97 expo on Volvo's new
B7R chassis, which intended to serve as a fuel-efficient replacement of the B10M. The Prima was marketed as a budget version of the Premiere for price-conscious operators: although it retained the same design and framework as the Premiere, standard features of the Prima included 57 seatbelted and reclining seats with fixed footrests, ribbed cord interior trim, solid rubber flooring and an overhead luggage rack design reused from the Paramount. As standard, the Prima-bodied B7R was equipped with Volvo's D7B260 engine with the option for either a ZF S6-85 six-speed synchromesh manual or ZF 4HP500 automatic gearbox; the Prima was later offered on both the DAF SB3000 and Dennis Javelin chassis, though the majority of operators took delivery of B7Rs. ==Operators==