Mercedes-Benz OF-917 Midi Bus on Philippine roads? Why not?

Buses are one of the major vehicles that make up public transport, and public utility vehicles make up a huge part of the Philippine traffic. However, we can't deny the fact that not all buses offer the same comfort – worse, some doesn't even offer one at all.

Well, you could take a look at this and forget what I've just said on the previous statement. By the way, you're looking at Mercedez-Benz's OF-917 Midi Bus. If all buses are like this, even those who drive to the office on a daily basis would consider commuting at least once a week.

Of course, it's the generation gap that some of the regular buses you see on the road are as crappy as one can imagine. The OF-917 Midi Bus offers 32 reclining seat configurations and a class-leading 4,783-liter rear compartment luggage. Other standard features include a high-capacity roof-mounted air conditioning, electric swing-type door, and an emergency escape roof hatch. 

Apart from the standard features, Auto Nation Group (ANG) said that they are willing to talk to customers about their preferred configuration and other amenities to meet their needs. ANG is the exclusive distributor of Mercedes-Benz in the country, which was formerly CATS Motors.

The newcomer OF-917 Midi Bus had its chassis manufactured in India. The assembly takes place in Malaysia with the Alpha M8 body, which makes the German marque's bus an Asian-bred machine fit to handle the needs of the Asian market. By 'fit', meaning it could literally drive without any problems on local roads due to its dimensions. It falls in between that of a small bus, which is typically 6,000 mm in length, and a large bus, which measures 12,000 mm.

The Midi Bus, with length of approximately 9,000 mm, is powered by a Euro 5 vertical in-line 4-cylinder turbocharged engine that could spur out 170 hp and 520 Nm of torque. The bus has a tank capacity of 200 liters, enough to cover a distance of 1,000 km - that’s a round trip from Manila to Bicol then to Zambales in one full tank.

Priced at P4.9 million, the OF-917 Midi Bus is ready to stir the competition in the bus segment.