Imagine if you got a call from the repair shop and they told you the motor in your vehicle was junk and they needed to swap it out. You’d cringe, take a deep breath, and ask how much that operation would cost. Think about how you would react if the shop told you $52,000. That’s actually the case in Durham, North Carolina, where 18 of the city’s buses are going to have their Detroit Diesels swapped out for Cummins motors at the cost of $52,000 each.
The buses, currently equipped with Detroit Diesels, were bought in 2003. We think those would be the Series 60 engines, which we actually have experience working with in large buses. We had no major issues with them, but the city of Durham is claiming that they suffered massive reliability problems and were having near constant parts breakage, keeping buses off the road, according to the story we found on TheHeraldSun.com.
The cost of the swaps is going to be covered by both a city fund and federal grant money. This story caught our eye mainly for the cost of the swap. That ain’t cheap!
