A "Smart" Looking Bus, Indeed...

With the retirement of their last set of 1995 Nova RTS's, Southeastern Michigan's SMART has been primarily an all-Gillig Advantage fleet.

That is, with the exception of small buses. For more intricate links to surrounding communities, SMART operates what it deems "Community Transit" vehicles, which are usually built off of light-duty cutaway van chassis.

For the most part, these have been built upon Ford F-450 cutaways, but having sold a vast number of Ford buses just recently, SMART's come up with some new machinery - Chevys, to be exact.

The C5500 above is one of SMART's newest vehicles. Equipped with the 6.6L Duramax turbo diesel V8, and an Allison automatic transmission, the chassis also sports an ElDorado National "Aero Elite 320" body measuring 32' in length, and sporting a front wheelchair lift.

While the E-450 currently represents the majority of SMART's light-duty roster, expect more C5500's in the near future, should units like 25258 perform respectably.