Auckland & New Plymouth Mercedes Benz 0305 7 Auckland Mercedes 0303 buses (Peanuts)
Between 1973 and 1980 Auckland Regional Authority acquired 300 Mercedes Benz 0305 buses with New Zealand Motor Bodies B46D bodies built under licence to VOV - Verband Offentlicher Verkehrsbetriebe. Translated to Englsh VOV means German Union of Public Transport Companies. The VOV bus was a standard design developed in Germany 1967.
Auckland was the 1st batch of Mercedes 0305's to built for Auckland and then middle of 1300 Series was New Plymouth buses the 1st of New Plymouth in 26th Septermber 1974 ready for new Plymouth to replace of AEC Buses.
New Plymouth City Council had frequently added a small order onto large orders placed by other municipal operators. In 1976 it obtained 4 buses to the ARA specification.
Down of the bottom of the page is Auckland ARA 2 of the 0305 buses, including the doubly unlucky ARA fleet 1313 and 1375 were destroyed by a fire at New Zealand Motor Bodies Takanini? plant while being repaired so only 298 were delivered under the contract.
ARA Auckland Mercedes 0305's buses replaced by 158 Daimler Freelines, 50 Leyland Royal Tigers, 106 Bedfords ( 73 SB3, 2 SB8 30 VAMs 1 VAL ) 1 Leyland Leopard, 2 Leyland Comets, 1 Mack CBLIRS, 2 NST/Macks and a Kea. The last four models were built or extensively rebuilt at North Shore Transports workshops.