Bodywork for the Bedford WTB chassis was particularly distinctive, sloping steeply from the bottom of the front wheel arch to the roofline, leaving the "bullnose" radiator grille protruding.

Many records from the early years were lost when an incendiary bomb set fire to the Seamer Road factory in 1943, causing much damage.

The Envoy was for traditional front-engined chassis, and featured a full-front cab with a vee-pattern windscreen, and aluminium trim across the lower part of the radiator grill extending around squared-off front corners to the wheel arches.

The Venturer combined the front of the Crusader with more restrained and conservative styling,[image 3] and proved so popular that it was not long before a version was produced for front-engined chassis (mostly lightweight Bedfords and Commers) with a rather more raked frontal appearance.

The Venturer II had a common front profile for all models, together with a standard dash panel featuring a four-part radiator grille with a central cross within an oval outline which also embraced the headlamps.

[image 4] A rear-end revision marked the launch of the Venturer III in 1954, and the following year a version was produced for underfloor-engined chassis with the entrance ahead of the front axle.

[image 7] This three-variant approach, established with the Venturer, continued throughout the life of the succeeding Consort model and into the Embassy era, although the relative importance of the three versions varied significantly over the years.

It was a development of the Venturer, but in place of the previous oval the four-part grill was now enclosed by a near-trapezoidal outline (though actually hexagonal), wider at the top than the bottom, with the headlamps outside.

Trim was revised to be much squarer in outline, featuring ribbed brightwork, and the curved rear quarter lights, first standardised on the Venturer III, were now incorporated into the main window line.

[image 10] The production version of the Panorama, with 41 seats as standard, was introduced at the 1958 Commercial Motor Show, as an addition to the existing range, available in one form only – on underfloor-engined chassis with the entrance ahead of the front axle.

In common with the new Consort III and IV, it had a new silver-effect dished oval grill with a chrome flash through the middle, and a curved windscreen with a central division.

[image 14] However, because the standard offering in the underfloor-engined sector was now the Panorama, most Embassy bodies were built on lightweight front-engined chassis – particularly the Thames 570E and Bedford SB.

[image 16] 36-foot (11 m) versions of both models were introduced, on Leyland Leopard and AEC Reliance chassis, as soon as legislation allowed, and were 8 feet 2.5 inches (2.502 m) wide.

However, while the extra length gave a real boost to the Panorama's appearance – with the falling roofline making the vehicle look even longer than it actually was[image 17] – the extension of the Embassy by two additional window bays was less satisfactory.

[image 18] So much so that when a "multi-windowed" Embassy II, in the livery of Bloomfields Coaches of London, appeared on the newly introduced Bedford VAL 36-foot chassis at the 1962 Commercial Motor Show, the reaction was so negative than no more of this type were built.

[image 22] For the 1964 season the latter was substantially redesigned as the Embassy III, catching up in several respects with the development of the Panorama, but introducing a new near-rectangular grill which signalled the beginning of the end for the familiar Plaxton oval.

[image 23] The Plaxton coach range which appeared at the 1964 Commercial Motor Show had been extensively revised with assistance from the Ogle design consultancy.

Twin headlights were on each side of a panel that contained ventilation louvres at the top with the lower part being the actual grill that spanned the width of the vehicle.

For the first time the Panorama was offered on all chassis types, including Ford R226 and Bedford VAL, looking particularly well-suited to the latter, where the chrome trim on the first window bay harmonised with the twin steering axles below.

There was even a Panorama for the Bedford SB and Ford Thames 570E, although here the thickened window pillar was absent, and the chrome trim did not extend across the front of the vehicle.

With the height of these units being nearly 13 ft (4.0 m) the roof of the cab opens up into a very unusual looking perspex dome extension, somewhat altering the usual sleek lines of Plaxton's Panorama.

Many of the AM bodies were exported to the Netherlands and Denmark, a fact supported by the 1977 Supreme brochure and the 1982 centenary book Plaxtons The Great British Coachbuilders.

On Supreme the first versions used the same technique but the racks were swaddled in crash protection on each side of the passenger service unit that was fitted front to back.

The GT option ushered in a distinctive grill design with a smart dual chrome flash, tinted windows and better sound system and soft trim to the ceiling to name a few "standard" extras.

The bulk of the 20 were exported, mainly to the Netherlands, the left hand drive version had a tapered front to meet Dutch swept turning-circle requirements.

In the early 1980s coach services over 30 miles were deregulated by the Transport Act 1980 and there was an increasing attempt by some operators to compete with the railways and airlines for express and intercity travel.

Sales of the Iveco-Lorraine had never been high (totalling only around 660 between 1981 and 1992) and Plaxton's efforts to expand the business by offering Lorraine coaches in the UK market were frustrated by the early 1990s recession.

One batch of ten Iveco 315 Lorraine midicoaches was sold in the UK in 1990–92, and only twelve Plaxton 425 integrals were built at the French plant in 1991–92.

The Primo frame is assembled in Hungary by Enterprise Bus, effectively a conventional chassis in most respects but one which extends up to cantrail level, before being shipped to Scarborough for completion.

[18] Alexander Dennis announced in March 2024 that as a result of the shift of the company's priorities to manufacturing battery electric buses, production of Plaxton coaches would be suspended until 2026.