Most were purchased by United Kingdom operators, although examples were sold in Europe, North America, Australia and Hong Kong.

As the low-floor single-decker buses became more popular in late 1990s, orders for standard-floor Dart dropped heavily and production ceased in 1998.

[4][10] In 1993, Southampton Citybus adapted six Dart 9SDL Carlyle bodied buses to use compressed natural gas, the cylinders being mounted in a pod on the roof.

[11] At the time of the delivery of the Darts, Southampton Citybus were the largest operator of gas-powered vehicles in the United Kingdom.

[13] First Cityline in Bristol trialled a pair of Plaxton Pointer bodied Dart MPDs in 1996, which were powered by six CNG canisters mounted on their roofs.

It was also offered with a wide variety of bodies, namely the East Lancs Spryte, UVG Urbanstar (later renamed as the Caetano Compass; replaced by the Nimbus in 1999), the Wright Crusader, Alexander ALX200 (discontinued in 2001 with the formation of TransBus International and being replaced by the Pointer 2), Marshall Capital (developed from the C37; later built by MCV), Caetano Nimbus and MCV Evolution (since 2005 - a further evolution of the Marshall bodywork).

[16] Over 9,100 low floor Darts were built, the last entering service with Park Island Transport in March 2008.

In 2002, TransBus launched a narrower-width variant of the Dart SLF at the request of bus operators in the Channel Islands of Guernsey and then Jersey, who replaced the majority of their fleets with slightly narrower Darts designed to comply with the islands' vehicle size restrictions, sporting adapted versions of existing East Lancs Myllennium and Caetano Nimbus bodies respectively.

[13] Although primarily sold in the United Kingdom, some were sold overseas: In Australia, ACTION of Canberra took delivery of 25 Wright Crusader bodied Dennis Dart SLFs in 1997,[20][21][22] Brisbane Bus Lines (3),[23] Invicta Bus Services (27),[24][25] TransAdelaide (2)[26] and Transperth (2)[27] purchased Darts.

Some of Citybus vehicles were repatriated back to England by parent Stagecoach Group for use at its Devon and Hampshire subsidiaries.

[30] Four Dennis Dart SLFs with Eaton six-speed manual transmissions were delivered to Paramount Garage of Malta in 1997.

[33] A second demonstrator was built by Transbus but was not exported to Malta, later entering service in the United Kingdom with Flimwell independent operator Hams Travel.