The Setra S 210 HD stepped up at the start of the 1980s to become the worthy successor to the legendary S 6 and S 80 club coaches. The Setra vintage collection also houses such a model. It comes from Turkey and was originally a gift from the owner to his wife.

An eventful history with many changes of keeper? Millions of kilometres driven? Elaborate repairs and restorations? Wrong on all accounts! Compared to many other items in the Setra vintage collection, the history of the Setra S 210 HD is downright extraordinary: one previous owner, driven almost exclusively for personal use, with 60,000 kilometres on the clock and in its original condition. What is more, the high-decker club coach built in 1988 barely scratches the official vintage age of 30 years. And yet: the S 210 HD is a real rarity and its unusual history is worth a closer look.

Since Setra struck the S 208 H high-floor bus measuring just 7.60 metres long and 3.07 metres high from the 200 series range at the start of the 1980s, the 1.7-metres-longer and 27-centimetres-higher S 210 HD high-decker continued the long club coach tradition in the Setra stable. Back then it combined the benefits of a midibus with the comfort of a “large” high-decker: a turning circle of just 16.56 metres and a maximum of 37 seats on the one hand, a luggage compartment measuring six cubic metres, underfloor toilet in the middle entrance and powerful V6-cylinder engine on the other. In addition, ABS as standard and a list of options in no way inferior to that of the longer models.

For Nevzat Pekuysal, founder and owner of the Turkish bus operator Varan, the Setra S 210 HD did not really come into question. Even though the fleet back then of around 330 buses belonging to the company specialising in high-quality long-distance routes had consisted solely of Setra buses since 1984. The nine-and-a-half-metre bus was simply too short for use on the domestic Turkish long-distance routes. Nevertheless, Pekuysal ordered an S 210 HD in Ulm in 1988 – as a gift for his wife, who wanted to take family excursions and shopping trips with friends on the club coach. A round seating area in the back, face-to-face seats with a table, electronically controlled air conditioning, auxiliary heating, screen and Blaupunkt VHS video recorder, kitchen, central locking system for the luggage compartment, alarm and a wardrobe rail in the luggage compartment were just some of the many special features offering passengers and driver comfort at an exclusive level.

The vehicle was only seldom used, however. “The longest journey that the bus ever made at Varan was evidently a trip by the owner’s spouse together with friends to Vienna,” says Udo Sürig, who as a Setra spokesperson also looked after the vintage collection until 2008. During a visit to Istanbul in the early 2000s, Varan picked him and the Setra delegation up from the airport with the S 210 HD, which from then on was only used as a VIP shuttle. A coincidental glance at the odometer took Sürig aback: “In around 20 years, the coach had hardly driven more than 40,000 kilometres. It was perfectly well kept and in its original condition.” A stroke of luck, as if made for the Setra vintage collection. There followed years of negotiations with Enis Pekuysal, the son of the company founder, in order to get him to sell the vehicle. “What finally closed the deal was the promise that we would retain the logo and with it the Varan company name on the vehicle, even if it was later restored,” Udo Sürig recalls.

And so the Setra S 210 HD, almost 30 years after it was delivered, continues to exude its irresistible, trendy charm of the 1980s as a member of the Setra vintage collection. Orange-red-grey-striped seat upholstery and matching paintwork included.