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MCI delivers J3500 to Alabama operator

Gulf Coast Tours’ first J3500 comes equipped with a top-of-the-line entertainment system with four monitors.

May 13, 2019
MCI delivers J3500 to Alabama operator

Gulf Coast Tours Operations Manager Theresa Chamblee and Safety Manager Bernell Robinson mark the delivery of the Mobile, Alabama-based tour and charter company’s new MCI J3500 coach.

MCI

1 min to read


Gulf Coast Tours Operations Manager Theresa Chamblee and Safety Manager Bernell Robinson mark the delivery of the Mobile, Alabama-based tour and charter company’s new MCI J3500 coach. MCI

Motor Coach Industries (MCI) delivered a new 35-foot J3500 to Mobile, Alabama’s Gulf Coast Tours.

The new MCI J3500 is the company’s latest debut to complement its best-selling J4500 recently redesigned with increased space and passenger comfort.  The J3500 member of MCI’s new “J-Series” family of coaches that features all the styling and comfort hallmarks of the J4500, with seating for up to 44 passengers, a powerful Cummins engine, shared J-coach components, and a turning radius of under 33 feet that makes it a natural for high-traffic situations that call for top maneuverability.

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Gulf Coast Tours’ first J3500 comes equipped with a top-of-the-line four-monitor entertainment system, the 2017 EPA Cummins L9 with engine brake, three-point seatbelts, and the optional RGB interior lighting feature offering six pre-programmed colors (red, blue, green, cyan, magenta, and yellow) plus white for an enhanced customer branding experience.

Gulf Coast Tours chose the 40-seat configuration to give high school, college and university athletes the best legroom in this new, smaller coach configuration.

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