1933: Harry Zoltok turns his Winnipeg repair shop into the laboratory for the future of coach travel. He sketches his first vehicle design, an 11-passenger body on a Packard chassis, on the factory floor. His small manufacturing company, Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works, finds itself on the cusp of a new mass transit industry.

1936: The Public Works administration provides the first large-scale federal government public transportation assistance in the United States, promoting public transport on both rail and road. This Depression-era move starts putting local transit operations in the hands of taxpayers.

1937: The company designs and builds its first proprietary chassis and manufactures its first line of coaches for Grey Goose Bus Lines in Winnipeg. Today, Grey Goose is a subsidiary of Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp. operating in Manitoba.

1939: Fort Garry designs and manufactures the Model 150, a new transit-type coach with the windshield over the radiator, the first use of exterior stainless steel panels and a pancake engine mounted midship under the floor.

1933: Harry Zoltok turns his Winnipeg repair shop into the laboratory for the future of coach travel. He sketches his first vehicle design, an 11-passenger body on a Packard chassis, on the factory floor. His small manufacturing company, Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works, finds itself on the cusp of a new mass transit industry.

1936: The Public Works administration provides the first large-scale federal government public transportation assistance in the United States, promoting public transport on both rail and road. This Depression-era move starts putting local transit operations in the hands of taxpayers.

1937: The company designs and builds its first proprietary chassis and manufactures its first line of coaches for Grey Goose Bus Lines in Winnipeg. Today, Grey Goose is a subsidiary of Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp. operating in Manitoba.

1939: Fort Garry designs and manufactures the Model 150, a new transit-type coach with the windshield over the radiator, the first use of exterior stainless steel panels and a pancake engine mounted midship under the floor.

1941: On January 7, the company changes its name to Motor Coach Industries Limited, but coach production quickly gives way to the manufacturing needs of World War II. The company's new Winnipeg facility at Erin Street and St. Matthews Avenue is converted to manufacture Jeep trailers, boat trailers for rescue craft, army truck bodies and pontoon bridge sections plus the reconditioning of aircraft pontoons.

1942: MCI builds and designs the first electric trolley bus manufactured in Canada, known as Number 1532. It has its own route for 25 years, but never becomes a regular production item.

1945: With the war's end, MCI reverts to regular coach production and introduced its first rear engine coach, the Model 100, in 1946. Over the rest of the decade the company adds its National Products subsidiary, which manufactures and sells pole line hardware for the prairie provinces' rural electrification program and, in Medicine Hat, Alberta, National Porcelain is formed to manufacture porcelain insulators for that market.

1948: Greyhound Lines of Canada acquires a majority interest in MCI, with Harry Zoltok continuing as company president.

1949: MCI's Model 50, a 33-passenger coach, is introduced as a successor to the Model 100, the first coach synonymous with the Canadian Greyhound operation.

1950s: Like so many major users of steel at the time, MCI continues to diversify past its bedrock coach business. It uses its excess capacity to expand National Products Co. into ornamental street lighting poles, and creates the Alsco Windows and Doors Co. to serve the growing postwar housing market. MCI also expands to offer custom metal fabrication services for truck bodies.

During this decade, the coach division continues to innovate; the company adds the 85, 90, 95, 96 and launches the new MC series of coaches. The MC-1 proves to be a revolutionary new design incorporating a heating system linked to the engine cooling system and a translucent roof.

1958: Greyhound Lines of Canada acquires the remaining shares in MCI with Zoltok keeping his role as president.

1959: The MC-1 cements the company's popularity; 26 coaches are produced during the year, with the company additionally developing its MCX2 prototype. At the same time, MCI sells National Porcelain. During the Greyhound years, MCI is the first manufacturer to build a 40-foot coach.

1962: MCI heads south of the border and establishes its Pembina, North Dakota plant, 68 miles south of Winnipeg, which officially opens in 1963.

1963: MCI officially enters the U.S. coach market, developing the MC-2, MC-3, MC-4, MC-5 and the MC-5A over the rest of the decade.

1967: MCI delivers the first prototype of the landmark MC-6 "Super Cruiser" coach to Greyhound; designed and developed for Greyhound, it features a 102-inch wheelbase, an all-stainless-steel frame, and a V-12 engine.

1968: The 40-foot-long MC-7 is developed and put into production just before the MC-6, representing the first time MCI has multiple coach lines in parallel production. The company is now producing 500 coaches a year, compared to only 50 in the early 1960s.

An official after-market parts division is established at Motor Coach Industries' plant at Pembina, North Dakota.

1969: MCI builds a total of 100 coaches between 1969 and 1970; a fraction of its current production. MCI will reintroduce the all-stainless-steel frame in 1997 when it builds the 102EL3 Renaissance® coach (now the E4500).

1970s: MCI begins international distribution with its first sales to Mexico, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan.

1971: Harry Zoltok retires, while the company opens a new parts distribution center in Northlake, Illinois. Greyhound moves its corporate headquarters from Chicago to Phoenix. The company builds its first MC-5B coach (production runs through 1977).

1972: Hausman Bus Sales, founded in 1954 by Jerry Hausman, with sales and service centers in Chicago, New Jersey and California, joins forces with MCI and begins selling its new coaches exclusively.

1973: The MC-8 hits the roads, replacing the MC-7.

1975: MCI Service Parts division becomes Universal Coach Parts Inc., supplying motor coach, transit and school bus operators with parts.

1978: The company develops the MC-9 Crusader II, destined to become the North American intercity coach industry's all-time best-seller.

1980: MCI continues to expand its parts and manufacturing operations in Canada and the United States. The company expands its production lines in Fort Garry and Pembina to double the production capacity of the popular MC-9. The Canadian distribution center opens in Newcastle, Ontario, under the MCI Service Parts name.

1983: UCP pioneers its "C.O.A.C.H." program — Customer Order Assisted Computerized Handling — the first electronic parts ordering system and accessed by more than 300 customers.

1984: A full six years before the Americans with Disabilities Act is passed, MCI is the first coach manufacturer to offer wheelchair lifts on its vehicles. The first model is contracted out as retrofit for Terra Transport and built for the Canadian Government in June 1984; it buys another in October.

1985: MCI builds its very own first six MC-9 units with wheelchair lifts by the end of February 1986 for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

1987: MCI acquires General Motor's bus parts business, virtually doubling the size of the company overnight. That same year, a larger parts distribution facility is purchased in Des Plaines, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, becoming it's new headquarters location.

1993: MCI launches COACH GUARD®, a private brand of aftermarket parts, which grows to include a full line of filters, remanufactured transmissions, bearings, seals, electrical items and hundreds of other parts, all engineered and manufactured to strict tolerances for long-lasting performance.

1994: The MC-9 becomes the nation's all-time best-selling coach with 6,406 vehicles sold between 1978 and 1994.

1995: The MC-9 gives way to what will be a new leader, the MCI D-Series. The first D-Series model, the 102DL3, accommodates 55 passengers and its expanded 45-foot length makes it an even more popular model than the "9" (Today, there are more than 7,700 D models on the road in the United States and Canada).

MCI purchases the assets of Billingsley Parts & Equipment, a distributor of school bus parts and manufacturer of specialty parts.

1996: MCI unveils its Renaissance Coach, the 102EL3, a new-look designed with a patented spiral entryway created with the assistance of BMW Designworks USA.

The company acquires the parts assets of the Flxible Corporation, one of the nation's largest transit bus manufacturers.

1998: The company announces plans to open a new facility in Louisville on a 31-acre site near a UPS hub and to consolidate the operations of its existing warehouse facilities. The company also announces plans for an Internet-based online ordering system, named The Parts Store, replacing its C.O.A.C.H. — Customer Order-Assisted Computerized Handling system.

1999: MCI moves into a new 40,000-square-foot Dallas sales and service center. The location also serves as the home of MCI Financial Services.

2000: MCI wins a historic order from New Jersey Transit — $500 million for 1,400 commuter "cruiser" coaches. At the time, it is the largest coach transaction ever recorded for a transit agency.

The company commemorates its move to Louisville and announces its name change to MCI Service Parts Inc., in keeping with MCI's corporate strategy of unifying its network of related services under the MCI name.

2001: MCI introduces its J4500 model, which will quickly go on to become the best-selling coach in the industry. Its award-winning styling follows that of the E4500 (formerly called the Renaissance), and its mechanical systems are simplified for an easy ownership experience. By 2007, the J4500 surpasses 2,103 units.

MCI opens its Orlando, Florida-area sales and service center.

2003: MCI invests $40 million in the expansion of its Winnipeg ISO-certified plant and moves the production of the G4500 from its former Mexico plant to Winnipeg, integrating the model into the E4500/J4500 mixed-platform line.

2004: The MCI J4500 ranks as the #1 industry best seller in the trend report published by National Bus Trader magazine.

MCI offers Emergency Roadside Assistance 24 hours a day, every day, managed in-house by MCI professionals through its technical support call center at the Louisville parts distribution center.

2005: MCI launches another first, the industry's only Fast or Free Parts Guarantee, tagging nearly 500 frequently purchased parts for its D Series, E4500, and J4500 models, with a guarantee that those parts will ship by the end of the next business day. If not, MCI either ships the part free or issues a credit.

MCI also gives the D-Series a major makeover, endowing what will now be called the D4005 and D4505 with the curvier, more modern exterior styling that have made the J and E models so attractive to operators.

MCI opens its seventh sales and eighth service center near Nashville, in Lebanon, Tennessee, expanding its sales and service center reach and to better serve its entertainer coach and conversion shell customers.

2006: MCI opens its Atlantic City, New Jersey, service center, its ninth.

2007: MCI launches its Go Green. Go Coach. Go MCI.™ slogan and makes major strides toward industry leadership in providing "greener" transportation solutions to both the public and private sectors. Embracing new EPA requirements, MCI rolls out its model line with the industry's largest selection of clean-diesel engines and transmission options. The company also accelerates its plans for a second generation of hybrid diesel coaches. In summer, it puts its J4500 coach equipped with a 2007 EPA-compliant Caterpillar engine on the road to raise awareness of Green coach transportation during the 54-day Udall Legacy Bus Tour.

MCI establishes the first National Training Center at its Louisville location, dedicated to enhancing and advancing the skills of all motor coach technicians. At the same time, it introduces its Coach Driving Simulator, the industry's first maker-specific high-tech simulator, offering a virtual-reality driving experience and a variety of safety scenarios to enhance drivers' skills.

2008: MCI celebrates the 75th anniversary of its first coach with a special edition of the best selling J4500 coach.

2009: MCI completes restructuring, announces that Franklin Mutual Advisers, LLC, is its new majority shareholder.