Company

About.

The MCI difference.

You work hard to take your business as far as it can go. And we work hard to take it beyond. MCI responds to your needs. We’ve gone over our coaches to make sure that they’re better than ever, boosted our parts availability, strengthened our warranties and examined all of the ways we can go the extra mile to serve you better. And that means there’s never been a better time to choose MCI.

  • Quality

    We don’t just make more coaches than anyone else on the market. We build in more quality, from the sturdy steel frame to the finishing details.

  • Reliability

    Many of our coaches have logged a million miles or more. And our Emergency Roadside Assistance program assures you’ll never have to go it alone.

  • Aftermarket Services

    MCI brings together a powerful network of MCI and affiliated service centers, parts professionals, technical support and more, with one go-to person—your Regional Parts Manager—to make sure your ownership experience is smooth sailing all the way.

  • Comfort

    When we design a coach, we put ourselves in our passengers’ position.

  • Parts Availability

    We offer the industry’s largest inventory of MCI and other parts, with convenient online ordering.

90-Year Legacy

MCI delivered its first coach in 1933 and is now the leading coach manufacturer in North America, with fabrication, manufacturing, and service centers in the United States and Canada. We continue building on our 90-year legacy of innovation to deliver innovative, quality-driven and reliable mobility solutions and technology that meets the demands of communities today, and into the future.

Today

MCI is a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI) and is North America’s public and private market motor coach leader. MCI is North America’s public and private market motor coach leader. Products include the luxury J-Series (an industry best-seller for over a decade), the workhorse D-Series, and the brand new zero-emission luxury and commuter coaches: the battery-electric J4500 CHARGE™ and MCI D45 CRT LE CHARGE™. With nearly 30,000 MCI coaches on the road, MCI also provides maintenance, repair, 24-hour roadside assistance, parts, and technician training through the industry’s only Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) accredited MCI Academy.

NFI Group logo

 

 

Leveraging 450 years of combined experience, NFI is leading the electrification of mass mobility around the world. With zero-emission buses and coaches, infrastructure, and technology, NFI meets today’s urban demands for scalable smart mobility solutions. Together, NFI is enabling more livable cities through connected, clean, and sustainable transportation. NFI EVs have collectively travelled 115 million zero-emissions miles and continue to decrease the carbon footprint of transportation while delivering clean, safe, quiet mobility.

With 7,700 team members in ten countries, NFI is a leading global bus manufacturer of mass mobility solutions under the brands New Flyer® (heavy-duty transit buses), MCI® (motor coaches), Alexander Dennis Limited (single and double-deck buses), Plaxton (motor coaches), ARBOC® (low-floor cutaway and medium-duty buses), and NFI Parts™. NFI currently offers the widest range of sustainable drive systems available, including zero-emission electric (trolley, battery, and fuel cell), natural gas, electric hybrid, and clean diesel. In total, NFI supports its installed base of over 100,000 buses and coaches around the world.

Learn more about NFI Group

Key milestones.

  • 1933 Fort Garry Motor Body and Paint Works built its first coach in Winnipeg, Manitoba
  • 1984 Offers wheelchair lifts on its vehicles; first coach manufacturer to do so
  • 1997 Introduces the E4500 luxury coach
  • 2000 MCI launches The Parts Store, later renamed NFI Parts, and the 24/7 Emergency Roadside Assistance Program (“ERSA”)
  • 2001 Introduces the J4500 coach
  • 2004 J4500 becomes the industry’s best-selling coach
  • 2017 Unveils breakthrough MCI D45 CRT LE fully-accessible commuter coach
  • 2018 Debuts its 35-foot J3500 coach
  • 2021 Unveiled the J4500 CHARGE™, MCI’s battery-electric zero-emission luxury coach
  • 2021 Unveiled the D45 CRT LE CHARGE™, MCI’s battery-electric zero-emission commuter coach
  • 2021 MCI Academy named to fifth consecutive ATMC National Excellence in Training Award
  • 2022 MCI celebrates production of 10,000th luxury J4500 coach
  1. 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 transportation industry.

  2. 1937.

    The company designs and builds its first proprietary chassis and manufactures its first line of coaches for Grey Goose Bus Lines in Winnipeg.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 1945.

    With the war’s end, MCI reverts to regular coach production and introduced its first rear engine coach, the Model 100 in 1946.

  6. 1948.

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

  7. 1950.

    During this decade, the coach division continues to innovate; adding the 85, 90, 95, 96 and launches the new MC series of coaches starting with the MC-1.

  8. 1958.

    Greyhound Lines of Canada acquires MCI’s remaining shares and it becomes the first manufacturer to build a 40-foot coach.

  9. 1962.

    MCI establishes its Pembina, ND plant, officially opening in 1963, and 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.

  10. 1967.

    MCI delivers the first prototype of the landmark MC-6 “Super Cruiser” that features a 102-inch wheelbase, an all-stainless- steel frame, and a V-12 engine.

  11. 1968.

    The 40-foot MC-7 is put into production just before the MC-6, representing the first time MCI has multiple coach lines in parallel production, and a parts division is established at the Pembina,
    ND plant.

  12. 1970.

    Harry Zoltok retires, while the company opens a new parts distribution center in Northlake, IL, and the MC-8 replaces the MC-7.

  13. 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.

  14. 1975.

    MCI parts division becomes Universal Coach Parts Inc., (UCP) supplying motor coach, transit and school bus operators with parts.

  15. 1978.

    MC-9 Crusader II makes its debut becoming the nation’s all-time best-selling coach with 6,406 vehicles sold between 1978 and 1994.

  16. 1980.

    MCI’s Commuter Coach history begins as transit agencies acquire MCI models to serve a growing ridership base coming from suburbia to city centers.

  17. 1983.

    Marks a decade of innovation as UCP pioneers its “C.O.A.C.H.” program — Customer Order Assisted Computerized Handling — the first online electronic parts ordering system in 1983.

  18. 1984.

    In the ’80s, MCI was the first to build a wheelchair-lift-equipped model, a full six years before the Americans with Disabilities Act passed.

  19. 1987.

    MCI acquires General Motor’s bus parts business, and that same year purchases a larger parts distribution facility in Des Plaines, IL

  20. 1993.

    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 with an expanded 45-foot length. By adding a destination sign, transit-style doors and room for a fare box to its Commuter Coach D-Series 45-foot and 40-foot models, MCI continued to serve commuter express route expansion, connecting suburban communities office parks and park-and-ride operations.

  21. 1994.

    Sportscaster John Madden, who started riding with MCI in a 1987 MCI 102A3, takes delivery of his second Madden Cruiser, a 1994 MCI 102DL3, that’s followed by a 1998 Renaissance (102EL3) and a 2002 model, now renamed the MCI E4500.

  22. 1996.

    MCI unveils its Renaissance coach, the 102EL3, a new-look designed with a patented spiral entryway created with the assistance of Designworks, a BMW Group Company in the U.S.

  23. 1998.

    MCI developed its first compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Commuter Coach models at a customer’s request.

  24. 2000.

    Universal Coach Parts moves to Louisville, KY., changes its name to MCI Service Parts Inc., and launches The Parts Store, later renamed to NFI Parts. Simultaneously, MCI launches the 24/7 Emergency Roadside Assistance (“ERSA”) program.

     

  25. 2001.

    MCI introduces its J4500 model, which quickly becomes the best-selling coach in the industry by 2004, holding the top spot every year since.

  26. 2003.

    MCI builds its very first hybrid diesel-electric commuter coach model.

  27. 2007.

    The Go Green. Go Coach. Go MCI™ program delivers EPA-compliant clean-diesel engines that by 2010 promise near-zero emissions and fuel saving

    MCI establishes the first National Training Center at its Louisville location.

  28. 2008.

    MCI gives the D-Series a major makeover, endowing what will now be called the D4005 and D4505.

  29. 2011.

    MCI marks the 6,000th unit off its E/J assembly line and a first-ever order from the City of Los Angeles for 95 compressed natural gas (CNG) Commuter Coach models.

  30. 2013.

    Reliability Driven™: Marking its 80th birthday, MCI rededicates itself to building the most reliable coaches in North America adding unprecedented curb appeal and a wide-ride suspension to the best-selling MCI J4500 coach.

  31. 2015.

    MCI joins New Flyer. On December 18, New Flyer Industries successfully completed its acquisition of MCI becoming part of the largest bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in
    North America

  32. 2017.

    The MCI J4500 introduces a more spacious cabin with best-in-class legroom and capacity to seat 60 comfortably, along with an optional rear window, programmable RGB interior lighting color choices, trim packages and a new driver dash with a high-definition instrument panel.

    MCI also unveils the all new, groundbreaking MCI D45 CRT LE commuter coach designed with a Low Entry (LE) vestibule with seating especially for passengers using mobility devices, and is developed with users and user-groups including NCIL (the National Council on Independent Living) and AAPD (the American Association for People with Disabilities) to lower dwell times.

  33. 2018.

    Entering the electric era Drawing on New Flyer’s expertise in battery-electric, MCI is on the road with the J4500e prototype validating impressive test results in acceleration, handling and ride
    quality. MCI will also apply its battery-electric platform to the D45 CRT LE giving operators the most comprehensive choices in purpose-built, all-electric coaches.

    A 35-foot J rolls out in response to customers’ request for a smaller coach offering the styling hallmarks, reliability and parts commonality of the MCI J4500 and seating for up to 44 passengers, a turning radius of under 33 feet and industry-leading baggage capacity

  34. 2019.

    MCI introduces the exclusive J4500 and J3500 Livery Edition™.  With luxurious interiors and high-end amenities, the Livery Edition™ J-Series is devoted to the chauffeured services market.

  35. 2020.

    MCI is combined operationally with New Flyer, but maintains its distinct name, brand, and product legacy. Together, New Flyer and MCI are North America’s largest transit bus and coach manufacturer.

  36. 2021.

    MCI Launches new D series and unveils battery-electric zero-emission commuter coach: the D45 CRT LE CHARGE™
    MCI unveils its first battery-electric zero-emission luxury coach in the North American market: the J45 CRT LE CHARGE™
    MCI Academy named to fifth consecutive ATMC National Excellence in Training Award
  37. 2022.

    MCI celebrates production of its 10,000th J4500 with long-time customer Cline Tours. Since its introduction in 2001, the reliable and luxurious J4500 model continues to impress passengers and owners alike with its allure at the curb, top-tier amenities, and safety features. At 10,000 coaches and counting, the J4500 is positioned to continue its impressive legacy as the industry’s bestselling model since 2004.  View the video at https://bit.ly/3PKjEge