It is common business practice to award a contract to the
company who offered the best/most attractive deal. This package not
only includes the delivery of the chassis but also other things
such as the supply of spare parts, warranty and on-site service.
I'm sure SBS Transit had invited several bus makers to send in a
proposal and somehow, Scania managed to pip its competitors and get
the contract.
Scania are now into its 4th(or 5th?) generation chassis with a wide
range of quality products. You have to give credit for their
improvements over the old generation 113s.
SBS Transit made a profit of nearly S$18 million in the second
quarter of 2007. With such a profit margin, I don't think that they
cannot afford to buy Volvo or Mercedes. Furthermore, cost cutting
is now a very common practice in almost every company, not just
SBS.
