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Hino PH brings back the adorable Love Bus

Reignite your nostalgia with the HS8J Low Floor city bus

Show this picture to your elders if you're too young to recognize this. PHOTO FROM HINO

If you’re old enough to have a child or two, you may remember the familiar sight of a bright-blue bus prowling the streets of Metro Manila. It was fondly called the Love Bus due to its heart-shaped graphics.

Well, Hino Philippines is bringing the iconic name back with the HS8J Low Floor city bus, mainly designed for operations within the city.

Will a new generation of commuters remember this as fondly as their elders? PHOTO FROM HINO

This new bus features a low-floor design that is ideally made for standing. With 375mm of ground clearance, the bus has a lower center of gravity that helps with ride stability.

To help with ingress and egress, the HS8J was designed with a step-free design in mind. How? First, it features a side-kneeling function, where the doors can be lowered to the standard gutter height with a folding ramp to help with boarding. Then, passengers are treated to a full-flat floor with a priority space for wheelchair users as soon as they enter instead of having to climb a few stairs.

Inside, up to 62 people can be carried, with 36 seated and 26 standing passengers. It has amenities like warm LED lighting, 32-inch TVs, and a Denso-made air-conditioning system with a Sharp Plasmacluster Ion Generator air-purification system.

All of this is powered by the J08E common-rail, direct-injection engine that’s mated to a ZF six-speed automatic transmission. This powertrain complies with Euro 4 standards, and has 276hp and 824Nm. Finally, the bus has auto-adjusting disc brakes with ABS to ensure it can stop on a dime in emergency situations.



Sam Surla

Sam used to be the youngest member of our editorial team when he was our managing editor. He specialized in photography and videography, but he also happened to like writing about cars a lot.



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