THE ARMADA BUS

In 1995, the Armada restored one of Istanbul’s oldest Mercedes Benz buses. 10 years later the bus is back in Istanbul traffic with its new cotton candy pink and baby blue design. In the years between 1950 and 1970, the Armada Hotel found "one of Istanbul’s oldest Mercedes buses" that was used for local and out-of-town public transportation and touristic tours, a "0321 Mercedes Benz” (according to the registration it’s a 1957 model!), restored and put it into use in 1995! The bus became a source of excitement and inspiration for those who enjoy witnessing the past and lovers of old Istanbul, especially locals and foreigners from the ‘50s generation. The 0321-H, with its original bone steering wheel, luggage nets for passengers, rounded lines and handy size that allowed it to maneuver easily all over the peninsula got wide coverage in the Turkish press. News of it even reached the ears of the Mercedes home office in Germany.

Mercedes Benz sent a team to the Armada for a city tour to see for themselves whether the bus actually worked and whether it could actually pass through the peninsula's low and narrow historic arches. On their return to Germany, the same team published an article in the internationally distributed Mercedes Magazine about the old bus, calling it "the only professionally-operated example driven in traffic of its kind.”