The DINA F12 was a long-distance coach launched in 1998 as part of the first family of buses designed wholly in Mexico by DINA. It sat between the F11 of 1997 and the F14 of 1999, and it appeared just as the company was preparing the HTQ truck range that would later shape its urban buses.
DINA F12 at a glance
| Maker | DINA (Diesel Nacional), Ciudad Sahagún, Hidalgo |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1998 |
| Family | F11 (1997), F12 (1998), F14 (1999) |
| Design | own Mexican design |
| Built at | Sahagún plant, Hidalgo |
| Segment | bus / coach |
| Contemporary programme | HTQ trucks |
| Engines of the period | Navistar DTA-360 and DTA-466 |
| Design partners on HTQ | Design Works (BMW), MCI and Roush Industries |
The F12 has no article of its own; it is described in the English and Spanish Wikipedia articles on DINA, and this page is based on that company history (one source).
History of the DINA F12
After the Marcopolo agreement of 1992, DINA returned to designing its own buses. In 1997 the Sahagún plant built new bus and truck models based on entirely Mexican designs. In the bus segment the first of them was the F11, followed by the F12 in 1998 and the F14 in 1999. The three shared the same approach: a coach developed at home rather than adapted from a foreign licence.
The F12 arrived while DINA was investing heavily in its truck programme. The HTQ series of trucks was developed together with Design Works, a subsidiary of BMW, with MCI and Roush Industries of the United States, on an investment of almost 100 million dollars. That programme was aimed at the North American market, and its technology later fed back into the company’s passenger vehicles.
The late 1990s were also the years of DINA’s expansion abroad. The company opened a truck and bus assembly plant in Mercedes, Argentina, in 1997, and from 1999 its subsidiary there built the HTQ chassis and trucks D1416, D1721 and D1725. The F12 belongs to the Mexican side of that story: a coach built in Hidalgo while the maker was growing across Latin America.
Design and features
- Mexican design: the F12 was developed in-house rather than licensed from a foreign builder.
- Family of three: it formed a sequence with the F11 and F14 coaches of 1997 and 1999.
- Navistar engines: the range of the period used Navistar DTA-360 and DTA-466 units.
- Truck-era technology: it was built while the HTQ programme with Design Works, MCI and Roush was under way.
DINA F12 versions
- DINA F11: the 1997 coach that opened the family.
- DINA F12: the 1998 model described here.
- DINA F14: the 1999 model that closed the family.
- Later F12 coaches: examples from around 2001 remained in service on Mexican long-distance routes.
The F12 followed the Marcopolo-based DINA Paradiso, and the urban buses that came later are covered in the DINA Linner article. More vehicles are in the DINA collection.
Video: DINA F12 coach, 2001 model
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- DINA S.A., English Wikipedia: F11-F14 dates, own designs, HTQ programme
- Diesel Nacional, Spanish Wikipedia: design partners, investment, Argentina plant
