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The Wayne Lifestar is a product line of buses that was manufactured and marketed by Wayne Corporation and its successor company Wayne Wheeled Vehicles from 1986 to 1995. Produced nearly exclusively in a school bus configuration, the Wayne Lifestar used a transit-style body configuration with a front-engine chassis. Marking the return to transit-style production (after an absence of over a decade), the Lifestar adopted the single-piece body stampings of the Wayne Lifeguard in its construction.
Wayne Corporation manufactured the Lifestar from 1986 to 1992 at its Richmond, Indiana facility. Following the closure and liquidation of Wayne Corporation, Wayne Wheeled Vehicles manufactured the product line from 1993 to 1995 in Marysville, Ohio.
In 1996, up to 325 Wayne Lifestar school buses (model years 1993 to 1995) were among the 11,500 nationwide subject to recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for not meeting federal safety standards for fuel-system integrity.
As the 1970s became the 1980s, the school bus industry was in a period of relative turmoil: along with the struggling economy, fewer Americans were school-age than in years past. Innovation and low cost were key to attracting school bus orders. To do so, Wayne Corporation was necessitated to develop a transit-style school bus that could be sold at a lower purchase price; for larger fleets, their higher capacity theoretically allowed for fewer buses per students transported. Named Lifestar, the new vehicle would feature the continuous longitudinal interior and exterior panels of the Lifeguard for the sides and roof, both for safety and for parts commonality.
At the Welles plant in Canada, where many Wayne experimental projects had been done over the years, a rear-engine prototype was constructed, while a front-engine prototype was constructed in Richmond. The final decision was to produce the Lifestar only in the front-engine body style, primarily for cost considerations.
The front-engine bus program proved more successful than rear-engine development efforts, and saw production with several different chassis. The initial production run of Lifestars were of a front engine (FE) design; production began in 1986. A rear-engine model would have been more costly than a front-engine model, and likely would have achieved lower production volumes. Competitors in that market were the Thomas Saf-T-Liner ER and Blue Bird All American RE. Each bus was a premium product; although Thomas built its own chassis for the Saf-T-Liner ER at the time the Lifestar was introduced, production volume for the All American RE was low enough that Blue Bird outsourced its rear-engine chassis until 1988.
Along with a chassis sourced from a major manufacturer, the body of the Lifestar was developed to reduce production and maintenance costs, using flat windshield glass (to lower replacement costs) and a nearly flat front bodywork stamping.
From its 1986 launch, the S7 product line was plagued with supply problems. In addition to underpinning the Lifestar, the GM chassis was also adopted by similar product lines from competing bus manufacturers Carpenter and Ward/AmTran. In 1989, General Motors ended production of the S7 product line entirely.
As a temporary solution, Milton H. Smith, a truck and bus dealer and school bus contractor based in Plaistow, New Hampshire (who served as one of the larger Wayne bus dealers in the United States) began to import chassis from South Korea. Essentially Vehicle glider with an American-sourced powertrain (a Caterpillar 3208 diesel and an Allison MT643 automatic), the chassis were fitted to the Lifestar with redesigned engine covers to fit the larger Caterpillar engine. Branded as "Asia-Smith" chassis, the venture was ultimately not well-received in U.S. markets and many sat at the Wayne Indiana plant for an extended time awaiting body orders. Due to the supply issues of the GM S-7 affecting other manufacturers, some surplus Asia-Smith chassis were sold off to other manufacturers to be fitted with bus bodies; some were purchased by Ward/AmTran (for the Ward President) and from short-lived startup New Bus Company from Oklahoma (for the New Bus Chickasha FE).
The shift to a Navistar-sourced chassis (powered by either a DTA360 or optional DT466 inline-6 turbodiesel) would result in several modifications to the body of the Lifestar. The most visible changes included a 4-piece wrap-around windshield (created by the relocation of the entry door), the introduction of quad headlights, and an all-new grille. The interior saw multiple changes, including the introduction of a Navistar-sourced steering column and instrument panel.
This generation of the Lifestar was only produced for two years, as Richmond Transportation Corporation, then the parent company of Wayne, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Wayne Corporation was liquidated and sold.
During the transition, Navistar was replaced as a chassis supplier by heavy-duty vehicle manufacturer Crane Carrier Corporation (CCC), replacing the engine with a Cummins 5.9L inline-6 turbodiesel. In contrast to the previous model revision, the CCC chassis used nearly an identical body as the 1991-1992 Lifestar with the 3900FC, distinguished primarily by the change of powertrain and the replacement of Navistar-sourced components.
Wayne continued to struggle for market share in 1990. In mid-June 1990, the Welles plant in Canada was closed.
In early 1991, Navistar International announced that it had purchased a one third of AmTran, the manufacturer of Ward school bus bodies, and one of Wayne's long-time competitors. This was seen by many industry observers as an ominous sign for Wayne's future, as Navistar was its largest supplier of both conventional and Type D chassis. Wayne had no major alliance to guarantee a source of chassis, nor any in-house capacity to do so.
In August 1992, Richmond Transportation Corporation (RTC) was forced to declare bankruptcy. Assets were sold by a federal bankruptcy judge at auction that fall. Wayne, essentially in name only, lived on as Wayne Wheeled Vehicles until 1995 under different ownership.
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