They were expected to travel Canberra's streets for 15 years.
Now after 32 years - and well over 1 million kilometres - the last of the orange-and-blue stalwarts of the capital's bus fleet have completed their final runs.
Bus driver Frank Vella was in the workshops when the fleet of Renault PR100.2 buses arrived, helping ready them for life on the capital's bus network.
Nearly four decades later, he was behind the wheel of one of the last services, driving a bus that entered the fleet in 1992.
"It's a real sad thing. It's the end of an era. They're excellent to work on, they're straightforward. When you go out to a breakdown, it's a pretty simple thing. It's either a split hose and nothing real complicated," Mr Vella said.
"Not like the modern day bus where you've got your electronics."
No, this was a different time. Before air conditioning and access ramps. When the 333 service ran from Belconnen to Tuggeranong and a small sticker declared: "Children are required to give up their seats if adults are standing."
Mr Vella said he got more positive feedback when he drove a Renault than he did on the newer buses.
"The passengers in summer don't like them as much, but in winter they love them because of the fantastic heaters," he said.
On a route 64 from Weston Creek to Woden on Thursday, Mr Vella picked up Greg Wheatley, an old colleague who drove ACTION buses for 38 years before retiring.
The imminent retirement of the Renaults was occasion for reminiscing. Of runs to the old Higgins interchange. Of the Ainslie and Kingston depots. Of buses long since out of service that ran in a much smaller city.
Mr Wheatley said for his last 10 years in the job he drove bus 906, another of the Renaults.
"These were the best," he said.
But time has caught up them. The last two remaining Renaults are eligible for historic registration and far older than the average car on the road.
The buses do not meet contemporary disability access standards and are no longer needed for active service as new electric buses have entered the fleet. The ACT government has been eager to retire them for years.
The Australian Capital Territory Internal Omnibus Network - ACTION, that is - first tried out a Renault bus in 1985. It liked what it found. In April 1987, it unveiled the first of its new generation buses with hope it could attract more passengers.
"In many ways it has been custom-built for Canberra and has new levels of passenger comfort and safety," Glen Gaskill, the then-general manager of ACTION, said at the time.
More than 250 entered service. The Mack Renault buses had bodies built by Ansair, a subsidiary of Ansett, in Melbourne and much of the assembly was completed in Brisbane. Less than 30 per cent was actually built in France.
Brian Stent, who is a 50-year veteran of the workshops, said they had been good to work on, simple and reliable.
"The gearboxes were electric over hydraulic. Very straightforward, operated electrically through relays and those sorts of things. Solenoids. Very, very simple," Mr Stent said.
"Whereas the buses you've got today, they just count everything. Even if they slip for a fraction of a second or something like that, it comes up with a code on the dash and that's got to be checked and all that sort of stuff.
"It's the end of the era."
Mr Stent said it would be a generational thing in the workshops after the Renaults were gone.
"If they haven't worked on them before and they basically started their apprenticeship on the later types of buses, I think it probably won't mean as much to them as it does to us when they do finally go," he said.
"But I guess it's like the passengers as well. Once they're off the road and people are just used to the far more modern buses, it will be a forgotten thing."
Mr Vella said the buses were holding together very well. They steer and brake well. The engines were pretty reliable, nothing over-complicated about them.
"Not as efficient as the new ones but they still do the job. They could go another 30 years if you had the parts and all that," he said.
But it is not to be.
On Friday afternoon, the last passengers alighted from a Renault PR100.2 Mark II at the temporary Woden interchange.
With one last slap as the doors shut, and a hiss of air as the brakes disengaged, the orange-and-blue era of Canberra's bus network came to an end.
