A bus is a bus !
If someone bought a Newel for $400,00, it must have been several years old. Theri coaches are in the million dollar class. Is a Newel a bus? I don't know and from what I read on the BBS most people with converted buses claim it isn't a bus when they go to the DMV to licence it. Is your converted MC-9 a bus or a motorhome? Like doing a conversion any way you like, you can call it whatever you like.If you tell a person with a million dollar Bluebird Wanderlodge that he has a converted schoolbus he will get quite upset even though the shelll was made on their schoolbus assembly line and went to a different building for the motorhome parts.
I think that is because Bluebird filed the necessary paperwork to certify there buses in Canada so they could sell school buses in Canada. Newell and Marathon probably felt the cost of certification was not worth it until recently. Just "my guess" YMMV Jack