David Cox, then Engineering Director of Merseyside PTE, reviewed it under his alias Midlander for Buses. He commented that the design was nothing like as stylish, but probably cheaper to produce than the original Marshall Camair. He felt that the side-facing bench seats over the front wheel arches, with their deep footstools, gave a rather tunnel-like aspect, and offered his ideas on a tidier layout, but praised the principle of using the same chassis for double and single-deck applications. Darlington took a further nine in the following year. Dennis designated all ten of these SD103A. They were the only customer to place a repeat order (in 1981) for eight outwardly identical vehicles coded SD128A. Darlington's next purchase was to be the only batch of Ward Motors Dalesman GRXI in 1984.