I personally like the E-Ones. Lifeline makes a heck of a good bus. That said, my kid thinks I am so old (not!) that my first fire truck was a water wagon pulled by a team of budwesier horses!!
Seagrave all the way, but Pierce is good too. Now an E-one on the other hand you might as well take it to a recycling bin & get your money back off of it for all it is is an aluminum beer can on wheels! Now other wise I would have to say the older LaFrances not the ones they make today, or even Hahn, Boyer, Peter Pirsch, Maxim, Howe, Stutz. Now some of the rigs I just mentioned some of the people on here have never even heard of!
Anything except American Lafrance. Our trucks were more than 1 year and yes I said "year" late, and they have more mileage going back and forth to the repair shop than they have running calls. Nuts , bolts, and screws are always falling out or have to be tightened, and we are on our 4th multi-plex, and only 3 years old now!
We have a 82 Mack engine with a manual transmission and let me just say theres nothing quite like it, but since mack is out of the engine making business its Pierce all the way.