In 1996, Carpenter leased the former Wayne plant at Richmond, Indiana, relocating from its aged facilities in Mitchell. During this transition, Carpenter revised the body design of all of its buses; the changes included:

At the new location, Carpenter had the advantage of an experienced team. Both the leadership and workforce based at Richmond included a number of veterans of the former Wayne operations. As such, they brought considerable experience and knowledge of the plant and industry to the effort. In adapting to the equipment at the Richmond plant, a change to the techniques of welding the roof joints from the procedures used before at Mitchell would later prove vital in excluding Crown by Carpenter products from containing a crucial structural flaw. But that situation was not envisioned by anyone then and would only become an issue many years in the future.

One innovation that Carpenter introduced during this period was a change to the design of its "Crown RE", mounted on a Spartan Motors chassis. The Crown RE was the first rear-engine school bus to feature an option of a conventional rear emergency door instead of an emergency exit window typical on rear-engine school buses. To make this possible, the floor was slanted up in the last few rows in order to gain height over the engine compartment. Crown by Carpenter also produced a delivery truck loosely derived from its "Cadet" Type B school bus line.

In 1998, Carpenter was sold to Spartan Motors, a Michigan-based manufacturer of chassis for fire apparatus and high-end recreational vehicles. Starting in the early 1990s with the Coach RE, Spartan had gained entry into the school bus industry through Carpenter; a prototype built for Wayne Wheeled Vehicles never saw production. Nevertheless, major outside forces still to be faced were a supply of suitable chassis and the overcapacity of the body industry.

In late 1999, Carpenter unveiled a new model series to their line called Classic 2000. After 4 years, Carpenter had decided to phase out the Crown name in favor of a return to just Carpenter. The Classmate and the Cadet were retired, as Carpenter concentrated on full-size buses. The Classic 2000 series, a Type C conventional, featured an overall body redesign, including an entirely new driver's area (based even more on the Wayne Lifeguard), as well as new rubrail mounts, a flat rear section, larger rear emergency doors, and new roof caps. The Chancellor FE, a front-engine transit, featured all of the structural changes of the Classic 2000.

Intended as the flagship of the Carpenter product lineup, the 2001 Carpenter Chancellor RE rear-engine Type D school bus was built on a Spartan Motors chassis. It featured full air-ride suspension and double frame rails for a ride similar to a motorcoach. A flat floor inside the bus was created from the double frame as well as the fitment of smaller diameter (19" vs 22.5") wheels. Unlike its Crown RE predecessor, the Carpenter Chancellor RE did not feature an option for a rear emergency door.

The combination of the Spartan Motors chassis with the Carpenter Chancellor body resembled (in some aspects) the massive workhorses built in California by Crown and Gillig in years past, many of which stayed in served for 25 years or longer. Only a single prototype was completed with a second bare chassis for display purposes. From all reports, the Chancellor was well-received, incorporating many components and features long-desired by school bus operating and maintenance personnel.

In the context of a school bus, the Spartan Motors chassis was in reality a premium option, incorporating many of the features long sought in a durable school bus. However, there were several downsides to this approach which would prove fatal to the effort. As one might reasonably anticipate, the extra durability came with a price. Also, Spartan had been serving lower quantity and higher margin markets for similar products used for high end Class A motor homes as well as fire and rescue apparatus. Their production facilities were not geared up to produce a large volume under low pricing pressures, even though their products would have proved more durable in the long run.

This was a familiar dilemma, the same one which earlier had helped seal the fate of the Crown and Gillig coaches on the West Coast, as well as smaller transit buses such as those produced by Blue Bird in the 1970s. It was also similar to the situation which faced HARSCO BMY operation some years earlier, where a lesser quantity of higher quality products (at a correspondingly higher price) had also been the plant's historical output.