Old Taxi firm goes into administration.

[Spiny Norman]

Looks like the final nail in the coffin for the traditional 'London Cab'

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20031436

[Rocket88]

Hardly a surprise..............you can't keep building outdated chod [and not cheap outdated chod at that] for long, and expect it to sell purely on brand loyalty

[Craig the Princess]

you can with a closed market, as the London cab one used to be before the Vito met the regulaions.

It will be a shame to see destinctive cabs die out in London.

[fairkens]

A(nother) sad day for this company. I used to walk passed the factory on my way to school

[M'coli]

I mentioned this last night on the Grumpy thread - it's a damn shame.

[Junkman]

Which gene are the English missing, that enables the Germans to successfully run a car factory?

[brickwall]

^ and get paid more, more holidays and better pensions and the company still makes a buck?

[dollywobbler]

Sounds like a 'successful' joint operation with the Chinese, so no doubt they'll be produced over there soon enough. (I think Geely had a 20% stake in Mangenese Bronze).

 

I know Merc Vitos and Peugeot Expert cabs are probably much better in many ways, but a cab should be cab shaped!

[AeroNautiCal]

When I used to pop into the taxi showroom in Holloway Road, London, I was astounded at the prices asked for these things!

[Junkman]

How much are they?

[dollywobbler]

Starting at £32k!

[Junkman]

With a bit of haggling that would buy you two Experts.

[Ben_L]

It's absurd that a British design should use such crap as a Chinese Steering Box. One person that I know of has had their 2 month old, top of the range Taxi condemned due to the steering failure and had his license suspended for the pleasure. He's now not going to get it repaired under warranty and left with a £600pcm finance arrangement.

 

Will we never learn to leave the chinese to pocket dictionaries and calculators???

[dollywobbler]

It's absurd that a British design should use such crap as a Chinese Steering Box. One person that I know of has had their 2 month old, top of the range Taxi condemned due to the steering failure and had his license suspended for the pleasure. He's now not going to get it repaired under warranty and left with a £600pcm finance arrangement.

 

Will we never learn to leave the chinese to pocket dictionaries and calculators???

 

 

Oh yeah, because the British would never knock out an inferior product and expect the masses to put up with it. FFS.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It's absurd that a British design should use such crap as a Chinese Steering Box. One person that I know of has had their 2 month old, top of the range Taxi condemned due to the steering failure and had his license suspended for the pleasure. He's now not going to get it repaired under warranty and left with a £600pcm finance arrangement.

 

Will we never learn to leave the chinese to pocket dictionaries and calculators???

 

Surely Manganese are entirely responsible for that, their suppliers are their own responsibility, seems they didnt test their new steering boxes out properly before fitting them.

[Ben_L]

It's absurd that a British design should use such crap as a Chinese Steering Box. One person that I know of has had their 2 month old, top of the range Taxi condemned due to the steering failure and had his license suspended for the pleasure. He's now not going to get it repaired under warranty and left with a £600pcm finance arrangement.

 

Will we never learn to leave the chinese to pocket dictionaries and calculators???

 

 

Oh yeah, because the British would never knock out an inferior product and expect the masses to put up with it. FFS.

 

 

Sorry,

 

400 newly delivered Taxi's have been taken off the road and the drivers "Delicensed" until their cabs are repaired to an original standard. The old TX4 didn't do this, only the more recent one which used more chinese parts.

 

I didn't say that Britain don't chuck out some useless chod (6 month old Rusty Maestro anyone??), but at least they had the decency to fold up once they'd solved most of the issues, not collapse when owners needed it most!

[Spiny Norman]

Starting at £32k!

 

For the life expectancy and use these things get that's a fucking bargain.

Try driving any Shitroen/Peugeot thing 24 hours a day in town traffic for 20 years, pausing only for servicing and see how long it lasts....

There are a couple of cabbies in my family and believe me, these vehicles WORK for a living .

[Junkman]

From Wikipedia:

 

"On 12 October 2012 the London Taxi Company announced the recall of some four hundred TX4 models delivered since late February 2012 owing to two incidents involving a loss of power steering. [...] As the cause/circumstances of the failure is yet to fully understood, and a remedy made available, no new cabs can be sold."

 

That this causes a company to be forced to call in the administrators, is simply utter horseshit. The company must have been in dire straights beforehand.

 

Let's do the maths (German style).

 

From Wikipedia:

 

"Annual production has averaged between 2000 and 2500 units per year through the past decade."

 

2250 cars x £32,000 retail price = £72,000,000 / 300 employees = £240,000 turnover per employee/annum.

 

This is not an unhealthy ratio by any standards.

 

Conclusion:

 

There cannot be a different reason than bad management that this company is phuqued. Period.

 

I would like to see the management team, how many are on the board, how many of them have an automotive background.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It was in dire straits I think, is turnover per employee a useful measure of a company though? What if the parts and labour to build each cab ended up costing £31.9k, the turnover per employee is the same but the company is junk.

[Junkman]

It was in dire straits I think, is turnover per employee a useful measure of a company though? What if the parts and labour to build each cab ended up costing £31.9k, the turnover per employee is the same but the company is junk.

 

Turnover per employee is a good rule of thumb. Your 'if' would be a clear indicator for bad management.

[warren t claim]

As a former hack driver (Fairway, TX1 and TX2) all I can say is goodbye to bad rubbish. Poorly built, uneconomical crap that the main dealers couldn't even fix. Severe rattles and what seems like scuttle shake plagued my 12 month old TX2 and all the dealer did was squirt silicone spray around the doors and shrug the problems off, at least it was an auto so I didn't have to endure the inevitable DMF death. Electric window switches that got so uncomfortably hot that you could melt cheese on them and recycled Series 2 XJ6 wiring for comedy effect won't be missed and don't get me started on the rustproofing (or lack thereof).

 

Misplaced nostalgia coupled with the fact that drivers in delimited council areas like the high price to keep new drivers out are the only reasons that have kept them popular.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It was in dire straits I think, is turnover per employee a useful measure of a company though? What if the parts and labour to build each cab ended up costing £31.9k, the turnover per employee is the same but the company is junk.

 

Turnover per employee is a good rule of thumb. Your 'if' would be a clear indicator for bad management.

 

As would sliding into administration after a crippling product recall

[Rocket88]

As a former hack driver (Fairway, TX1 and TX2) all I can say is goodbye to bad rubbish. Poorly built, uneconomical crap that the main dealers couldn't even fix. Severe rattles and what seems like scuttle shake plagued my 12 month old TX2 and all the dealer did was squirt silicone spray around the doors and shrug the problems off, at least it was an auto so I didn't have to endure the inevitable DMF death. Electric window switches that got so uncomfortably hot that you could melt cheese on them and recycled Series 2 XJ6 wiring for comedy effect won't be missed and don't get me started on the rustproofing (or lack thereof).

 

Misplaced nostalgia coupled with the fact that drivers in delimited council areas like the high price to keep new drivers out are the only reasons that have kept them popular.

 

Sir Warren, you speaketh great truths...........I have one that I use as a hack for dumping crap. The rust proofing appears to be non existent, the build quality is shocking, and riding in the back would require an immediate visit to an oesteopath on completion of one's journey., Electrical bits randomly stop and start working for no apparent reason, and the thing is chronically under geared. It is, however very reliable in the mechanical department, and drives surpisingly well, the steering is almost Citroen CX like in it's abruptness [which I like] and the brakes are very good. How it costs 30 large plus new I fail to understand though.

[warren t claim]

It was in dire straits I think, is turnover per employee a useful measure of a company though? What if the parts and labour to build each cab ended up costing £31.9k, the turnover per employee is the same but the company is junk.

 

Turnover per employee is a good rule of thumb. Your 'if' would be a clear indicator for bad management.

 

As would sliding into administration after a crippling product recall

 

LTI lost a lot of goodwill from cabbies after the Ford engined TX2 fiasco, even now a tidy Nissan powered TX1 on an 02 plate is a prized possession within the golfing racist community. LTI refused to acknowledge that there was any sort of problem with the Duratorque engine and were actively looking for ways around paying out on warranty claims.

 

Still a better cab than the Scimitar Picasso Metrocab though.

[alf892]

Any fule can get turnover......its margin you need. Otherwise you just run out of cash........especially when you are stopped from selling the product and have continuing warranty 'issues'.................money ceases to come in but keeps going out.

 

As someone said if they were part chinese owned it will suit them to relocate to china and restart production from there leaving any waranty liability behind. Prolly have change that steering box though..............

[Junkman]

It was in dire straits I think, is turnover per employee a useful measure of a company though? What if the parts and labour to build each cab ended up costing £31.9k, the turnover per employee is the same but the company is junk.

 

Turnover per employee is a good rule of thumb. Your 'if' would be a clear indicator for bad management.

 

As would sliding into administration after a crippling product recall

 

Agree 100%.

[Junkman]

Any fule can get turnover......its margin you need. Otherwise you just run out of cash........especially when you are stopped from selling the product and have continuing warranty 'issues'.................money ceases to come in but keeps going out.

 

As someone said if they were part chinese owned it will suit them to relocate to china and restart production from there leaving any waranty liability behind. Prolly have change that steering box though..............

 

What is this 'restart production in China' talk all about? Production in China is alive and well since 2009.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

As somewone who dislikes London anyway, I couldn't give a shit. These thing were and are complete junk - I've never seen anything rot as badly as one of these and a welder mate often makes up to a grand a week welding them up for the local operators.

 

Go to Ze Fatherland and you ride in considerable comfort in an MB texed E Class Benz, not some heap of shit that only us and the Indians would find acceptable. For all that, it'd be nice to see a really nice old FX4 rattling along now and then. The Checker cab has just about vanished from New York streets but the world moves on.

[Junkman]

The Checker cab has just about vanished from New York streets but the world moves on.

 

And what was it replaced with?

 

 

Proudly built in Turkey.

I'm NOT making this up! And the dismal thing is, that this dreary excuse of a shite is probably lightyears better than that miserable LTI contraption, let alone those three ton yank Mastodons. British cabbies would be well advised to toss their sheds, too, and start importing Transit Connects from Turkey in bulk.

 

But is this the world I wanted for my children to live in?

 

My daughter number 1 has still experienced a Routemaster on regular duty. My daughter number 2 is patronised by a pneumatic door all her life since birth, she can admire a Routemaster in a museum, and only dream about the liberty it provided.

 

Neither of them knows the feeling and smell in a railway carriage pulled by a steam loco. I experienced this every day until I was 12.

 

Yes, the world moves on. The question is whether it heads into an agreeable direction.

[dollywobbler]

Yes, the world moves on. The question is whether it heads into an agreeable direction.

 

If you're a member of this society, you generally think no to that!

 

Manganese has been in serious decline for a few years by the look of it. No profits last year and a recall issue this year.