FX4 or Fairway Taxi as Transport!

[petr]

Got myself a retired Carbodys Fairway Taxi. Funny old beast of a thing, with its 1958 designed body, chassis with a Nissan diesel engine and autobox. Some of the build quality is truly terrible wiring like spaghetti and bad electrical conections. Handling terrible, loads of roll.  But it’s fun to drive and the tight turning circle is so useful, then there is all the room in the back, family like it!   Usual they hate my old cars!

I would be interested to hear if anyone else on here has one?

[320touring]

My mate Robin has a fairway driver as his daily..I'll point him in this thread's direction:)

 

I've had a shot and it's right good fun. I'd need it to be a bit quicker for a daily though

[Guest Breadvan72]

I WANTZ a Metrocab.    Very well built machines.    Great to ride in, and said to be OK to drive 

 

[Guest Breadvan72]

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/metrocab-ttt-taxi-w-regbargain/1071711593

[Rocket88]

I ran one for a bit, until the chiropractor's bill outweighed the fuel savings....................If you have the Nissan engined one, ignore failed alternator warnings at your peril...............

[Guest Breadvan72]

Manual Metrocab, half a bag!

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/metrocab-taxi-t-reg/1071598613#photo-content

[Guest Breadvan72]

400,000 miles!

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/metrocab-series-two-1997-r-reg-auto-tt/1066349034#photo-content

 

 

The one I was in yesterday in London had done 345,000 miles on its original engine and gearbox.  The driver sang its praises.    Grey velourioushness interior v fine.  

[garethj]

 I'd need it to be a bit quicker for a daily though

Every 6 months I wonder about a Fairway with Terrano turbo diesel engine.  But finding a Fairway with manual box is difficult, so the thought goes away again

[Cavcraft]

I had one and is was great fun. Bit slow and I over did the veg oil which didn't help.

[Jim Bergerac]

Manual Metrocab, half a bag!

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/metrocab-taxi-t-reg/1071598613#photo-content

 

 

I love the interior on that!

 

 

It's as if they took a load of parts bin bits and tried to assemble them together in an incohesive whole that looked as ugly as possible. Looks like  a late Montego/Maestro steering wheel, the window switches and door pulls are Ford (Mk1 Mondeo?) and the vents on the dash centre look familiar too. It's great!

[HMC]

Bought one afew years back. Got it off a bit of a taxi enthusiast....

 

Mine was just out of service from london, liked it all the more that it still had adverts etc still attached.

 

 

Brilliantly usefull, helped a couple of friends move house, provided me with endless entertainment, and far more fun to drive than I was expecting. (5.00 for russ swift hoonage)

 

 

I found traffic wardens tended to be sympathetic and bleary eyed late night revellers would sometimes try to get in! MYK is much missed.

 

 

 

 

[saucedoctor]

Apologies for the thread hijack:

 

Does anyone know if these things have any wiring that I could hook up a car stereo to?

 

Thanks

[320touring]

Every 6 months I wonder about a Fairway with Terrano turbo diesel engine. But finding a Fairway with manual box is difficult, so the thought goes away again

I have an old BMW 3.5 6cyl plus gearbox that would bolt in lovely. 210bhp and 15mpg ftw

[petr]

My cab still has adverts as it one owner and was unused fo two years, after coming out of service.

Its not a black one its a dark plumb colour and its always been that colour,n same person had it all its working life, although its a bit neglected in places.

[Mr Livered]

Hi Petr, if you do a search you should find a thread or two about Fairways/FX4s, as they have been discussed on here before.

 

I bought one about 5 years ago for £500 and drove it around for a bit, including a tour of France in the summer, which was enormous fun as a London taxi attracts a lot of attention over there.  They're great cars, simple to maintain, cheap to fuel and I never got tired of the fantastic turning circle. I kept looking for excuses to do U-turns in narrow roads, just because I could. These things can spin round in one go and start driving the other way in a road where the average car has to do a 5 or 7 point turn.

 

Eventually I got sick of it for two reasons:

 

1) there's no provision for a front seat passenger. It's fun to put the kids in the back, close the little window, turn on the stereo and ignore their whining but I would have liked to have Mrs Livered in the front with me. You can get passenger seats for them but there's not really enough room for a proper seat in the front because of the way the rear bulkhead between driver ad passengers is stepped. So you end up keeping luggage beside the driver, as proper cabbies do (the boot is tiny, a *slightly* bigger version of the ones in Minis).

 

2) it was seriously slow. You're talking 60mph maximum on the motorway, after you've taken ten miles to get up to speed. That French tour would have been a lot nicer if we could have zoomed along the autoroute between destinations, instead of plodding noisily everywhere trying to keep up with the lorries.

[petr]

Hi Mr Livered Have not found this one to bad on the motorway it has the overdrive and will do 70 with out much dificulty i fa

[petr]

Ops sent message before i had finished! The main thing that stops me going too fast is the thought of all the fuel it will use! Noise is a nother problem, as I do find the engine makes a lot of noise when at speed sounds like the old buses. Very good round town, as good view also people let me out and stop when I do a u turn!

[Felly Magic]

Stephen Fry has had several and now owns a TX, and didn't Prince Philip once own one?

[Micrashed]

Every 6 months I wonder about a Fairway with Terrano turbo diesel engine.  But finding a Fairway with manual box is difficult, so the thought goes away again

I have a Maverick with a Terrano turbo diesel and manual box.

Acceleration is best described as "relaxed!"

[Jim Bergerac]

Stephen Fry has had several and now owns a TX, and didn't Prince Philip once own one?

 

Phil the Greek had a Metrocab:

[mercrocker]

Often toyed with the idea of an FX4/Fairway to replace my VW Camper....We use it more for days at the beach than staying away.   Replace the jump seats with one of those camper kitchen kits (read - rip bits out of an old caravan...) and a shite picnic vehicle awaits.   Then I read the bit about drunks trying to get in and remembered when we did a similar thing to a CF ambulance.   Came back one day to find a bloke with his mother at death's door begging for a ride to the hospital.....An FX3 might be nicer, too, full of atmospheric mid Fifties London imagery.

[Felly Magic]

Last year someone in Saxmundham was using a Metrocab as an every day car 

 

 

 

 

[Mr Livered]

the bit about drunks trying to get in

I used to get people trying to hail me all the time, despite the fact that the rooftop TAXI light was never illuminated. However, presumably that will happen less and less now that they're not actually working as taxis.

 

The daytrip vehicle idea is a good one. Sometimes i find myself hanging around somewhere (for example, waiting for the kids to do some kind of club, or Mrs Livered to do some shopping) and wishing I had taken the camper just so that I can relax with a cuppa whilst waiting. A taxi fitted out like a camper but without the bed would make a fantastic place to retreat to. In fact when we had a taxi and went to the beach or whatever, the kids got changed in it because if you're child sized you can stand up in one.

[warren t claim]

I WANTZ a Metrocab.    Very well built machines.    Great to ride in, and said to be OK to drive 

 

No, they're the worst of a bad bunch. The Scimitar Picasso Diesel is about the most unreliable piece of hateful shit to roll on God's good earth.

[purplebargeken]

Miss mine dreadfully. Enjoy the ponderous progress, the lack of being cut up in traffic and the slightly menacing presence of a large slowly moving mountain of metal. Top speed is woeful but that is not what these things are about.

 

Manuals are freely downloadable on the internet.

 

Check for rustiness.

[twosmoke300]

^^^ how the hell do you download a gearbox ?

😃

[Richard]

^^^ how the hell do you download a gearbox ?

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/17068-3d-printing/

[garethj]

Does anyone know if these things have any wiring that I could hook up a car stereo to?

There's a workshop manual here which might help for wiring

[Guest Robin814]

My mate Robin has a fairway driver as his daily..I'll point him in this thread's direction:)

 

I've had a shot and it's right good fun. I'd need it to be a bit quicker for a daily though

Hi guys! 

 

Yep I've got a K Reg 1993 Fairway Driver. I am an self confessed Taxi anorak!! My dad and 3 uncles are all taxi owners in Edinburgh. Ever since i was a wee lad I've always been in about them! My dads first owned cab was an FX4S C224USG and next a 1992 Fairway Driver J351USG, Back in 2006 Edinburgh banned all Fairways and FX4's from the streets due to a rule that taxis had to follow back in the day and deemed the back suicide doors unsafe for passengers! So all they were left with was Peugeot van E7 Van conversions, TX 1,2,4s and the good old metrocab! 

 

My uncle had his fair share of Metrocabs from the first series one straight to the TTT. They ran from E reg's to 55 plates when they ceased trading.

The Series one and two frontage was based on the Ford Granada and featured a Ford transit engine and the later TTT's had the Toyota engines and the first cab to have Macpherson struts! They came with the option of 5 or 6 seats in the back. 

 

I've always wanted a fairway and finally bought one in 2013 an ex Birmingham 5 speed Manual with 451,000 on the clock! Wooden Door cappings, Nice clean interior, vinyl roof and sun roof. Manual Gearbox is a must for these. They return a better MPG and make a great noise going through the gears  Love the roar of the 2.7 Nissan! 

 

Luckily mine came without the emission kit fitted. These are notoriously bad for fuel consumption and general maintenance, many private owners now take these out as there is no need for them anymore.

I find if i drive mine at 70mph and give it a good thrashing once in a while. It clears out a lot and the acceleration does increase. However doesn't last too long and slowly goes back to normal. I was overtook a Mazda MX5 once!! 

 

The Driver was the last ever Fairway model and the first to brake discs on the front and double wishbone configuration on the front. Replaced the older Fairway which began life in 1989 and ended in 1992. A good cab to look out for is the FX4s plus (which came before fairway) which had the Rover 2.5 engine and had a black interior in the back but same dashboard as the Fairway. I know of one nearby my lock up and always considered that for a project!

 

Main Problems

 

1) Leaks!

The drivers cab is like a sieve! Lets in water like the Titanic. Water runs in from the engine bay and window seals and if you are lucky maybe the sunroof! The causes many problems from smelly compartment and rusty floors! Al

 

The leak on to the fuse box is also a major problem! The fuse box is located on a swivel mount above the drivers knee. This can be left in the down position or in my case, be placed in the right hand speaker hole!

 

2) Rust!

You have holy grail if you have one with limited rust!

Usual common problems include rusting of the front wings, engine bay, rear wheel arches and sills! 

pay particular attention to the top spring mounting turret. I had my damper crash through the top of it and also sills can be a pain! Door bottoms rust and require new plates welded at the bottoms 

 

3) Worn Suspension 

Usual Ball joints and bushes begin to perish over the large miles. Bangs and crashes from this area can be regular. I am in the process of changing my top ball joint and need to get my hands on a 43mm socket to unscrew the ball joint.

 

4)Brakes are not bad. 4 pot calipers on the front and big meaty drums on the back. They can be a bit scary in the wet but are genuinely ok. They use landrover and alfa romeo brake pads believe it or not!

 

5) Engine

Nissan Terrano 2.7 engine is a non timing chain / belt engine that can go to the moon and back or over the clock!

 

6) Parts 

You can source many parts from other cars. 

Headlights from most Austin cars (mini) Rear heater matrix from a mini, Door handles from a Transit, Heater box and servo from MG and rear lights from Austin 1100.

 

All in all they are great things to play about with!

 

A link to the work done to my cab

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/93132865@N04/

 

and a link to the Fairway Owners Club

 

http://www.fairwayownersclub.com/Fairway_Taxi_Forum/index.php

 

If anyone needs a hand or advice, feel free to give a shout!

[scruff]

I quite fancy a older FX4R, a Land Rover 200Tdi should be a straightish swop for the 2.5 diesel donkey. I bet it'd munch the auto box though and I haven't seen an 'R' for yonks.