Full sized pez powered family saloons.

[warren t claim]

I was speaking to the owner of a taxi rental garage today and I was surprised to hear that they're throwing in the towel with diesels. They've spoken to their drivers and come to am agreement that from now on when a car becomes fubared it's getting replaced with petrol. The thing is that non diesel family saloons are something of a dying breed therefore finding a suitable Mondeo under 3 years old is not as easy as you'd think. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience of modern petrols and what are they like to drive?

[cort16]

I think a lot of modern petrols are pretty good as long as you stay away from the winning* combo of autoboxes and turbo chargers. All that VAG TFsi super charged turbo bollocks is a recipe for disaster.

Petrol cars are a pleasure to drive compared to a diesel. They're so quiet and smooth and they actually rev rather than being stuck in a lumpy power band like td's.

 

Although mpg has got better I still think a lot of the quoted MPG is utter bollocks. The only issue might be car tax as the way the systems rigged just now I imagine a 2.0 pez is much more expensive to tax than a 2.0 diesel of the same model.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I'm just about to go to Witney car auction to pick up a 2.5 Mondeo estate my brother bought last night. It's a 59 plate exPolice car so Its a Zetec but with the 5 pot Turbo . I'll report back later.

[LC Torana]

Shows you how out of touch I am - I was thinking "Mondeo? surely that is a medium-sized car?".

 

A quick trip to Wiki shows me that the 4th Gen Mondeo is indeed now a truly full-size car.  The medium-sized one ceased production a mere 15 years ago.

 

Next thing you'll tell me they don't make the Carlton and Senator anymore.

[lisbon_road]

Did they say why the taxi company had enough of diesels (I appreciate the reasons might be obvious)?  Not wishing to get on my soapbox but lpg is the business for taxis.

[warren t claim]

Did they say why the taxi company had enough of diesels (I appreciate the reasons might be obvious)? Not wishing to get on my soapbox but lpg is the business for taxis.

DMF and DPF issue plus blown turbos. A few of the 1.8 Mondeos have shredded some sort of belt in the sump that fuck them up totally.

[theorganist]

A guy at work has a four year old Focus Diesel it is regularly maintained and I don't think has done a particularly high mileage. He has just had to have a new Turbo and Starter motor at a combined cost of millions of pounds.

[EssDeeWon]

A fleet of 2.9 V6 Granada's sounds just the ticket.

 

I hardly ever use a taxi but when I do its always some horrible bland tractor sounding eurobox. Now if it was something proper like mk3 Granada Ghia I would tip big time!! But a 2009 TD Vectra in silver?  ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

[Sloth in a bowl]

There will be a load of Octavia 1.2 motors in your neighbourhood very soon.

 

Not bad cars, masses of space and not too slow as they weigh under 1200kg and have 110hp.

[Bren]

I remember when I was little going a taxi ( I've been in them since) a mk3 tina in purple velvet metallic with slot mags.

 

If auto shite did taxis......

[Asimo]

Plenty of Toyota Prius Taxis about. Probably not the sort of thing you were thinking of though.....

[Alexg]

Small capacity engines with turbos may be seen as the way forward, however their fuel consumption figures are so bogus that in the real world you'd be no worse off with the older larger capacity engines they replaced. Also I can't see a 1.0 3 cylinder Turbo Mondeo breezing 250k miles.

[PiperCub]

From what I understand, alot of the diesel fuel economy figures aren't achievable anyway. Also the increased complexity and potential for expensive disasters is starting to turn people off diesels unless they really do the big miles whereupon they make more sense.

 

There is a dearth of mid to large size petrols apparantly, a neighbour was looking for a very recent example of the largest petrol engined Beemer 1 series (a 135? Sorry, please correct me as I'm really out of touch with moderns). He was months searching, there were never more than a couple for sale in the entire country, if he'd wanted a diesel he'd have been sorted in a few days. He gave up in the end.

[Junkman]

Here you go:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1973-CHRYSLER-IMPERIAL-LE-BARON-/271919029614

 

 

OK, problem solved. Next question?

[nacho man]

Derby is ace for taxi's, there are some carina's still in use and 70% of the local taxis to me are pez avensis's. I always have a chat with them when I am pissed on the way home. There all happy derby doesn't have a age limit as the old models cost buttons to repair.

[pshome]

If auto shite did taxis......

 

[Junkman]

Strictly speaking that Imperial is a Rootes Group, too.

[Station]

Too much hardware shite on modern engines. Next is snapped cranks due to stop-start 'technology'.

[Lacquer Peel]

Station, have stop-start systems led to snapped cranks? Genuine question.

 

Apparently you can turn stop-start off in some cars but it turns itself back on, that'd drive me nuts, I hate nannying cars.

[Pillock]

No MPG figures are achievable in the real world, I've never got within 10mpg of my claimed figure on my Focus, 2008 or Astra despite often just sitting on the m1 at 50mpg through roadworks day after day. My 2008 could just about hit 60mpg, Astra struggles with 55 and my 5-speed Focus was lucky to see 52mpg, despite advertising a 72mpg figure.

 

Small pez engines seem better in terms of simplicity but then they want to turbocharge everything these days. Mind you, Saab LPT engines aren't known for short lifespan so maybe the answer is a mild turbo, small engine combo rather than VW getting something like 180bhp from a 1.4 TSI.

[Pillock]

Station, have stop-start systems led to snapped cranks? Genuine question.

 

Apparently you can turn stop-start off in some cars but it turns itself back on, that'd drive me nuts, I hate nannying cars.

I can turn mine off per journey but yeah, it's back on the next time you go anywhere. Although I don't mind it at all, it genuinely seems to help economy in rush hour but then it's not my car, I won't be paying for a new starter motor before the first MOT.

 

Peugeot one was better, you could roll at

[danthecapriman]

My Sprinter works van has stop start. I found it incredibly irritating and hated it so I turned it off. It's on a rocker switch on the dash, never comes back on again unless you turn it on! It's been off now for almost the entire 5 years I've had the van. Shit idea that stop start (emission tax fiddle!).

 

The best thing taxi firms should do is start buying up all the old Ford Crown Vics from the states and using them. As they get old there should be a full car reconditioning scheme to make them 'as new' again.

[wuvvum]

 

OK, not full sized, but will seat 5 at a pinch, loads of boot space, and a nice simple 1.2-litre Clio engine with no turbos or other bollocks.  No electrics to go wrong, and under 7 bags for a brand new one.

[Noel Tidybeard]

I can turn mine off per journey but yeah, it's back on the next time you go anywhere. Although I don't mind it at all, it genuinely seems to help economy in rush hour but then it's not my car, I won't be paying for a new starter motor before the first MOT.

 

Peugeot one was better, you could roll at <14mph and it would cut the engine. Vauxhall doesn't have ePAS so keeps the engine going until you've stopped otherwise only Popeye can steer the thing.

some of the more modern stuff maybe doesnt use the starter motor- iirc there's some motorised flywheel malarky lurking around- indeed the poojoe works car sounds different when you start it on the key compared to the start/stop whereas the polios nomotions were deffo starter every time

[alf892]

Too much hardware shite on modern engines. Next is snapped cranks due to stop-start 'technology'.

Can't see that it would snap cranks but can't be good for the dmf or starter/ring gear. I've got into a routine of switching it off every time I start up. In fact I even reach for the switch in the old rover......

[MrBiscuits]

 

OK, not full sized, but will seat 5 at a pinch, loads of boot space, and a nice simple 1.2-litre Clio engine with no turbos or other bollocks. No electrics to go wrong, and under 7 bags for a brand new one.

Exactly - this is how they do taxis in places like Turkey and Brazil where the little Fiat (Palio?), VW, Renault (Dacia) and Chevy (Corsa) saloons seem to survive roads and drivers that would kill a Mondeo or Vectra in days. The Brazilians even run them on pure Ethanol at 60 odd pence a litre.

[bigfella2]

I know people are starting to dismiss dervs because of turbo and dmf failure. But aren't alot of these modern petrol cars also getting dmf's as well as egr's, the things we are trying to move away from?

[cort16]

My brother and law who's like 24 just bought a 58 plate lexarse is250. Very nice it is to. Even with the window open you can't hear the engine.

I applauded him for not going for the diesel and he said he done some reading on the interwebz and came to the conclusion all new diesels are shite.

Smart lad.

[Station]

Station, have stop-start systems led to snapped cranks? Genuine question.

 

Apparently you can turn stop-start off in some cars but it turns itself back on, that'd drive me nuts, I hate nannying cars.

Yeah, mate in the motor factors said they're starting to come in on this, don't know what make of car though.

[Dave_Q]

I do agree that modern figures are nonsense as the cars are engineered to work on a totally unrealistic duty cycle on pain of higher taxes.

 

Indeed they are. Manufacturers know this so engineer the car to hit emissions targets on the drive cycle.

 

The EU have twigged though, so Euro 7 (if that's what it's called) will probably include more realistic testing as well as a requirement for manufacturers to ensure their vehicles are compliant in operation.

 

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/archives/greenweek2013/sites/default/files/content/presentations/5-4_walsh.pdf