Thinking of buying an FX4 taxi anyone had one?

[scooters]

morning,considering buying an FX4 - probably a later one with the Nissan Engine - anyone had one? anything to watch out for?use would be as a daily runabout - 6 seats very useful and thehy havbe a huge load capacity

[pompei]

Apparently Prince Philip and Stephen Fry drive them

[Albert Ross]

Apparently short on legroom for the driver. Don't know if that can be modified at all....

[pompei]

anything to watch out for?

May turn you into a rabid foreigner-hating, Daily Mail reading bigot And you may find yourself unable to drive south of the river

[dollywobbler]

I drove one this year with the Nissan/slushbox set up. I really enjoyed it, but wouldn't want to drive far in it. Not quick and not fast. Turning circle invites you to play in every car park on full lock though!As has been said, the driving position is a little cramped, but loads of room for the family! Main thing is that most of 'em have been run into the ground. This one had less than 60k miles on the clock and felt tight and smooth.

[Milford Cubicle]

I think rust is one of the main issues with them, along with neglect and tired drivetrains, but parts are easy to come by and cheap. Many of them will be cracking 500k or more...I test drove a fairly neglected one a while back, I thought it was great aside from the cramped driving position. It was one with the rare manual gearbox which wasn't as truculent as I thought it'd be, coupled with the 2.7 Nissan diesel. It pootled along quite happily, and the ride/handling/steering wasn't that bad at low speed.It only had 1k on the Austin Rover-sourced clock (lots of AR switchgear in the later models, parts bin fans), with no service history to say whether it had a new speedo or the odo really had rolled over at the 1,000,000 mile mark... Shame the seller was asking far too much for it, I might have bought it.

[Richard]

No matter how many modern refinements have been added you have to remember it's basically a 1960s commercial vehicle.

[Negative Creep]

anything to watch out for?

Everyone trying to wave you down or climb in at the lights?

[AnthonyG]

Anything half decent will still be viable for someone to use as a cab and will cost £2-£3000. Anything under a grand will be invariably shagged out - engine, suspension and the panelwork, although the chassis is pretty tough as they are built from 1950s style girders.Bear in mind no one sane will want to sit in the jump seats for very long, and there is no front passenger seat, so it's more like a 4 seater really.To be honest, there are better ways of transporting 6 people about.

[trigger]

I downloaded the road test for the Fairway 2.7 Diesel one of these a while back that I've posted on here a few times before, If you think 80 mph top speed, 0-60 in 23.6sec but still returning 23.9 mpg is your idea of fun then go for it!.

Just don't drive through your local high street on a Saturday night!

 

Click photo for link!

 

[Lankytim]

Hey DW, was the one you drive the cab Car Mechanics mag bought for 600 squid?

[warren t claim]

They are awful! I used to own/drive one for a living.The front wings are in two pieces and rust horrifically.Anything with drum brakes will also have kingpins that need greasing every few weeks.Power steering boxes leak like a sieve even when they are only a few months old.They have a tiny boot.Heater controls sieze so get used to opening the bonnet to adjust the temp.All sorts of electrical naughtyness caused by previous bodged radio/meter fitting attempts.VERY leaky and draughty, hence the amount you see with cardboard on the grille.

[lancashireclamper]

Had exactly the same idea myself a few weeks ago, if you search back through the older posts a bit you'll find a thread called carry on cabbying which yielded a lot of useful advice from the forum, have to say that after looking at a couple I decided against the idea, insurance proved tricky to get, (everybody thought I wanted hire and reward insurance) and, quite frankly the vehicles that were available were just basically shagged!

[STUNO]

They are rare in this part of the universe, but I came across this the other day. It was well loaded and making good speed (95 kph+) on a reasonably steep uphill climb. The road by the way is our version of the M1.

[wuvvum]

I've never had an FX4 but I've had a couple of Metrocabs - slightly more modern take on the same idea, but still quite cramped for the driver and not exactly quick, economical or particularly good to drive by car standards. They are good fun though - one finds oneself making use of the turning circle surprisingly often and they are GR8 4 nipping down bus lanes.

[dollywobbler]

Hey DW, was the one you drive the cab Car Mechanics mag bought for 600 squid?

Aye. Peter was damned lucky with that one! It's a really nice example.

[Lankytim]

Yes, he was V lucky... it seems to be an exceptional example.

[STUNO]

I think that Austin badge means that its a pre-'82 model.

I ran a check on it,tis a 1970 model and been in nz since 1979.power is a 2.2 L petrol, which explains its good hillclimbing ability.

[Des]

I ran the 4 door version of the FX3 for a while, had that 2.2 petrol engine, just like a Mini engine only twice the size, the thing went like shit, mechanical brakes worked quite well, and handling wasn't too bad either. Some cars are strange like that, i.e. beam axles, leaf springs, lever arm dampers, non servo pre war brakes, cam and peg steering box, all the archaic stuff that nightmares are made of, yet it performed better than could be believed, in the way that bumble bee flight is technically impossible.Diesel engine ruined the taxi.

[wilko]

Mate of mine owns a Nissan diesel powered one, which I have travelled to "south of the river" in London from Milton Keynes & Northampton - he loves driving them, but IMO, long distance travel in the back is not for the faint hearted!

[scooters]

yup - I got one across edinburgh the other day and nearly barfed in the back - the driver was a tosspot who I told to slow down - the suspensin was horrible and after 10 mins we all felt sick - nope decided against it big time - amusing idea but no more than that!

[warren t claim]

Just buy a Chevy Caprice and paint it yellow.

[Richard]

Why do cabbies allegedly refuse to go south of the river anyway?

[CIH]

Just buy a Chevy Caprice and paint it yellow.

Hell yeah! Now that's how you build a taxi. Probably slower than the dizzy FX but it will be comfy.

[brammy777]

Why do cabbies allegedly refuse to go south of the river anyway?

Because its apparently not as easy to get a fare when they are travelling back.

[pogweasel]

I won't go south of the river after midnight either. PUM-PUM, SLIT-SLIT, DRIVE-BY'S. Much of south london scares the shit outta me. RLY.

[brammy777]

Im originally from South East London and yep even I dont want to go there!However, the one place I have genuinely been scared in London is Peckham, nearly shit myself.