Oldest Working Taxi

[sierraman]

44 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Pity there doesn't seem to be a market for a "classic cabs" service.

Imagine: "Thank you for choosing ShiteCabs, the yesteryear door-to-door service...."

Add a bit of excitement to your holiday with Shite Airport Runs! The new roulette of whether the Orion diesel taking you to the airport will throw a rod at 3am just outside Saddleworth leaving you with an apologetic driver with no phone battery.

[3VOM]

ShiteCabs - "Take a chance on getting there"

[MiniMort]

Some say there's still a couple of Morris Oxford Diesels in the ShiteCabs fleet. Legend has it the drivers have spent over 40 years trying to get the glow plugs warmed up... 

[AnthonyG]

This reminds me of the early Minder episode where Arthur starts a minicab firm using Terry and cast-offs from Des the mechanics’ garage.

Terry ends up with a very shonky grey A60, he is refused a yellow Mk3 Cortina on the grounds that it is ‘sellable stock’. 

There’s a gangsters/protection racket storyline going on as well, one minicabber doesn’t pay out and gets his Mk4 Zephyr burnt out with a petrol bomb as a result. 

[bezzabsa]

wasn't there a sierra 1.8 dizzel estate doing airport runs to Manc airport in the news few years back??? sure that was over million miles

[ChinaTom]

Backwater Colombian towns have plenty of Renault 4 and 9 taxis. Fiat Oggis as well ( saloon Uno). Lots of mid size Fiat saloons I can’t recall the name of. O yeah, Palio.

[warren t claim]

https://www.phtm.co.uk/vehicle-age-and-regulation-survey&filter=A

Best consult that before buying one of these....

 

[sierraman]

7 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

wasn't there a sierra 1.8 dizzel estate doing airport runs to Manc airport in the news few years back??? sure that was over million miles

No it was a Mondeo 1.8 Aspen Estate. I bet they were long shifts hammering that fucker back over Glossop. 

[Pat Earrings]

Thread revival…

this shocked me and my mate last night around Rowley. Fully plated up Carina E still going as a mini cab..

[goosey]

The car in front is a Toyota 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I saw this last week at Kings Cross, must be the last Metrocab in London. 

[mat_the_cat]

45 minutes ago, Pat Earrings said:

this shocked me and my mate last night around Rowley. Fully plated up Carina E still going as a mini cab..

I wonder when it started to be used as a taxi?

[LightBulbFun]

46 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

I saw this last week at Kings Cross, must be the last Metrocab in London. 

I was Just thinking of that one, I had seen another picture of it a few months back, still curious how exactly its still allowed to ply trade with TFL's 15 year age limit 

I do know that for whatever reason it was only registered with the DLVA in 2010, so perhaps TFL's rules only apply to the date of first registration? and the owner/driver is able to exploit that as a loop hole? still very peculiar! 

Id love to know if theres a way to find it! *gets in the back* "alright where do you want to go, uhhh dont know im just quite literally in this for the Shite ride"

as I dont think I have ever had a trip/ride in a Metrocab, and id love to rectify that if I can ( the comments in the picture I found suggested it was going to be withdrawn pretty soon so I did not think even this one was still on the road!)

in the rare situations where we were in a situation of hailing a taxi, I always made my mum hail FX4's over anything else LOL or Suicide taxis as I knew them as back then   (on account of their suicide doors)

back then I always specifically disliked Metrocabs because they really didn't look like well, an FX4, too boxy and modern LOL (and at the time I was not a fan of TX's either, to me they just looked like just blobby imitations of the great FX4)

for similar reasons I also avoided/avoid those Mercedes things, although I have still ended up in a couple, but I much prefer me a TX

 

on the subject of oldest working taxi, the aforementioned 15 year age limit thing was only relatively recently introduced and according to wikipidia at the end of 2009 there where still six Austin and Rover engined FX4's running about! I wonder how long those lasted for after that date, can you imagine getting one of those!

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Pat Earrings said:

Thread revival…

this shocked me and my mate last night around Rowley. Fully plated up Carina E still going as a mini cab..

Brighton reg, I'd guess cabbed from new or 6 months ish 

[Dyslexic Viking]

Mercedes W110 still working in Lebanon

 

[Dobloseven]

9 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

I saw this last week at Kings Cross, must be the last Metrocab in London. 

Seeing that, reminded me of a regular customer I had, who ran one in Leicester for ages. He didn't really like it, but couldn't afford to change it. He had a miserable existence. Think sierramans wildest ramblings and you'd be about right. He'd married a woman from Thailand who'd taken advantage of him. Kids had turned out wrong uns, she'd got someone else etc...... Probably been better if she'd turned out to be a bloke. At least he'd have had someone to go down the pub and have a game of darts with! 

[cms206]

Looks like Glasgow's last FX4 - M676 HGB - finally bit the dust at the turn of the year. There are still a couple od Metrocabs earning, Clydebank could muster a 52-plate last week but I'm almost certain there's a Y-reg too.

Inverclyde used to be a hotbed of diesel 45s, Cavaliers and Mondeos well into the 2010s but I've not seen any recently.

[Timewaster]

This reminds me of a local cab firm we used to deal with. They had a fleet of diesel T72 bluebirds, all getting on a bit but cheap to fix and reliable.

The local council changed the rules and lowered the maximum age for a taxi and he had to scrap the lot.

He really struggled to replace them at short notice and ended up with all sorts of unsuitable old crap. He had petrol Mondeo's,  a Kia Schuma amongst others.

The outlay and crap fleet almost broke him, the drivers were moaning, his mechanic was moaning, he was not  happy.

Then a year later, the council changed the maximum age back to what it was and the whole affair had been for nothing.

Eventually he sold up and the company still exists but with a fleet of new hybrid Toyotas presumably on a lease.

[Crackers]

I see a (I think) 53 plate Rover 75 on taxi plates in Bognor on a regular basis, I've looked it up and it's done an astonishingly small number of miles. I wonder what's the deal with that - seems like a very odd choice of car to use as a taxi, so either it's someone's backup car that truly only does a few thousand miles a year, or it's receiving a massive haircut before every MOT.

[warren t claim]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I was Just thinking of that one, I had seen another picture of it a few months back, still curious how exactly its still allowed to ply trade with TFL's 15 year age limit 

I do know that for whatever reason it was only registered with the DLVA in 2010, so perhaps TFL's rules only apply to the date of first registration? and the owner/driver is able to exploit that as a loop hole? still very peculiar! 

Id love to know if theres a way to find it! *gets in the back* "alright where do you want to go, uhhh dont know im just quite literally in this for the Shite ride"

as I dont think I have ever had a trip/ride in a Metrocab, and id love to rectify that if I can ( the comments in the picture I found suggested it was going to be withdrawn pretty soon so I did not think even this one was still on the road!)

in the rare situations where we were in a situation of hailing a taxi, I always made my mum hail FX4's over anything else LOL or Suicide taxis as I knew them as back then   (on account of their suicide doors)

back then I always specifically disliked Metrocabs because they really didn't look like well, an FX4, too boxy and modern LOL (and at the time I was not a fan of TX's either, to me they just looked like just blobby imitations of the great FX4)

for similar reasons I also avoided/avoid those Mercedes things, although I have still ended up in a couple, but I much prefer me a TX

 

on the subject of oldest working taxi, the aforementioned 15 year age limit thing was only relatively recently introduced and according to wikipidia at the end of 2009 there where still six Austin and Rover engined FX4's running about! I wonder how long those lasted for after that date, can you imagine getting one of those!

Take it from a cabbie who's owned and worked a Metrocab, they're all a huge bag of plastic Tamworth Toss.

The Metrocab pictured is a TTT Metrocab. The makers had a slight "dead cat bounce" with the TTT. At the time emission regs forced LTI to ditch the unbelievably reliable Nissan 2.7 diesel TX1 and introduce the unbelievable unreliable and unpopular Ford Duratoss powered TX2. The TX2 was the cab that educated cab drivers to the phrase "fucked dual mass flywheel" and within a matter of months had managed to gain itself a terrible reputation with cab drivers throughout the land. About this time MCW, or whatever they were calling themselves between insolvencies, had managed to shoehorn a Toyota diesel into their bag of wank as Ford had ditched the 2.5Di engine. A fair few of us drivers bought a TTT Metrocab assuming that the Jap Toyota motor would be as reliable as the much missed Nissan engine LTI used to use. Sadly, we were wrong. The TTT Metrocab was usually seen being dragged backwards on a specs lift (most were auto) to a Toyota dealer to have another recurring fault fixed that the Metrocab dealer couldn't get to the bottom of.

With the 2.5Di Metrocab the engine wasn't the usual weak point, other than six monthly cam belt changes that is. The main problems were electrical and front suspension headaches. Mind you, the manual Ford powered Metrocab used a unique and therefore fucking expensive bearing in the back axle that failed every few years. Some cabbie's overcame the inherent Metrocab unreliability issues by fitting the entire running gear from a scrap LTI Fairway giving them the benefits of a reliable Nissan 2.7 powered cab without the six monthly weld fests associated with LTI cabs.

 

[warren t claim]

So what's the Metrocab like to drive I (don't) hear you ask?

I've had the unpleasant task of having to work a couple of them, a T reg auto that I owned and a C reg manual example that I rented for a couple of weeks at an extortionate price when the T reg example fucked up. This is almost identical to mine, even down to the Damask Red colour.

Compared to a Fairway there's quite a lot more room for the driver. Instruments are the usual Montego parts bin special. Mine was some sort of Millenium special edition with badly fitting wood dash trim and a kit car wood steering wheel which sits almost vertically and too close to your thighs. 

That huge partition next to the driver did make a handy arm rest. 

The thing is that the Twats from Tamworth fitted parts bin shit that they could buy cheaply without giving a thought to longevity. I dunno is anyone here owns a bug eyed Scorpio and if someone does then I'm sure that they've never had any issues with the door handles in civilian usage. A hack gets its doors opened dozens of times a day and the Ford door handles aren't up to the job, ditto the central locking.

The automatic transmission really isn't tuned to the Metrocab for hackney use. Also you can expect worn and leaking pipes, mine had to be bodged with a hollow towel rail one Boxing Day as it was pissing out fluid. Expect to have to shift down manually when driving up a hill with passengers on board.

[warren t claim]

Here's another pic of the last Metrocab in London.

[warren t claim]

11 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

So what's the Metrocab like to drive I (don't) hear you ask?

I've had the unpleasant task of having to work a couple of them, a T reg auto that I owned and an X reg manual example that I rented for a couple of weeks at an extortionate price when the T reg example fucked up. This is almost identical to mine, even down to the Damask Red colour.

Compared to a Fairway there's quite a lot more room for the driver. Instruments are the usual Montego parts bin special. Mine was some sort of Millenium special edition with badly fitting wood dash trim and a kit car wood steering wheel which sits almost vertically and too close to your thighs. 

That huge partition next to the driver did make a handy arm rest. 

The thing is that the Twats from Tamworth fitted parts bin shit that they could buy cheaply without giving a thought to longevity. I dunno is anyone here owns a bug eyed Scorpio and if someone does then I'm sure that they've never had any issues with the door handles in civilian usage. A hack gets its doors opened dozens of times a day and the Ford door handles aren't up to the job, ditto the central locking.

The automatic transmission really isn't tuned to the Metrocab for hackney use. Also you can expect worn and leaking pipes, mine had to be bodged with a hollow towel rail one Boxing Day as it was pissing out fluid. Expect to have to shift down manually when driving up a hill with passengers on board.

Just looking at those pics brings back bad memories of unreliability and amphetamine abuse.

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

Just looking at those pics brings back bad memories of unreliability and amphetamine abuse.

tell us what it was like to Operate a proper FX4 then  

I appreciate the write ups on the Metrocabs tho, sounds like I was right to avoid them when young LOL always fascinating to get real world insight, I wonder how @wuvvum faired with his lot as a private owner?

[warren t claim]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

tell us what it was like to Operate a proper FX4 then  

I appreciate the write ups on the Metrocabs tho, sounds like I was right to avoid them when young LOL always fascinating to get real world insight, I wonder how @wuvvum faired with his lot as a private owner?

I never owned an FX4 but I did own an LTI Fairway if that counts?

[Matty]

4 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

I never owned an FX4 but I did own an LTI Fairway if that counts?

Yes is does. Please proceed warren. I'm eating me tea and need something to read 😄

[NorfolkNWeigh]

16 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

Just looking at those pics brings back bad memories of unreliability and amphetamine abuse.

That’s exactly what Phil was saying to this young filly, just before inviting her to find out how the girls  paid when they had no money.

[warren t claim]

4 minutes ago, Matty said:

Yes is does. Please proceed warren. I'm eating me tea and need something to read 😄

The Metrocab was dying on it's arse so I chanced my arm with a Liverpool taxi dealer called Billy Kelly. The following post is copied and pasted from my taxi thread on TDW which by association mat trigger a few on here.

Let us start with what the man is like himself. Billy is a wealthy eccentric. He's a 73 year old alcoholic teddy boy with a soft spot for dogs, his garage has several purpose built kennels to accommodate dogs in need of a new home.

Billy is universally hated by old time Wirral hack owners for single handedly forcing the council to delimit the number of hackney plates by his endless legal challenges citing that there was "significant unmet demand" for hackneys in Wirral. When numbers were capped at 124 a hackney plate on Wirral was worth £11,000 and the cab owners were keen to keep the prices high.

Sick of his legal challenges, Wirral Borough Council threw in the towel back in 2003 and said that anyone willing to buy a TX1/2 less than three years old could have a plate. To stop the whinging from the trade and to delay the ranks flooding, WBC banned the use of the cheapo Peugeot van conversions earlier that month.

Despite being hated by the trade I actually like the guy! He's a genuine taxi enthusiast.

I first met him when I needed a hack quickly as my Metrocab was an utter bag of shit. As my plate was under 124 I had the grandfather rights to put it on any hackney regardless of age as long as it was wheelchair friendly. Wary of his reputation I turn up at his yard with the ex Mrs_Claim who was somewhat pregnant at the time to see what he had on offer cheap. We get chatting, no doubt helped by us getting on great with his alsation Max, and he decides to give me a tour of his premises.

He first shows me an early Metrocab in blue and asks me to guess who it used to belong to. I wrongly guess Prince Phillip but he tells me it was owned by Fred Housego, the taxi driver that won Mastermind. He then leads us to three cabs under dustcovers. He pulls the sheet back on one of them to reveal an M reg, 1974 FX4 with 200 miles on the clock, the other two undercover are the same! At the time he was trying to force WBC to issue plates for them as when he first started his legal challenge they would have been acceptable for plating! Sadly, as I've never seen these on the road I can only assume he lost this case as they are not wheelchair friendly.

I eventually buy a very tidy, green, 1994 Fairway off him under the agreement that it'll pass a taxi inspection, something I'm not sure it will as it has a cracked screen. As he sends us on our way to get it tested he puts Max the alsation in the back and tells us to take him with us! Apparently, we're the only people he likes and hasn't tried to bite on sight! At the teat centre the tester shits himself when Max goes for him, the lad didn't know Max was in the cab! We're asked to take him out so they can do the brake test and to my surprise, the Fairway passes.

[LightBulbFun]

5 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

I never owned an FX4 but I did own an LTI Fairway if that counts?

yeah any black cab stories goes! 

but do you mean the LTI TX1? the LTI Fairway was an FX4, FX4 Fairway then came the FX4 Fairway Driver and then the TX1

 

as an aside LTI ballsing things up with the Ford Engine in the TX2, is quite amusing, as its very much a case of those who dont learn from history are doomed to repeat it or however that saying goes

as Carbodies did exactly the same thing when they where forced to replace the reliable 2.5L BMC Diesel engine in the FX4, and replaced it with a Land Rover unit, the FX4R which was very unreliable,

and as an aside, so they started up thing, refurbishing old chassis with new mechanicals etc and imported new BMC engines from India, and these had to be on Q plates, and where called the FX4Q, and I have read that, that name was also a subtle message to British leyland over the whole selling of the BMC engine plant and Rover engine debacle    (as you can imagine what 4Q sounds like like when spoken/slurred at some one! LOL)

[Matty]

Cheers Warren. Got me the rest of the way through cheese pie, chips and beans 👍