Oldest Working Taxi

[warren t claim]

On 9/8/2023 at 8:21 AM, warren t claim said:

 

The TX2 survival rate is a tricky one to call. Out of the ten TX2s I encountered today not one I saw was still Ford powered. Walking the ranks I failed to find a TX2 with the long Transit gear lever, instead, they all had the smaller gear lever as it seems like every TX2 still working today has been retrofitted with the Fairway/TX1 2.7 engine and box. With the automatic TX2 cabs I kept an ear out for them starting up as the Nissan and Ford engines sound different and even the auto TX2s had been converted.

 

 

 

Funnily enough, earlier today I was on the rank and out of my cab enjoying tobacco responsibly when the lad in the 54 plate TX2 decided to hop out and join me. Being polite I chatted the usual cabbie shit with him before glancing into his cab and being astounded to see the long 2000-2006 Transit gear lever protruding from his centre console. It was only a TX2 still powered by a Ford Duratoss engine! 

As you can imagine I steered the conversation towards his cab and he was remarkably candid regarding reliability. He said that it'll need a load of welding to pass its next inspection and every couple of weeks something causes it to breakdown, the last time was caused by a pully on the engine coming adrift. When the plate expires he's planning on weighing it in for the £400 bridge money and switching to renting a cab instead. 

For reasons I honestly can't even explain to myself, I asked him to not be so hasty in weighing it in as I'll give him £400 for it when it runs out of test. Fuck knows what I'm going to do with it. I suppose it has to be worth the £55 inspection fee just to see how bad it really is. I do know a tame welder and anything mechanical can be put right in Claim_Garage. If it totally dies on its arse then I could still remove the 2.4 Ford diesel to keep as a spare motor for my recovery truck and weigh the shell in. This particular TX2 is plated for six punters so flogging on the front passenger seat and seatbelt may score me a few quid. 

Even if I can get it to pass another six month inspection it'll only ever be worth £1500 on a good day, even Nissan converted TX2s change hands for only £2000 here. I suppose I could try and rent it out to someone desperate for £100 pw but I don't fancy having to live my life waiting to have to recover it when it breaks down twice a month.  

I'll keep you in the loop as to how this develops.

[DodgeRover]

On 9/8/2023 at 9:22 PM, chancer said:

@warren t claim im looking to buy a hack up here in glasgow. Obvs it has to be euro6 now. Not wanting to touch the merc Vito due to repair cost and parts availability, a TX is just out of the quesrion so it only leaves the transit procab (which is my preference) or an E7 which has been retrofitted for the emissions. One for sale locally, but its an E7 auto with 220k on the clock. Single shifted and one owner from new. Any of your guys down there run an auto? Its mostly manual up here

Can you run LPG and an older cab?

[artdjones]

7 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Funnily enough, earlier today I was on the rank and out of my cab enjoying tobacco responsibly when the lad in the 54 plate TX2 decided to hop out and join me. Being polite I chatted the usual cabbie shit with him before glancing into his cab and being astounded to see the long 2000-2006 Transit gear lever protruding from his centre console. It was only a TX2 still powered by a Ford Duratoss engine! 

As you can imagine I steered the conversation towards his cab and he was remarkably candid regarding reliability. He said that it'll need a load of welding to pass its next inspection and every couple of weeks something causes it to breakdown, the last time was caused by a pully on the engine coming adrift. When the plate expires he's planning on weighing it in for the £400 bridge money and switching to renting a cab instead. 

For reasons I honestly can't even explain to myself, I asked him to not be so hasty in weighing it in as I'll give him £400 for it when it runs out of test. Fuck knows what I'm going to do with it. I suppose it has to be worth the £55 inspection fee just to see how bad it really is. I do know a tame welder and anything mechanical can be put right in Claim_Garage. If it totally dies on its arse then I could still remove the 2.4 Ford diesel to keep as a spare motor for my recovery truck and weigh the shell in. This particular TX2 is plated for six punters so flogging on the front passenger seat and seatbelt may score me a few quid. 

Even if I can get it to pass another six month inspection it'll only ever be worth £1500 on a good day, even Nissan converted TX2s change hands for only £2000 here. I suppose I could try and rent it out to someone desperate for £100 pw but I don't fancy having to live my life waiting to have to recover it when it breaks down twice a month.  

I'll keep you in the loop as to how this develops.

You must be one of those secret romantics we hear about.

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, warren t claim said:

For reasons I honestly can't even explain to myself, I asked him to not be so hasty in weighing it in as I'll give him £400 for it when it runs out of test. Fuck knows what I'm going to do with it. I suppose it has to be worth the £55 inspection fee just to see how bad it really is. I do know a tame welder and anything mechanical can be put right in Claim_Garage. If it totally dies on its arse then I could still remove the 2.4 Ford diesel to keep as a spare motor for my recovery truck and weigh the shell in. This particular TX2 is plated for six punters so flogging on the front passenger seat and seatbelt may score me a few quid. 

Even if I can get it to pass another six month inspection it'll only ever be worth £1500 on a good day, even Nissan converted TX2s change hands for only £2000 here. I suppose I could try and rent it out to someone desperate for £100 pw but I don't fancy having to live my life waiting to have to recover it when it breaks down twice a month.  

I'll keep you in the loop as to how this develops.

who are you and what have you done with the real Warren T  Claim, I mean given how awful you portray TX's I am kinda surprised you would go near one again, I mean pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less! LOL

either way I look forward to see how this goes! always fun when an FX/TX joins the Autoshite ranks, at least being a 54 plate means it avoids the £LOL tax the later ones attract, which has probably helped kill off a bunch sadly

 

I mean hey if nothing else take it to an Autosolo course and make use of that 25ft turning circle?  

 

[chancer]

6 hours ago, DodgeRover said:

Can you run LPG and an older cab?

Yes but it has to be an approved conversion, and the V5 has to be amended to show new emissions and changed to euro 6 compliance. Basically any TX4 will have the diesel engine removed and it will have a petrol engine installed with LPG tank. www.vehiclerepoweringsolutions.com is the company involved in the TX retrofit. E7 peugeots and older vitos are having and exhaust and adblue system fitted by a company called Cybrand

[DodgeRover]

@warren t claimhow badly can it have deteriorated in 6 months? I wouldn't have thought that much welding would have been required?

[warren t claim]

On 9/10/2023 at 2:03 AM, LightBulbFun said:

who are you and what have you done with the real Warren T  Claim, I mean given how awful you portray TX's I am kinda surprised you would go near one again, I mean pleasantly surprised, but surprised none the less! LOL

either way I look forward to see how this goes! always fun when an FX/TX joins the Autoshite ranks, at least being a 54 plate means it avoids the £LOL tax the later ones attract, which has probably helped kill off a bunch sadly

 

I mean hey if nothing else take it to an Autosolo course and make use of that 25ft turning circle?  

 

Oh, I still think they're shit.

It all depends on how much it'll need to pass another six month plate. If I can get it through I'll justify it by putting an advert on it for Claim_Garage and using it as a courtesy cab or for short term rental to other lads whose cab is in for repair and need to cover their school runs. If I can get it passed I'll have to transfer my E7 insurance over for a week to collect the plate from the council but after that, I'll use my trader's insurance to keep it on the MID until someone needs it and they can insure it for hire and reward. 

If it's out on hire every third week it'll justify its own keep and existence. Also, if it's only out on hire for about 18 weeks a year I'll hope to avoid the inevitable fortnightly breakdowns. 

I'm assuming that a 19 year old TX2 would've had the DMF changed to a solid flywheel many years ago. Mind you, I also made the mistake that assuming that the wet belt on my 430,000 mile Mk 4 Mondeo would've been swapped for a chain in its past and that assumption didn't end well for me or the Mondeo.

[warren t claim]

On 9/3/2023 at 8:43 AM, warren t claim said:

Let's have an update about this quality LTI product.

In the last 6 weeks, it's needed.

Radiator expansion bottle.

New radiator!

Replacement steering box.

Oil pressure switch washer as it started pissing oil.

It now needs a new turbo. 

 

 

It looks like this fine piece of engineering will be going to the big rank in the sky.

I was chatting to a driver/mechanic called Spud on the rank tonight. Spud has worked on this cab plenty of times and knows how bad it is. At its last inspection 5 months ago it needed a metric fuckload of suspension work which pales into insignificance compared to the attention needed to the brakes. The rear cylinders had been leaking badly, to the point where Spud counted no less than 17 empty bottles of brake fluid in the compartment next to the driver. Despite this when he replaced the rear brake cylinders, shoes and drums the footbrake would still creep down to the floor. This was caused by the brakes being force bled which these cabs don't like and the end result was Spud having to replace the master cylinder as well. 

One of the issues the owner told me that it has was that it needed a new oil pressure switch. Spud mentioned this to me and I assumed it needed replacing because it was either leaking or faulty. Spud corrected me and said that it wasn't faulty, the owner just assumed it was because the oil pressure light was on all the time! The reason why the turbo shat itself now became abundantly clear!

I sort of was assuming that it'd only need a new turbo, which is a twat or a job to do but I know a hackney garage in Liverpool that'd take the job on and I do have a breakdown truck to get it there. It's now looking like it'll need a replacement engine and turbo. I then mentioned to Spud that I was only planning to offer £400 for the cab anyway which prompted Spud to reach for his phone and show me a Whatsapp convo with the owner where Spud offered him £500 and the owner declined saying that he was been offered £800 from someone! 

Anyway, I mentioned to Spud that it's a shame that the TX4 can't be converted to Nissan TX1 power and he then showed me a pic of a TX4 in his garage that has been converted. He even zoomed in on his phone to show me the peashooter exhaust. He says that they can be converted but the main issue if getting things like the instruments like the fuel gauge to work.  

[5speedracer]

I was in Rome last week and anything painted white seems the rule. Mostly Toyotas of any flavour with hybrids and EV now coming in. One guy however had a Punto 5 door!

[GregZX]

I was dropping in Glasgow City Centre last week and and there was an '05 East Dunbartonshire plated Volvo S80 on Hope Street. How was this possible with the LEZ I thought???? Then I checked the DVLA and the madman was running a 2.5T petrol Volvo as a private hire taxi.

[chancer]

17 minutes ago, GregZX said:

I was dropping in Glasgow City Centre last week and and there was an '05 East Dunbartonshire plated Volvo S80 on Hope Street. How was this possible with the LEZ I thought???? Then I checked the DVLA and the madman was running a 2.5T petrol Volvo as a private hire taxi.

Can afford to run a banger when flouting the law. Glasgow is plagued with out of town licenses working our streets. Worst offenders are South Lanarkshire plates. They want to work in the city but aint willing to pay for and pass the SVQ course required

[Eyersey1234]

On 9/6/2023 at 11:52 AM, chancer said:

still here in physical form and still looks pretty solid. MOT til end of the month as well!

MOT and tax have ran out but as of today still shows up at DVLA. Would be a shame if it got scrapped now having survived so long

[GregZX]

8 hours ago, chancer said:

Can afford to run a banger when flouting the law. Glasgow is plagued with out of town licenses working our streets. Worst offenders are South Lanarkshire plates. They want to work in the city but aint willing to pay for and pass the SVQ course required

East Dunbartsonshire council has no age limits on vehicles. 

We’re having big problems with South Lanarkshire doing local work in the likes of Pollok and Shawlands. The area is full of them since the merger to create Glasgocabs 

[LightBulbFun]

On 10/04/2023 at 22:34, warren t claim said:

The LTI TX cabs have a separate chassis which is why they were made exempt from the age limit as Sefton needed wheelchair friendly cabs to cover their special school runs. A quirk of their regs means that if you'd managed to convert an American Ford Crown Vic to RHD it could be plated as a cab forever as it's got a body on frame construction.

so do you think you could get this plated up then?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176040069503

[warren t claim]

21 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

so do you think you could get this plated up then?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176040069503

It'd need type approval.

[Jim Bergerac]

I have a vague recollection about reading about those Asquith cabs. They met the requirements to run in London at the time. Cost the company a fortune to develop and was ultimately a factor in them folding. 

[High Jetter]

49 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

It'd need type approval.

I approve of that type.

[warren t claim]

6 minutes ago, Jim Bergerac said:

I have a vague recollection about reading about those Asquith cabs. They met the requirements to run in London at the time. Cost the company a fortune to develop and was ultimately a factor in them folding. 

A quid flagfall! When was that last plated???

[Jim Bergerac]

From a bit of Googling that seems to have been the original demo one, so wonder of they ever plated it and they might have just stuck that in when it went on the road in 93/94. They did do 12, some of which were operated:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asquith_London_taxi_(H4_OLD),_4_May_2008_(2).jpg

Bit of promotional blurb here, it's a Transit underneath so they went to a lot of trouble to get the turning circle and add air suspension!

[paulplom]

There's a Blueline taxi which is knocking about up here. Saw it at tesco again yesterday.

A battered '56 meriva.

[Ko Chow]

End of an era coming soon in New York, down to 2 Crown Vics left (and the authorities want them gone)

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/nyregion/taxis-crown-victoria-new-york.html

[SunnySouth]

Was there ever an update on what became of the “famous” Isle of Wight Audi? ISTR it ended up at auction somewhere?!

[Datsuncog]

S-reg TX1 still pounding the mean streets of Belfast on Thursday. That's 25 years of fares. Looks like it's now operating as an accessible minicab rather than a plated hackney, mind.

Impressively, it had a black tide mark up to the rubbing strips and then another tide mark in rattle-can silver up to the doorhandles.

[bunglebus]

On 06/09/2023 at 11:52, chancer said:

still here in physical form and still looks pretty solid. MOT til end of the month as well!

I'd like an FX4. Seems like a year or two ago they were everywhere, but actually it's more like a decade. London just doesn't look right without a bazillion FX4s and Routemasters stinking up the place

[Datsuncog]

On 21/11/2023 at 18:14, SunnySouth said:

Was there ever an update on what became of the “famous” Isle of Wight Audi? ISTR it ended up at auction somewhere?!

The last I heard, it had ended up in Ireland being advertised on DoneDeal.ie for about five times what it had originally been sold for... no idea what became of it after that.

[LightBulbFun]

On 02/12/2023 at 09:42, Datsuncog said:

S-reg TX1 still pounding the mean streets of Belfast on Thursday. That's 25 years of fares. Looks like it's now operating as an accessible minicab rather than a plated hackney, mind.

Impressively, it had a black tide mark up to the rubbing strips and then another tide mark in rattle-can silver up to the doorhandles.

25 years?! fucking hell the TX range is still modern as far as im concerned LOL its weird how time has slowed down like that, I mean go back to 1973 for example, that would of been a car from 1948!

interesting that its operating as a Mini cab, is that legal over there? one of the things that kinda killed off the FL2 hire car was legislation put in place that made it illegal to use a vehicle that looked like a hackney carriage, for private hire work

have you seen any R Reg TX's over there? if I had the ability i'd love to preserve one, just for K reg mondeo type reasons  

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-shoppers-in-oxford-street-london-55949939.html

here it was 10 years ago! and according to Carbaba, only 2 total keepers, looks like it went right from London Service up to NI in 2014-ish?

 

I wonder how much of a triggers broom it is  (as an aside I love that its a Bronze, which is the bASe spec)

[Datsuncog]

13 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

interesting that its operating as a Mini cab, is that legal over there?

Possibly not; but then the taxi service industry in Northern Ireland has always had a reputation for being a little colourful... 

[Datsuncog]

37 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

have you seen any R Reg TX's over there? if I had the ability i'd love to preserve one, just for K reg mondeo type reason

Yes, there was an R-reg still in service a couple of years back - it was absolutely hanging, and I'm quite sure the bodywork was only held together by the advertising wrap. Haven't seen it since before COVID, mind - seems quite a few hackneys were taken off the road while everything was in lockdown, and then never seem to have resumed duties. There was a fairly clean FX4 Fairway on an M-plate still plying for hire until 2020, but I haven't seen it since.

37 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

I wonder how much of a triggers broom it is

No doubt quite a bit - and it's possibly an apocryphal story (and one I've recounted before), but I was told by a colleague about a licencing swoop a few years back, where a couple of taxis were stopped at the bottom of Donegall Pass by the police just to check their documents.

The drivers just ran away - simply legged it, abandoning their vehicles and their confused passengers.

Initial checks showed that the number plates did not match those shown on the hackney licences, nor did they match the vehicle VIN numbers...

I've also heard tell of velcro numberplates, and a reliance on 'the MOT hack' - a sound and roadworthy black cab which doesn't actually do any taxi work, but is kept to rent out to other taxi operators around MOT/PSV time for a few hours. Maybe just the stuff of urban legend, but looking at the absolute state of some of the cabs plying for hire, I start to imagine there could be a grain of truth in it...

[LightBulbFun]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Yes, there was an R-reg still in service a couple of years back - it was absolutely hanging, and I'm quite sure the bodywork was only held together by the advertising wrap. Haven't seen it since before COVID, mind - seems quite a few hackneys were taken off the road while everything was in lockdown, and then never seem to have resumed duties. There was a fairly clean FX4 Fairway on an M-plate still plying for hire until 2020, but I haven't seen it since.

No doubt quite a bit - and it's possibly an apocryphal story (and one I've recounted before), but I was told by a colleague about a licencing swoop a few years back, where a couple of taxis were stopped at the bottom of Donegall Pass by the police just to check their documents.

The drivers just ran away - simply legged it, abandoning their vehicles and their confused passengers.

Initial checks showed that the number plates did not match those shown on the hackney licences, nor did they match the vehicle VIN numbers...

I've also heard tell of velcro numberplates, and a reliance on 'the MOT hack' - a sound and roadworthy black cab which doesn't actually do any taxi work, but is kept to rent out to other taxi operators around MOT/PSV time for a few hours. Maybe just the stuff of urban legend, but looking at the absolute state of some of the cabs plying for hire, I start to imagine there could be a grain of truth in it...

Oh I have no doubt shenanigans like that happened, I have heard it happening on the Bus shite thread, the one good bus kept to one side to get all the others "through" their tests,

and even with Model 70's, I know of a good few that had mixed up identities, usually when a user wrote a machine off or it was Beyond economic repair, rather then properly replace it with another one and register the replacement machine to the user in question, some of the less by the book repair shops would just, slap the written off machines number plates on a decommissioned car around back and send it back out with the written off machines plates on it! never mind the logbook and chassis plate no longer matched up or anything like that LOL

and going back to passing tests, in Northern Ireland funnily enough, exactly what you describe, was done to a was barn find Model 70, which had its identity stuck on clean and roadworthy Model 70 as to get it through an inspection , so whoever back in 2008 could rob the barn find car of its number plate, (and then it was used as a number plate mule for sometime), eventually I was able to track down both the original barn find and the roadworthy car, and sort the whole mess out (and thats when I found about the whole mess and finally figured out why I had 2 stories/histories for the same car, because the "same" car "existed" in 2 locations for about 15 years LOL)

so I have no doubt similar shenanigans would of happened to black cabs, these sorts of shenanigans just seem to happen to all fleet vehicles in one form or another

 

and its well known that one of the biggest fleet operators of all, London Transport made it its modus operandi when it came to RT's and RM's  

 

[warren t claim]

10 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

Yes, there was an R-reg still in service a couple of years back - it was absolutely hanging, and I'm quite sure the bodywork was only held together by the advertising wrap. Haven't seen it since before COVID, mind - seems quite a few hackneys were taken off the road while everything was in lockdown, and then never seem to have resumed duties. There was a fairly clean FX4 Fairway on an M-plate still plying for hire until 2020, but I haven't seen it since.

No doubt quite a bit - and it's possibly an apocryphal story (and one I've recounted before), but I was told by a colleague about a licencing swoop a few years back, where a couple of taxis were stopped at the bottom of Donegall Pass by the police just to check their documents.

The drivers just ran away - simply legged it, abandoning their vehicles and their confused passengers.

Initial checks showed that the number plates did not match those shown on the hackney licences, nor did they match the vehicle VIN numbers...

I've also heard tell of velcro numberplates, and a reliance on 'the MOT hack' - a sound and roadworthy black cab which doesn't actually do any taxi work, but is kept to rent out to other taxi operators around MOT/PSV time for a few hours. Maybe just the stuff of urban legend, but looking at the absolute state of some of the cabs plying for hire, I start to imagine there could be a grain of truth in it...

Due to the interchangeability of parts between the TX1,2&4 it's not that hard to keep a TX1 on the road. 

If I'm being totally honest, I had one good Pepper Red Mk 2 Mondeo 2.0LX  that went for plenty of taxi inspections...