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Ex Private Hire Taxi... Would you?


sierraman

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On 11/24/2021 at 12:53 AM, Eyersey1234 said:

Didn't know they made a Mk2 Granny in taxi spec. 

Yep. Remember it from the sales brochure at the time...1985 I reckon. I seem to recall it boasted 'uprated' rear suspension (whatever that constituted!) and an amended wiring harness to accommodate the meter, and radio, and a switched power spur for your roof light. Might have been some inbuilt aerial for your CB radio too: and I could be wrong, but I think there was a plate inside the roof panel for the exterior light, and the bloody great dome light inside. 

Quite a well thought out package. Still a fucking miserable experience all round. 

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On 11/23/2021 at 4:44 PM, bunglebus said:

Having read the thread on the other side, and heard more than enough tales of cut and shuts plus being fixed when they absolutely have to be - no. 

Not afraid of high miles though.

Dunno what you've read on my posts on TDW but things are a little better know.

Back in the old days it was hard for a self employed taxi driver to obtain finance on a new car. Nowadays it's different, even I managed to buy my Ioniq new from a specialist taxi dealer.

What used to happen is several enterprising breakers would repair write off cars and offer them to the taxi trade on what's called a "settle buy" basis. This basically meant a driver would buy a damaged repaired three year old Sierra for about three grand and pay it off at £100 a week. When I was renting out PH cars they were bought from the now defunct Blue Cycle salvage site, repaired and rented out. For example, back in 2003 I'd but something like a 1998 Mondeo petrol hatch for about £350 with front and back damage, spend a grand or so getting it hammered straight and then rent it out for £80 a week.  IIRC, the Modeo was quite a cheap car to fix, the 406 Pug wasn't a cheap car to get repair panels for at the time so I swerved them. One lad did a healthy trade punting on Rover 400s, I think he sold them on for £3500 for a petrol and £4500 for a diesel. Another guy was snapping up Xantias cheaply at the time and renting them out for buttons on a total loss basis, they were never serviced and was quite happy to throw one of his many spare motors or gearboxes in when they broke down. I remember he had a nice looking Xantia Exclusive 2.0 auto that he bought cheap with flood damage, it burned oil like there's no tomorrow probably down to slightly bent rods. 

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5 hours ago, warren t claim said:

What used to happen is several enterprising breakers would repair write off cars and offer them to the taxi trade on what's called a "settle buy" basis. This basically meant a driver would buy a damaged repaired three year old Sierra for about three grand and pay it off at £100 a week. When I was renting out PH cars they were bought from the now defunct Blue Cycle salvage site, repaired and rented out. For example, back in 2003 I'd but something like a 1998 Mondeo petrol hatch for about £350 with front and back damage, spend a grand or so getting it hammered straight and then rent it out for £80 a week.  IIRC, the Modeo was quite a cheap car to fix, the 406 Pug wasn't a cheap car to get repair panels for at the time so I swerved them. One lad did a healthy trade punting on Rover 400s, I think he sold them on for £3500 for a petrol and £4500 for a diesel. Another guy was snapping up Xantias cheaply at the time and renting them out for buttons on a total loss basis, they were never serviced and was quite happy to throw one of his many spare motors or gearboxes in when they broke down. I remember he had a nice looking Xantia Exclusive 2.0 auto that he bought cheap with flood damage, it burned oil like there's no tomorrow probably down to slightly bent rods. 

Its amazing how things have changed so much in less than twenty years. 

A bit like how pick your own scrapyards have vanished due to health and safety concerns about people clambering up a stack of four old Escorts to retrieve a part.

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I’ve never intentionally  rented out damaged repaired cabs, I didn’t need to .  I would buy £6/700 Montegos from auction that were just under our Council 6 year age limit , spend a weekend with filler and rattle cans , license them and rent them out for £120 a week including “ maintenance “ and insurance . Not including tyres and front pads. Had the occasional Cavalier or Sierra but they were usually too expensive to buy and there was no real advantage in running costs or reliability. In fact I once made the mistake of getting a nice J reg Cavalier 2.0 GLi for bloke as he said he’d pay a bit extra. He put it through a hedge after a couple of weeks , cost me a lot in repairs, I ended up going to Liverpool for the front end panels in the right colour. I fucked him off, and  when it was back on the road I had to rent it out for the same price as the Montegos and it took about a year to see a profit. 

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I knew loads of people in the game and it was funny , people like "Big Malky" who had cars in Greenock always being pissed off that drivers used their brakes (he paid for the pads), instead of using the gearbox for slowing down in hilly Inverclyde (the drivers paid for the fuel).  The cost of pads versus drivetrain didn't enter his head.

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8 minutes ago, colino said:

I knew loads of people in the game and it was funny , people like "Big Malky" who had cars in Greenock always being pissed off that drivers used their brakes (he paid for the pads), instead of using the gearbox for slowing down in hilly Inverclyde (the drivers paid for the fuel).  The cost of pads versus drivetrain didn't enter his head.

When I was learning to drive back in the late 80s, I saw taught to come down the gears and use the engine to slow down.

When my wife learned to drive 14 years ago, they told her to use the brakes to slow and stop exactly for the reasons above - it's cheaper to replace pads than a gearbox.

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22 minutes ago, TheOtherStu said:

When I was learning to drive back in the late 80s, I saw taught to come down the gears and use the engine to slow down.

When my wife learned to drive 14 years ago, they told her to use the brakes to slow and stop exactly for the reasons above - it's cheaper to replace pads than a gearbox.

How many gearboxes have you heard blowing up from being used for engine braking? Sitting on the brakes is just bad practice. That said in the other extreme I had a lift with someone a while back that went down the box sequentially at every junction instead of 4th/2nd etc block shifting it. 

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1 hour ago, sierraman said:

How many gearboxes have you heard blowing up from being used for engine braking? Sitting on the brakes is just bad practice. That said in the other extreme I had a lift with someone a while back that went down the box sequentially at every junction instead of 4th/2nd etc block shifting it. 

That was how I was taught too. I don't do that any more.

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I've been gear box/engine braking since the 70's and have never had to replace a box. Current steed, 305 van, I've had for 20 years still on the original box. I've changed the discs once and the pads once that I can remember, maybe twice max. So I think wrecking a gear box because of box/engine braking is bollox. Personal experience. Other people are available.

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I'm gonna be the awkward bugger who stands up for 50/50. Bringing 44t to a controlled halt on drum brakes made my mind up on that. Especially going down into Inverness and trying to make the A96 turn...that was fun. 

But then, 'defensive driving' and 'SAFED' both dictate you select the gear for where you're going next, in advance, so it makes sense to use both approaches in some sort of harmony. 

My dad went back to driving taxis briefly, later in his life, once he'd become an IAM assessor! That was why the guy gave him the job in the first place: cos he wouldn't be breaking the cars... According to dad, that was a spot of Titanic deck chair rearrangement anyhow: the fleet (mostly Pugrot 406s iirc) weren't ever in great shape. His only improvement was to break them less badly, less often.

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On 11/26/2021 at 9:13 AM, NorfolkNWeigh said:

I’ve never intentionally  rented out damaged repaired cabs, I didn’t need to .  I would buy £6/700 Montegos from auction that were just under our Council 6 year age limit , spend a weekend with filler and rattle cans , license them and rent them out for £120 a week including “ maintenance “ and insurance . Not including tyres and front pads. Had the occasional Cavalier or Sierra but they were usually too expensive to buy and there was no real advantage in running costs or reliability. In fact I once made the mistake of getting a nice J reg Cavalier 2.0 GLi for bloke as he said he’d pay a bit extra. He put it through a hedge after a couple of weeks , cost me a lot in repairs, I ended up going to Liverpool for the front end panels in the right colour. I fucked him off, and  when it was back on the road I had to rent it out for the same price as the Montegos and it took about a year to see a profit. 

Back in the early 80s we had plenty of Marina/Itals going out for rental as they were 50% cheaper than the equivalent Cortina when bought at auction. IIRC, towards the end of their production run, BL were punting out new Itals for something like £3995 new which hammered their residual values. Back then we had a pretty big PH company called Murphy's who exclusively ran a fleet of red Itals with yellow roofs that were known locally as "Noddy Cars". They had a base around the corner from  the local banger auction and I'd often get a ride home in one after doing the walk of shame when I've struck out buying a car from there as I didn't fancy waiting for two buses home with a few hundred in my pocket.

Murphy's were actually the oldest established PH company in the Wirral and still exist today but only do airport transfers. When their Ital fleet had to be retired at eight years they replaced them with Orion diesels with a similar colour scheme. The driver's actually loved the Orion's, even in 1.6D form. When they had to be pensioned off due to their age they were replaced with Montego diesel estate cars, but this time they didn't have them painted in red and yellow. By this time they were more of an airport only firm and worked differently from the rest of Wirral's taxi firms, they supplied a car free to their drivers but only paid them £12 for a Manchester Airport run and kept the other £18 for themselves for the car and fuel.

Here's one of their old bases as it is now.

mt1.thumb.PNG.0d65e324721eea3b1b37fb513e179120.PNG

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I suppose there's ex taxis and there's ex taxis. 

A few things need to be taken into consideration. For example, Enterprise Car Hire have a deal with Uber where a driver can rent a new car for something like £180 a week all inclusive that's exchanged for a new car every six months or so. That'd be a decent used buy. A three year old Ford Galaxy with 250,000 miles on the clock bought for 50% of retail value would be OK and a decent family hack. 

EX accident management credit hire cars are a decent used buy too. Usually they don't spend long on the hire fleet but most are sold plated to a PH driver. Easy to spot as they've had half a dozen MOTs in their first year.

The problems arise when someone like W.T.C takes his Ioniq to W.B.A.C denying his occupation and some punter buys it thinking that it's got the remainder of Hyundai's Five Year Warranty only to have an expensive surprise when he tries to make a claim.

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