Where to guv'nor? Shite Taxis.

[warren t claim]

Does your local area have/had any noteworthy shite vehicles on its fleet?

 

Where I live (Wirral) there's a bylaw where no private hire cars can be over 8 years old but in the past we were lucky enough to have a P reg Polonez diesel and a similar aged Lada Riva estate until they reached their eighth birthday and had to be pensioned off. Nowadays a Proton Wira is probably the shitiest car you can expect to see plated for hire and reward in the WMBC area.

 

Hackney cabs are exempt from the 8 year rule as they are all purpose built vehicles so there are a fair few Metroscabs still operating and until about four years ago there was a 1972 FX4 automatic plying for hire in the local area.

[brammy777]

Just yesterday I had a ride in a 53 plate Diesel Rover 75, thought that was pretty shite! Extremely comfortable though, and it made a nice change from those Fiat/Peugeot vans. I cant think of any old taxis around this way, but just the other month, whilst on the motorway, I saw a pre frog face Scorpio still operating as a Minicab, which has to be the oldest one I have seen apart from the D plate Metrocab I spotted in Notting Hill at the new year.

[trigger]

I often see this one about as well as a blue H reg Volvo 940.

 

1991 Volvo 740 GL Taxi in Ipswich by Trigger's Retro Road Tests!, on Flickr

[Pete-M]

Derby has a load of R plate stuff knocking about, but most councils won't let anything on now if it's over 8 years old. A lot have clamped down so that a car has to be under three years old when first tested with that council as a cab. The R plate stuff in Derby is the oldest I've seen lately, and there's a shit load of it.

 

The rules are ludicrous, I deal with 'em every day.

 

There was a Vauxhall Victor on the cabs near here until the mid 90s. S reg it was, and very very tidy.

[Guest]

[seth]

Any minicab trip I need to make I always book with Hirst Cabs. First for Quality! They never turn up though.

[Mr Lobster]

Thats because they are busy looking for victims / punters round the back of Dewsbury bus station to give a lift / bit of surprise sex / half a Tesco scotch egg.

[barrett]

ooh I'd go for a scotch egg right about now!

 

No shite taxis round here, just the usual Skodas and minivans. Someone near me runs a 607 as a cab though, which I think is pretty cool. I'm just about coming round to the styling on those things.

I was in a cab with a 71 year old driver who'd been doing it for 40 years the other day, I should've asked him what old cabs he's had but frankly, I was totally rat-arsed

[Tayne]

.

[seth]

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Not a lot of shite in these parts, the council have all sorts of rules about age, size, legroom, bootspace etc.

I remember speaking to a driver who told me that the Merc 190 couldn't be used but the replacement C-class could.

The taxi ranks up here are a mix of people carriers and big saloons such as E-classes, 5 series, big Volvo etc.

This is about as shite as it gets in Aberdeen...

 

I think Highland and Moray councils are a bit more relaxed about age; up until very recently a 1990 Ford Sierra was working in Inverness, and a 1994 Subaru Legacy (curious choice) in Elgin.

[DCLane]

Thats because they are busy looking for victims / punters round the back of Dewsbury bus station to give a lift / bit of surprise sex / half a Tesco scotch egg.

 

Oi! We're not that cheap in Dewsbury. And anyway, we don't have a Tesco.

 

A full-size Asda scotch egg minimum.

 

Oh, and most of the cabs round here are old-shape Toyota Corolla's.

[chaseracer]

Round these here parts, back in the mid-90s after t'pit finally closed, it seemed like every ex-miner and his dog went minicabbing with whatever fell conveniently to hand. As a consequence, there was some outrageous shite on the ranks and Cannock was a bit like a private-hire Wild West until the council clamped down.

 

Now it's all consolidated into half a dozen or so big taxi firms running newish MPVs and Pacific Rim futureshite, it's nowhere near as interesting...

[andrew e]

I think my taxi peak was in 1997 aboard a citroen AX cab in Tunisa. It was a 5 door and the steel had worn through on the door tops inside

[morris_ital_lover]

The fleet in Abingdon isnt too bad for shite, until recently there was a cavalier primera and mondeo mk1 pootling around to complement the fine selection of Vargas Metrocabs that still wheeze their way across town.

 

m0rris

[scaryoldcortina]

Thats because they are busy looking for victims / punters round the back of Dewsbury bus station to give a lift / bit of surprise sex / half a Tesco scotch egg.

 

Can you get them to send a car to 13 Clinton Road, Leatherhead please? Ask for Richard.

 

 

I apologise for that in advance, but he really, really is making this far too easy.

[Guest EccentricRichard]

Oh ha ha...

[Guest]

Any minicab trip I need to make I always book with Hirst Cabs. First for Quality! They never turn up though.

I believe you'll find the slogan is "Our quality has a reputation".

 

The restrictions around here are very strict in terms of age, this basically means that the majority of taxis have obvious crash damage. If they lifted the age restrictions, taxis would probably be better quality - an old, sound Carina E rather than a new Avensis with loads of tippex writing on it. One firm in Castleford near-entirely runs battered MG ZS diesels, they have a secret compound full of smashed-up ones which they either plunder for bits or (I suspect) tie to a lamp post and reverse until it looks straight.

 

Anyway this is the best taxi:

[eddyramrod]

Cyprus, like most of Europe, seems to favour diesel Mercs as taxis, and most of those will be various incarnations of E-Klasse. My landlord operates a taxi when he finishes at his day job, it's a grey 300E auto from about 1995. I remember riding in a 190 taxi in Tenerife, which was one of the reasons I now never go on holiday without having a rental car waiting for me at the other end; preferably something well up the scale from "basic."

[Vin]

Not really any shite taxis round our way. Odd Kia futureshite maybe, but mainly usual Octavias.

 

Many moons ago there was fleet of Lada Riva Minicabs in Hull. They'd be regularly be parked up outside Paragon Station.

[Guest EccentricRichard]

Most unusual taxi I've ever seen, sadly, is a (very tidy) 05-reg silver BMW 320d Touring... the rest are all bloody E220CDIs, Octavias, S60s/S80s, Passats... though in the Guildford area (including the town's second railway station, which I use for college), I've seen previous-gen S-classes in use as private hire-type thingies.

[autofive]

about 3 years had a night out in Wigan (with whitevanman) we headed down to the taxi rank by the station and spotted a Cortina in full taxi livery in the compound behind the office

[ProgRocker]

There's a Merc S Class doing the rounds in Norwich. 1999-06 [?] shape W1...whatever! I lose count after W126.

 

Quite impressed with a Citroen Berlingo taxi I was in once with its sliding rear door(s). Seemed like a shrewd taxi buy for carrying 4 passengers + luggage. Also impressed by a BMW 5-series taxi I was in once (1995-2003 shape)

 

Last year sometime I was given a lift in an old style 'Hirst cab' Magentis. I queried the driver about his choice of motor as I knew that no diesel engine option was available on that model. He said that he detested diesel engined cars...his overheads must be sky high! Also assumed that diesel was the default option for taxi drivers.

[Guest EccentricRichard]

There's a Merc S Class doing the rounds in Norwich. 1999-06 [?] shape W...whatever! I lose count after W126.

 

That'd be the W220 (thankyou, Wikipedia).

 

Also impressed by a BMW 5-series taxi I was in once (1995-2003 shape)

 

That'd be the E39.

[ProgRocker]

^ Thanks.

 

I'm a bit lazy when it comes to German E numbers and W numbers.

[Station]

I remember regularly getting taxis and always seemed to get some bloke in a green mk2 Astra. He must've been nervous as he'd picked off all the rubber on the steering wheel, and was left with just the metal frame and the horn centre. I didn't know about the 8 year rule. Surely if a car is MOT'd, it's safe as a taxi?

[Guest EccentricRichard]

I remember regularly getting taxis and always seemed to get some bloke in a green mk2 Astra. He must've been nervous as he'd picked off all the rubber on the steering wheel, and was left with just the metal frame and the horn centre. I didn't know about the 8 year rule. Surely if a car is MOT'd, it's safe as a taxi?

 

Probably a matter of insurance. It's one thing "risking your neck" in a ten-year-old car, but when you've got paying punters aboard... I may well be wrong, though.

[wuvvum]

There's a cab firm in a town about 8 miles from me which still has a Sierra on the fleet, as well as a Mk1 Mondeo. In fact most of their cabs are shite. Their "school run" vehicles are a Mk3 Transit 12-seater and a manky old T-reg LDV Convoy.

[cms206]

Still at least three Cavaliers in Greenock, though bizarre choices still working from Glasgow Airport until recently were a 51-plate Saab 9-3 and a T-reg Rover 620...

[Mash]

I spotted this one in Barcelona earlier in the year: