Would A Prius Be Good For A Taxi

[RNS]

hello there

right well the thing is i used to have a skoda 1.9 DSG witch was very good had leather and all that it used to arould 40 to 42 MPG arould town what is not bad for a Auto of that size now 2 weeks a drunk driver wrote off my Taxi(skoda).so now i lookin to replace it.

so i take it some people here do already own a Prius and i would like there point of view do they think it would be a good replacement for my skoda.

[balli hi]

The Prius seems to be the growing car of choice amongst Londons private hire operators , plus its seen as eco friendly and it is exempt from the congestion charge ,

I reckon you could do a lot worse .

PS .... I thought my spelling was bad , but you take the biscuit mate

[Red diesel]

It sounds lovely in theory - but whats a Prius going to be like after 350 000 miles, having said that you can raise that same question about a lot of cars with the way technology is going.

The days of having a Carina II or the like and doing 350 000 miles plus on taxi work without hassle would seem to be over - i think.

Big problem with the Prius is going to be the cost of changing the batterys for the electric motor - the cars will be i suspect very reliable until that day comes - but that will be a very expensive day when it does come.

Having said that - it may well be good for business as the Prius is regarded as been a green machine (im not at all convienced myself - i still reckon a 20 year old Bluebird, Carina II or Volvo 240 is going to be greener then a Prius - but my opinion doesan't really matter when 99 percent of the public think different)

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Mercedes E class built like old boots and now ave eco-engines.

It's worth a look, places like Portugal have them everywhere and they're lovely for journeys!

[local hero]

Skodas seem to be vehicle of choice for private hire in Manchester, Hackneys have to be LTI tx1 tx2 tx4 or new merc vito with rear wheel steering although no one has bought one yet..

[balli hi]

Skodas seem to be vehicle of choice for private hire in Manchester, Hackneys have to be LTI tx1 tx2 tx4 or new merc vito with rear wheel steering although no one has bought one yet..

The Vito Taxi now accounts for 1 in 3 of all new Taxi sales in London ( black cabs ), it has LTI shaking in its boots and about time too , for far too long LTI has enjoyed a monopoly , and charged us ridiculous sums of money for sub standard cabs , when the TX4 was launched i was quoted £34,000 for a TX4 Silver and look what happened to those http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7619583.stm Thank god i did'nt buy one , although the fire problem has been solved , they still don't compare to the 3 pointed star .

[local hero]

I own + drive a TX4 + TX2 in Manchester have done for 20 yrs, agree with all you say, however no one seems to want to take up the sales, servicing, side of the new vito + kpm i believe are having trouble keeping up with sales in London, so might be sometime before we get them in the suburbs, we had a demo of the new cab at M/c Airport, have to say i am not totally convinced at £35000 its still a converted van, although has to be better built than any LTI product which isnt difficult..

PS my 07 tx4 was recalled because of the George Foreman grill effect, I now have an under bonnet sprinkler system

[Karma Supra]

The days of having a Carina II or the like and doing 350 000 miles plus on taxi work without hassle would seem to be over - i think.

I totally agree, cars are simply not made as well as they used to be. I always subscribed to this theory.

I always subscribed to this theory when I ran older cars... sold them both and got a "modern" car (sub 5 years) and now can confirm it! Looking at the Aygo and Auris forums they seem to also follow this trend, and my folks new cars definitely do.

[balli hi]

I own + drive a TX4 + TX2 in Manchester have done for 20 yrs, agree with all you say, however no one seems to want to take up the sales, servicing, side of the new vito + kpm i believe are having trouble keeping up with sales in London, so might be sometime before we get them in the suburbs, we had a demo of the new cab at M/c Airport, have to say i am not totally convinced at £35000 its still a converted van, although has to be better built than any LTI product which isnt difficult..

PS my 07 tx4 was recalled because of the George Foreman grill effect, I now have an under bonnet sprinkler system

One of my mates has bought one ( vito Taxi ) and he swears by it , he had a fairway before , so you can probably imagine there's no comparison , the guys that i have spoken to that own vito cabs all have nothing but praise for it , plus they seem to be getting more work out of it , because punters seem to like it as well and ask for their card so as they can pre- book them , a couple of times now i have lost jobs because there was a vito cab directly behind me , basically i've seen the punters , pulled in for them , only to be told that they want the vito cab because there are six of them ( punters ) and the vito can carry six , and my cab can only hold 5 .

As for servicing , i'm not sure of the exact figures , so i won't directly comment , however my mate tells me that he as a vito owner is treated " different class " by KPM , plus whenever he has to take his cab in for anything , if the cabs due to be on the ramps at 2pm , its on the ramps at 2pm , and the regular cab mechanics do not touch the vito as it has its own set of dedicated mercedes staff .

My cab is a TX1 silver and tbh she's a " lucky " cab ( cabby speak ) however if it were'nt for the current economic climate , which is getting worse , i would probably buy a vito , but theres no way i'm going to saddle myself with another ( mortgage ) LoL , not at least untill work starts to pick up again , till then i'll sit tight .

[local hero]

Don't want to take this thread to far off topic, like the idea of cab booked in at a time +gets done, M+O could take notes, Also TX1 is the best LTI product

unfortunately, we have a 10 yr age limit, so they are just about being phased out, although you can keep them for 12yrs if you have the exhaust conversion.. TBH i would not want to put any more money into this game, we are really struggling since the credit crunch just have to work more + more hours

[Red diesel]

Yes things are tough all right - less money around means less people going out on business or socially so less people are needing cabs.

On the other hand its good to have another manufacturer get into the black cab market - definitely if people start buying the new product because its better then the other manufacturers will have to up their game - which should benefit the customer