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https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/john-winlow-volvo-too-old-ipswich-borough-council-1-6712355
Interestingly in 2009 it had done 272,393 miles. 10 MOT later it's still one exactly the same mileage. Wonder how many miles have really been covered? Must be approaching half a million. Shame the mileometer wasn't fixed.
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Read this earlier today and it’s one of my pet hates. Our local council introduced a policy which stated that private hire cars had to be less than 2yrs old when they were first registered as a taxi and had to leave service when it hit 6yrs old. This put crippling additional costs into the taxi trade and knocked loads of them who were unable to borrow off the road.
I had a discussion with the very man who suggested this policy to the councillors and aired my disagreement based on a long time in the motor trade, such experience he had none of being a career civil servant with little to no knowledge of cars yet here he was making decisions for others but without the required knowledge and nor did any of the councillors who voted it through several of whom didn’t even drive.
There’s absolutely no reason why a well maintained older car can’t serve as a taxi. As long as the vehicle passes it’s Mot and it’s separate taxi test then there’s no reason to exclude them and to add a huge financial burden to operators. To me it was madness that for example my immaculate well maintained 2010 Toyota Avensis wouldn’t be permitted as a taxi yet it is in perfect working order, perfectly safe and would allow people without the means to borrow access to the job.
This choice killed off countless single car owner drivers and a number of small taxi fleets in my area. The bulk order of the rest who were able to borrow turned their backs on private hire and bought Hackney’s instead which were again rather idiotically could only serve until they were 10yrs old but this 4yrs made the difference in sums compared to 6yrs with a private hire. Today the town has far fewer private hire and the bulk are Hackney’s which are dearer for customers. Who won out of this? Not taxi drivers and certainly not the public. Was a greasy hand oiled during this process by a particular large taxi selling outfit or was it just another civil servant trying to justify their job by coming up with never ending additional and utterly unnecessary legislation? Hmmmmmm.
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Interestingly in 2009 it had done 272,393 miles. 10 MOT later it's still one exactly the same mileage. Wonder how many miles have really been covered? Must be approaching half a million. Shame the mileometer wasn't fixed.
I was reading an article in a motoring magazine about Mercedes Benz and particularly previous models which had a well earned reputation for being indestructible. It was mentioned that Mercedes museum has a 1976 W115* donated by a Greek taxi driver in 2004. It had done 4.6 million KM when it came out of service!
*live.staticflickr.com/4660/39964497821_1092ba1b4d_...g
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Those were the days!
Call a minicab in ghe 1970s - a bit of a toss up whether you would get an Austin Cambridge, Hillman Hunter, land crab etc. Invariably 15 year old rust buckets on remould tyres smelling of oil and damp carpets.
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I was always fascinated by cars with huge mileages. I’d grill taxi drivers about their cars as soon as I parked myself on a seat. The removal of all older cars reduced the variety of models used and took the interstellar milers out. I’ve sat in a Bluebird and a Mk II Granada both with a million miles plus, Cavaliers with 500k upwards. I liked the ancient Carina’s, Pug 405’s, 406’s, Sierras, Fiat Regattas, Montegos and Renault 21’s that plugged away in their old non-turbo diesel motors for huge mileages. Today around here taxis are boring, they’re one of two things a Skoda or a Toyota and they’re never old enough to have character. Fine cars but there’s no interring chat about how the car is standing up.
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I guess a similar ruling may exist in Lisbon (Portugal). Many taxis in the Azores were pensioned-off cars from the mainland with several hundred K (km) on the clock.
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Some years ago now I jumped into a taxi in Munich that happened to be an elderly, even then, Merc123 estate. Green with a beige interior. The vehicle was absolutely immaculate inside and out and was clearly loved and fettled regularly by the owner driver. It had 800k kms, about 500k miles, on the clock and was so like new it even had the new car smell.
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I mentioned a while back that a local taxi driverhad a current MGZS suv lookalike with (at that time 78000 miles in 2 years..)
servicing, tyres and 4 wheel bearings.
Still looks good, but I don't know how long it'll last.
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