Yesterday, I took a taxi ride from the Solna region of Stockholm to Arlanda airport in a V70 D5 auto. Nine months old, with 187,500 km showing. In English, that's approximately 116,250 miles, or about 13,000 miles a month, which equates to the approximate frequency of 'annual' service. Average fuel consumption coverts to a pretty impressive 44 MPG. The cabbie's previous car was a petrol Volvo 740, which his son then purchased, and which has clocked up over 1,300,000 km (800,000 miles). The engine and auto gearbox are originals, and have never been taken apart beyond routine servicing, although the engine barely scraped through the annual Swedish emissions test this year.
As if these statistics are not enough, Taxi Stockholm is a franchise operation with 1,600 cars on the books, mostly E Class Diesel Estates and V70 D5s, all clocking up this sort of mileage, all requiring servicing, and all requiring dispatch coordination. Instead of the Volvo RTI traffic avoidance and navigation system, the franchise entitles the cabbie to an integrated dispatch control and touch screen navigation system that was truly impressive. The cabbies even send speed trap alerts to each other using the system. Makes the beat up, dirty, old Toyotas and Nissans that ply my neighbourhood look decidedly low rent, though at £40 for a twenty minute ride, Swedish comfort and accuracy of journey does not come cheap.
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13000 miles a month!!!!!!!
yeah right......
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For that kind of money I'd want a share of the business....
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13000 miles per month = 425 miles per day.
It's not THAT implausible...I drive for just under 3 hours per day and cover over 4000 miles per month, so, if your swedish taxi driver shares his car with other drivers (ie as a fleet vehicle), then 13000 miles per month is not beyond the realms of belief.
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You're quite right LongDriver.
The taxi driver explained that it is quite normal for several drivers to share the same cab, and for ultilisation to be of the order of 20 hours a day. As an aside, I'm convinced that it's because of this, and that the engine never gets properly cold, that they last for such intergalactic mileages.
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It's not unusual for London Taxis to cover over a million miles before they are retired I was told when I visited the manufacturer. Can't remember the average miles on a London Bus, is it 10 million?
20 years ago, 100,000 miles in a car was something special!
Gareth
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Slightly off topic - but taxi related....
January 1 2000 - taxi drivers being accused of ripping us off.
Called three companies for a taxi home from a party at 2 AM - quotes from £50 to £35 - only the £35 would agree to 2 AM approximately...so booked him.
Arrived on time, chatted on way home about hopes for the Millenium (Remember it?) I mentioned that we hoped to do something for an orphanage we support in Egypt for 11 years now.
Arrived home, gave him £45 - he gave me back the £10 tip and asked me to give it to the orphanage....took his card and told the story to the 35 girls on our next visit.
A good way to start the new century.
Matt35.
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SjB,
"The taxi driver explained that it is quite normal for several drivers to share the same cab, and for ultilisation to be of the order of 20 hours a day. As an aside, I'm convinced that it's because of this, and that the engine never gets properly cold, that they last for such intergalactic mileages."
I think the above statement is the key long lasting engines. My brother runs a taxi firm in UK and with 2 or more drivers using the same car it is not unusual for Mondeos and Vectras to cover 400k or more without any trouble from the engine. His current Mondeo has done over 300K without any attention to the engine and a Nissan he owned did over 600K.
However as had been said many times on this site, the cost of keeping older cars on the road is rarely due to engine wear problems. Most go to their automotive grave with perfectly serviceable engines.
C
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