Crap car, great taxi!
Discussion
I'm in need of a new taxi.
The criteria are slightly different to the normal " how fast can I go, and how cheaply", hence the thread title.
A taxi sign on any vehicle is a slow death. Not necessarily a painful one, because obviously it needs to be kept well maintained. If it's off the road it's not earning. It is quite literally a tool of the trade. My taxis typically do around 70000 miles a year and I take their life expectancy to be 200000 miles or three years. Anything over and above that is a bonus. The next purchaser of any of my ex taxis is either a bloke off eBay who knows exactly what he is getting for the money, or more often than not, the local scrappy.
The fleet currently consists of a multitude of varying cars and two 9 seat buses. The cars range from a 2001 Volvo V70 right up to a new Hyundai i40 estate. I'm renewing as I can afford to. So what I am looking for is as follows:
Must be less than 5 years old (to licence as a Hackney Carriage)
Must be silver (not grey, all my cars are silver)
Must have four doors and right hand drive.
Desirables:
Estate (or large boot for suitcases)
Rear leg room not a problem
The price ideally needs to be as cheap as possible, but I'm thinking £11k tops.
To assist you on your way, there is no point in buying a BMW/Mercedes when a Dacia will do the same job. I know you all would rather be driving around in a Merc than a Dacia, but the extra cost of the Merc is lost money. Depreciation is not an issue. The car will be effectively worthless when I'm finished with it. And most people on a Saturday just want to get home and don't care about the badge. During the week, there is no more money to be made in a Merc than a Dacia either, the law limits what you can charge. Experience teaches me that most people want a clean and tidy car, rather than what badge it's got.
I'm currently looking at various options, Astra estate, Focus estate, Mondeo, I40, and oddly enough the MG 6 which seems incredibly cheap for what it is. I know the MG will have dreadful plastic, etc but I'm really struggling to see a downside. There's one on Autotrader currently 66 plate, 28000 miles and only £5800.
Anyone any experience of these?
Or any other suggestions?
The criteria are slightly different to the normal " how fast can I go, and how cheaply", hence the thread title.
A taxi sign on any vehicle is a slow death. Not necessarily a painful one, because obviously it needs to be kept well maintained. If it's off the road it's not earning. It is quite literally a tool of the trade. My taxis typically do around 70000 miles a year and I take their life expectancy to be 200000 miles or three years. Anything over and above that is a bonus. The next purchaser of any of my ex taxis is either a bloke off eBay who knows exactly what he is getting for the money, or more often than not, the local scrappy.
The fleet currently consists of a multitude of varying cars and two 9 seat buses. The cars range from a 2001 Volvo V70 right up to a new Hyundai i40 estate. I'm renewing as I can afford to. So what I am looking for is as follows:
Must be less than 5 years old (to licence as a Hackney Carriage)
Must be silver (not grey, all my cars are silver)
Must have four doors and right hand drive.
Desirables:
Estate (or large boot for suitcases)
Rear leg room not a problem
The price ideally needs to be as cheap as possible, but I'm thinking £11k tops.
To assist you on your way, there is no point in buying a BMW/Mercedes when a Dacia will do the same job. I know you all would rather be driving around in a Merc than a Dacia, but the extra cost of the Merc is lost money. Depreciation is not an issue. The car will be effectively worthless when I'm finished with it. And most people on a Saturday just want to get home and don't care about the badge. During the week, there is no more money to be made in a Merc than a Dacia either, the law limits what you can charge. Experience teaches me that most people want a clean and tidy car, rather than what badge it's got.
I'm currently looking at various options, Astra estate, Focus estate, Mondeo, I40, and oddly enough the MG 6 which seems incredibly cheap for what it is. I know the MG will have dreadful plastic, etc but I'm really struggling to see a downside. There's one on Autotrader currently 66 plate, 28000 miles and only £5800.
Anyone any experience of these?
Or any other suggestions?
Tyre Smoke said:
Not sure it's big enough, but will have a look at the specs and what's on offer. 
I'd be very surprised if it's not big enough. I replaced an E class merc with one, and there is very little difference in size. Huge boot, and plenty of space for 5 up for short distances, 4 up no problem. Don't discount it till you've looked at it. Surprisingly competent cars for the money.https://www.dacia.co.uk/vehicles/our-range/logan-m...
daydotz said:
I like that! I'll be honest, I've never seen one before.It's zero VED by the looks of things and very economical. Ticking all the right boxes.
Just noticed the Civic Tourer has only 350 litres of seat up boot space. going to struggle with airport runs in that.
I like the Passat, but like Skodas, everybody has one. Not that that is a bad thing, obviously they do what they are supposed to. I was just looking to see if there were viable alternatives.
I like the Passat, but like Skodas, everybody has one. Not that that is a bad thing, obviously they do what they are supposed to. I was just looking to see if there were viable alternatives.
Auris Estate?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Avensis Estate?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Avensis Estate?
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Tyre Smoke said:
Just noticed the Civic Tourer has only 350 litres of seat up boot space. going to struggle with airport runs in that.
Odd, where did you find that?According to Carbuyer: http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/honda/civic/esta... it has 624 litres?
They also mention that 308 SW are bigger at 660 litres.
Not sure how they are as a car, but they seem pretty cheap but woefully slow!
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Edited by S54Love on Tuesday 5th June 17:24
The MG6 is nigh on impossible to beat:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
If your feeling brave
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Although I would also consider a Mondeo estate as they seem to cover big mileages but truefully I would go for an avensis or auris estate.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Although I would also consider a Mondeo estate as they seem to cover big mileages but truefully I would go for an avensis or auris estate.
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Billions of them running as minicabs in Glasgow/Edinburgh, 1.6TDI is cheap and plentiful. I have a petrol variant, it's comfortable enough, the rear legroom is fantastic and the boot is ridiculously big for the size. Skoda Rapid is the same car.
Billions of them running as minicabs in Glasgow/Edinburgh, 1.6TDI is cheap and plentiful. I have a petrol variant, it's comfortable enough, the rear legroom is fantastic and the boot is ridiculously big for the size. Skoda Rapid is the same car.
Tyre Smoke said:
oddly enough the MG 6 which seems incredibly cheap for what it is. I know the MG will have dreadful plastic, etc but I'm really struggling to see a downside. There's one on Autotrader currently 66 plate, 28000 miles and only £5800.
Anyone any experience of these?
I had an MG6 - bought it at a year old and kept it for nearly 3 years. I had the alarm siren replaced under warranty when it started going off at random and I had to replace an electric window regulator when the car was out of warranty (cost about £250 fitted). Other than a couple of front tyres, I spent nothing other than servicing. The car took us to France a couple of times, Scotland, Cornwall - as well as the day to day stuff.Anyone any experience of these?
The boot was huge - when we went to France, there was 4 of us (3 adults & a child) and we could fit all the luggage in the boot no problem. Plenty of room in the cabin as well for everyone. Aircon was good & the satnav worked very well. I had the petrol & thought it seemed fairly economical. I imagine the diesel would be very good.
Couple of downsides - you need a good dealer nearby. When I bought the car, the nearest dealer was about 50 miles away & they were awful. Luckily, a dealer I'd used several times local to me took on the franchise for MG so that helped. Other downside was parts availability. It took a couple of weeks to get hold of the window regulator rather than the couple of days I expected.
Of course, everyone will tell you that it will blow up, the plastics are a level below Lego and the wheels fall off every 2 miles. They probably won't have driven one, let alone owned one, but that's the internet for you.
Overall, I thought the car was great. Never let us down and it was bright orange so you never lost it in a car park
steve-5snwi said:
If your feeling brave
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Although I would also consider a Mondeo estate as they seem to cover big mileages but truefully I would go for an avensis or auris estate.
Had 3 407SW as taxis, each did over 300,000 miles. https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
Although I would also consider a Mondeo estate as they seem to cover big mileages but truefully I would go for an avensis or auris estate.
Good shout but wrong colour.
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