Posted : August
2012
Author :
Long before the
advent of the internal combustion engine, someone came up with the idea of
using a wheeled vehicle to carry people to where they wanted to go in exchange
for money or some other form of payment. But if you ask us, it wasn’t until the
dawn of the automobile and its first use as wheels-for-hire that the taxi truly
came of age. Today, motorized cabs are pretty much a part of the scenery in
every major city on earth. Unfortunately, the
vast majority of taxis are based on plain, unexciting vehicles possessing as
much soul as a washing machine filled with soybeans. However, if you want your
fare to buy some flair, there are some decidedly enticing options out there.
Not convinced? Check out these 20 cool cabs and get back to us.
Checker Marathon
No conversation
about taxis is complete without at least one mention of the venerable Checker
Marathon. Despite its 1950s styling, the Kalamazoo,
Michigan built Marathon
was actually introduced in 1961, and remained largely unchanged (aside from the
switch to Continental straight-six engines to Chevrolet sixes and V8s in 1965)
until the last one was made in 1982! Despite this (or maybe because of it), the
Marathon managed to become the archetypal
American cab.
Volkswagen Beetle
Considering its
status as one of the most popular cars of all time, it’s no surprise VW’s first
model has served as a taxi. And nowhere was it more prolific in serving as a
taxi as it was in Mexico City.
The city used to be crawling with green-and-white “Vochos”; now, just a handful
are left, and all will be gone by January 1, 2013. Why? A new safety regulation
requiring cabs to have four doors will go into effect then, and the Bugs will
not be able to get their licenses renewed. No bueno.
Porsche Panamera
Turbo
The Germans love
their domestic auto industry, so much so that many of the Fatherland’s taxis
are sedans (and wagons) from BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz. And
there’s at least one Porsche Panamera Turbo that’s donned the rooftop sign and
beige paint. We aren’t sure how beneficial a booming twin-turbo V8 and AWD are
in city traffic (or with a national speed limit for taxis of 75 mph), but the
thought of a 500hp Porsche taxi does make us smile.
Tuk-tuk
A staple of public
transportation in Thailand,
the tuk-tuk (derived from the sound these typically two-stroke-powered three
wheelers make) is a vehicle that serves multiple roles. Not only does it carry
passengers, but many tuk-tuks in Bangkok
are used to deliver fresh produced to markets early in the morning. They aren’t
the fastest, roomiest or most comfortable taxis on the planet, but we think
they’re cool in the way they’re taxis that have been distilled down to their
most basic elements: Wheels. Engine. Seats. Meter.
Hindustan Ambassador
India’s Hindustan Motors began building Series
III Morris Oxfords under the Ambassador nameplate in 1958, and hasn’t stopped
since. And the Ambassador’s parts availability, durability, simplicity and
practicality have made it a favorite among the Subcontinent’s cabbies almost
since the first ones rolled out of the factory.
Maserati
Quattroporte
Maserati can hardly
be considered a blue collar car brand, so imagine our surprise when we saw this
late model Quattroporte serving as a taxi in Wroclaw, Poland.
We like to think its driver lets his fares hear some of the 4.7L V8’s music as
they watch the fourth largest city in Polska pass by their window. We know
that’s what we would do.
Italdesign Alfa
Romeo New York
Taxi
In the mid-1970s,
there was a great deal of interest in reinventing the taxi into a stylish,
space-efficient urban runabout. One of the companies that offered up a way to
do this was Italdesign, the styling studio cofounded by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Using components and other assistance from Alfa Romeo, this boxy, min-minivan
of sorts was drastically smaller than the typical New York City taxi of the era, and was also
designed from the outset to be wheelchair compatible. Sadly, this stylish
people mover never reached production, but more than a few of the ideas
contained within it lived on in the first modern minivans of about a decade
later.
Holden FC
Many American
visitors to Australia
in the late 1950s probably did double takes when they passed the taxi stands at
the airport. They would see what looked a lot like 1955 Chevrolet 4-door
sedans, but smaller. In actuality, these were FC-series Holdens, so the family
resemblance to the first of the Tri-Five Chevys was exactly that: Familial.
Even today, 52 years after the last FCs were built, Aussies still wax poetic
about these classic workhorses (unless they’re Ford fans, of course).
Maybach 62
While Daimler AG’s
(nee DaimlerChrysler’s, nee Daimler-Benz’s) revival of the Maybach brand was,
by almost all metrics, an unmitigated flop, it did have one notable high point on its resume.
A luxury taxi (Yes, there is such a thing) company in Moscow
bought a Maybach 62 (the long wheelbase version) and pressed it into service
for carting around wealthy residents of and visitors to Russia’s
capital. As far as we can tell, that’s one claim Rolls-Royce and Bentley can’t
make.
Coco Taxi
Motorized rickshaws
can be found in many parts of the world. As already pointed out, Thailand has the tuk-tuk, but Cuba has the Coco
Taxi. Looking like Pac Man as drawn by a motorcycle nut hopped up on
hallucinogens, these little runabouts are amusing ways to get around the
capital city of Havana.
Not amusing enough to make us renounce our U.S. citizenship so we can go there
and ride in one, mind you, but amusing nonetheless.
Nissan Leaf
When it comes to
puttering around an urban area, electric cars have many advantages: Less
pollution (at least in the immediate area), less powertrain wear and tear due to
fewer moving parts, and regenerative braking to turn kinetic energy back into
electrical energy. These attributes (plus a desire to look environmentally
conscious) are leading cab companies to adopt new generation electric cars like
the Nissan Leaf for taxi duty. Yes, purchase prices and recharge times are
significant bugaboos, but if one or both of those can be fixed, expect use of
these quiet cars for hire to really take off in big cities.
Porsche Cayenne
The Maybach 62
isn’t the only fancy taxi in Moscow.
The same company operates a gaggle of these body-kitted Porsche Cayennes. It’s
a little over-the-top if you ask us, but we assume when you’re shelling out
oodles and oodles of rubles for a cab ride, you want people to notice you.
Heuliez Peugeot 204
Taxi H4
Italdesign’s Alfa
Romeo taxi concept is cool, but French coachbuilder Heuliez and Peugeot came up
with a similar “taxi of tomorrow” idea in 1972, four years before the Italian
job. Based on the popular Peugeot 204, this wedge-o-riffic four-door minivan
precursor probably would have become France’s go-to taxi had it been
mass produced. Sadly, just the one prototype was built, and the proposed panel
van and pickup variants never made it off the drawing board. Le sigh…
Fiat Multipla
In case you think
the idea of “minimum footprint, maximum space” in a taxi came about in the
1970s, meet the original Fiat Multipla, introduced in 1956. Based on the
stupendously cute 600, the Multipla shoved the front seats forward and squeezed
in another row of seats for a total of three. Think of it as a really mini
minivan. The one pictured above served the city of Rome back in the day; no word if everyone who
saw it said, “Awww!”
Ford Fairlane 500
Sunliner
After the United States placed its still-extant trade
embargo on Cuba
in 1962, it became more-or-less impossible for Cubans to get their hands on
replacement parts for their chrome drenched, tailfinned “Yank Tanks.” In spite
of this, tens of thousands of these 1950s American classics remain on the
island nation’s roads thanks to their owners’ creativity and resourcefulness.
And as you’d expect, a sizable percentage of these oldies are serving as taxis,
including the ’57 Ford Sunliner seen above.
London Taxi
New
York has its
yellow cabs, but London
has its black cabs. Unlike the taxis of New York (and most other major cities
for that matter), the London Taxi (which is manufactured by London Taxi Company)
retains a clear stylistic link to its predecessors, dating all the way back to
the Austin FX3 of 1948. Together with the red double-decker bus, the black cab
is one of London’s
mobile tourist attractions. And the throwback styling makes it undeniably cool.
Hummer H1
Most taxis are
found in urban areas. So why base a taxi on a Hummer H1, aka the baddest 4×4 of
all? Probably because it looks macho and isn’t your garden variety Crown Victoria or Sienna.
However, it probably helps deter fare-skippers, too.
Peugeot 504
Although the
Checker Marathon and multiple products of the Big Three had a lock on the NYC
taxi market in the mid-1970s, Peugeot of all companies was represented in the
Big Apple with its 504 Diesel. These sparkless French sedans provided cab
companies a fuel efficient alternative to the thirstier (though admittedly
roomier) homegrown machines.
Volkswagen Jetta
Sportwagen TDI
Fast forward to
today, and another European bred diesel has also taken a chunk of the New York market. The
Volkswagen Jetta TDI isn’t the most common taxi on Manhattan, and the Jetta Sportwagen TDI is
even less common. But the Jetta Sportwagen TDI – a small, nimble, efficient station
wagon – checks all the boxes on our list of stuff required for a cool everyday
car.
Cadillac Eldorado
Convertible
No, Cadillac’s
front-wheel-drive personal luxury car of the ‘70s has never been a popular
platform for a taxi. Blame the high cost, lack of rear doors and
less-than-stellar gas mileage. But those shortcomings don’t seem to have
stopped Houston, Texas based Taxis Fiesta. Now we realize
that it’s unlikely the company uses this Eldorado for anything other than
promotional purposes, but we want to believe.
~Admin~
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