1922 Checker model HSourced from Checker Taxi Stand Page and also @ CoachBuilt.com
Originally uploaded by wukong 悟空 (Xuemin Guan)
1929 General Motors Truck Corp.
Originally uploaded by Hugo90
36' Checker Y-8
The taxis in this picture are almost certainly Chicago cabs, but I'm almost as certain that the Checker Y-8 was used in New York as well.
"When in New York-
Do as New Yorkers Do!
CHOOSE the CAB YOU RIDE IN
Don't just take the first cab that comes along
National Transportation Company- (Parmalee System Management) offers you the finest taxicab service in New York. It costs no more that the ordinary kind and is- CLEAN - SAFE - COMFORTABLE"
Chevrolet
Despite being far far away in time and space, this car has all the true details, right down to the red apple shaped medallion mounted on the grille.
Chrysler
Checker (model years 61'-82')
The civilian version was the Checker Marathon. The taxi version was more New York than a slice of pizza or the Empire State Building, despite Checker coming out of Michigan.
All things Checker @ Checker Stand
and more @ Wikipedia
73' Plymouth Satellite
84' Dodge Diplomat
80' Cheverolet CapriceThe Three cars
sourced @: Lost Soul Entertainment
Peugeot 505 Diesel (model years late 70's early 80's)
A solution to the gasoline crisis of the 80's.
Sourced here: 505 taxi USA
Ford Explorer (circa 96')
Lincoln Town Car (circa 96')
There was only one Lincoln taxi in New York City, only approved for a probationary period.
Chevrolet Caprice (circa 96')
Random sourced photo (model year 92')
In the late 90's, the typical taxi was in transition from the Caprice to the Crown Victoria. The preference was for the Caprice, but due to low sales General Motors soon stopped production.
The colt like love for the large american car and the monopoly that they had over police and taxi markets possessed an entrepreneur to consider purchasing the entire production line and the rights to produce the vehicles once General Motors gave up on production. But after Chevy gave up on the Caprice the fleets turned their interest towards Ford's Crown Vic'.
With the entire market, Ford decided to extend production year after year, although there were always rumors that ford would soon end the Crown Victoria. Again an entrepreneur suggested taking over the operation, but Ford, with a strangle hold on the police and taxi market, has continued production to this day.
Currently Ford has limited sales to only fleets and removed the Crown Victoria from all pamphlets. According to Wikipedia, Ford will stop production completely in 2009. OOPS! Correction, it is now 2010 and I occasionally lease cars made in 2010. This is really it, so they say, this is the last year of production for the entire family, Crown Victoria (fleets only now), Lincoln Town Car, and the Mercury Grand Marquis. Production was moved 2 years or so ago, from Michigan to Ontario, and now the media reports it will shut down production.
Ford Crown Victoria' (circa 95')
Isuzu Oasis / A.K.A. Honda Odyssey (circa 96')
The Odyssey/Oasis, was the city's first compact taxi since the Peugeot, and I believe the first van-taxi for New York.
The passenger doors swung out rather than sliding and were fairly large, which I think were requirements for the Taxi & Limo Commission. One feature were passenger seats that could be positioned either forward, for trunk space, or rearward for legroom. I rode in one with the seats forward once and had difficulty getting my 5' 7" body out of the car with my bag.
I imagine this car was fundamental in pushing taxi thinking outside of the box, suggesting that a taxicab needn't be a rear-wheel drive V-8 engined, wide bodied, long wheel base mammoth. With these 4-cylinder vans, drivers took a different, usually less aggressive approach to driving.
10 comments:
The first one is the nicest
yeah, that's for sure.
This post is SUPER interesting. Lots of work, too, I would think. Thanks for putting it together.
What I wouldn't give for a Prius, or maybe a Civic hybrid taxi. Our Vics are getting 15mpg and gas in San Diego is $4.50 for the cheapest grade at the cheapest station in town.
I almost drooled when I saw the pic of the Prius in your post.
Thanks much Ted, I am extremely excited about all of this. I hope I am not boring the rest of the readers. I hope to post one more history blog, and re-edit once more, the soon to be 3 total blogs with more writing and double check the models and the years, and the all around correctness.
Thanks again
Wow you sure have put some work into that one nice post, cool photos.
I tested my prius over 2,000 kilometers, I had to convert into miles and liters into gallons.
I got 63MPG. Thats nearly 3 times the MPG of my old car.
Way to go...
Thanks Bob, I appreciate it.
And John are you driving that Prius as a taxi in Dublin? That would be great. Yes as Ted said, our big ford crown vic's are drinking gas at 4 times that rate. I usually do somewhere between 12 and 15 miles per gallon.
whoever does the rating for miles to the gallon here used to give the Prius a rating of 60 miles per gallon, and then changed how they calculate it for all cars, and then sent the Prius rating down to 45.
Farewell to the Ford Crown Victoria taxis. They'll be phased out by the TLC starting in October 2008.
Lets prey for that. I believe the TLC mandates no new crown vic purchases after 2008, but if they are purchased in 2008, they will probably stay on the road between 2 and 5 years, so we won't see the dramatic change phasing out until 2010/2011, not soon enough.
I was a passenger in a Prius taxi out in Tuscon on a recent business trip. I was surprised at how roomy the back seat area was. The driver and I talked the whole time and he was quite proud of his vehicle. It was neat.
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