Taxis Dumping LPG Ford's For VW PASSAT Diesels

csv8 · 18-04-2010, 12:48 AM

Article in The Sunday Mail 18/04/10, page 34. Taxis are dumping LPG cars and going to diesel. Black and White and Yellow taxi's are replacing its 70 strong LPG Falcon fleet with VW Passat Station Wagon diesels. " though each VW costs $3000 more than a Falcon, he expects to save $20k over its six year working life"
Is this another case of FORD Australia being behind the eight ball again ??
Diesel Tezza should have been on the market years ago as a Falcon should have been. Why aren't Ford pushing the Mondeo diesel for taxi's !!!!!!!

Falc'man · 18-04-2010, 12:51 AM

When did Ford last offer a "Taxi Pack"?

This is good news, we can stand back and watch people say VWs are crap because they're used as taxis.

LeadFoot81 · 18-04-2010, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falc'man

When did Ford last offer a "Taxi Pack"?

This is good news, we can stand back and watch people say VWs are crap because they're used as taxis.

+1

Hopefully this means the days of people seeing roads littered with thousands of dirty, run down Falcon taxis are over.

b0son · 19-04-2010, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Falc'man

This is good news, we can stand back and watch people say VWs are crap because they're used as taxis.

More likely, they'll say 'finally, a taxi that doesnt whine and clunk like some sort of farming equipment'

irlewy86 · 20-04-2010, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0son

More likely, they'll say 'finally, a taxi that doesnt whine and clunk like some sort of farming equipment'

Yes but its diesel Passats they are buying, they do actually sound like tractors (from the outside at least).

Smoke Pursuit · 20-04-2010, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b0son

More likely, they'll say 'finally, a taxi that doesnt whine and clunk like some sort of farming equipment'

We will see how good the VW hold up after 500,000 kms... Im sure they will whine and clunk too!

Stoney! · 20-04-2010, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfiipursuit

We will see how good the VW hold up after 500,000 kms... Im sure they will whine and clunk too!

I can't wait till that comment is proven wrong...

Stoney!

mcnews · 20-04-2010, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoney!

I can't wait till that comment is proven wrong...

Stoney!

LOL, that is funny. Ford reliability came up recently on my motorcycle forum from a VW Golf owner. "If you think you've got problems with a Ford...Buy a new Golf already."

There are good reasons why you can find things like high end Touareg's that with all the options that made them 130k new going for 40k secondhand three years later. Even VW dealers rarely want to touch secondhand VWs... :-)

b0son · 20-04-2010, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfiipursuit

We will see how good the VW hold up after 500,000 kms... Im sure they will whine and clunk too!

After 500,000km, no doubt they will... the Falcons were doing it from the factory!

vztrt · 20-04-2010, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bfiipursuit

We will see how good the VW hold up after 500,000 kms... Im sure they will whine and clunk too!

The way the drivers treat Taxi's it will be interesting to see how they go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

I've seen dozens upon dozens of cabs hit 600k
Perhaps a dozen hit 700k
A handful hit 800k
One hit 900k
And i've apparently seen one that had done the million but the cluster had been changed

But in QLD you can only keep them until midnight when they turn 6, so there's less opportunity to rack up the big kays. And back in the day when i was looking after them, often midweek winter nights we'd have 20-30% of the fleet sitting because we just simply couldn't find drivers, even though we were one of the better bases in brisbane. So we used to try and spread this over all the cars so you didn't end up with flogged ones and yard pets.

It's only really after about 700k when they start getting a little crappy

I remember doing some work for Ford on the Gold coast and was speaking to a Taxi mechanic. I asked him about the B-Series E-gas engine and how it faired. According to him they did 1,000,000k's quite easily. His biggest gripe was the operators breaking the T-bar on the auto as they keep thinking they're F1 drivers.

FPV GTHO · 18-04-2010, 01:07 AM

I can only imagine the decisions driven by resale, as purely by running costs alone LPG is still the better prospect with modern injection systems.

But then maybe thats the problem, the lack of a modern injection system

fg_nitro · 18-04-2010, 07:41 AM

I fail to see how they are going to save 20k over its working life unless they plan not to service them?

They are going to be more expensive with parts too!

BOSHOG · 18-04-2010, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fg_nitro

I fail to see how they are going to save 20k over its working life unless they plan not to service them?

They are going to be more expensive with parts too!

surely the people doing this study have all the internal figures needed to come up with the decision, it must be the right decision.

Stoney! · 18-04-2010, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BOSHOG

surely the people doing this study have all the internal figures needed to come up with the decision, it must be the right decision.

Exactly what I was thinking, I noticed a couple of Passat wagon taxi's on my last trip to melbourne, they wouldn't have just jumped into such a decision, they would have been running one for a while and realised the strengths of european cars. Not to mention the strengths of running a diesel around the clock without the complexities of a gas sytem.

Stoney!

prydey · 18-04-2010, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoney!

without the complexities of a gas sytem.

Stoney!

the egas is pretty complex

:

Mr Hardware · 18-04-2010, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BOSHOG

surely the people doing this study have all the internal figures needed to come up with the decision, it must be the right decision.

Haha, you'd think so wouldn't you. But if you know yellow cabs management in brisbane, you'd know their figures are very wrong very often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brazen

Try going to the airport with your wife and two kids and their luggage and fit that in a egas Falcon sedan with a spare tyre slap bang in the middle of the boot. That would be enough to change to wagons for the lucrative airport runs.

Yes. And with the falcon wagon still having the old live rear axle instead of IRS, it's yet another reason why most cabs in brisbane are now wagons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naddis01

I think he means if you gas the hybrid you would have no boot space.

Oh. Right. Fair Call.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coyote V8

come to australia and see our german taxi's!

I reckon hey. What a joke.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vztrt

But will be interesting to see what happens if diesel goes to 1.80/l.

Exactly. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

Oh and listen to Jastel and prydey. They are both very right.

flappist · 18-04-2010, 07:41 AM

Resale of a taxi is irrelevant, they are driven until their wheels fall off.

Possibly the whole "cost of operation" rather than "fuel price" is the main reason.

Longevity of components both driveline and body, maintenance intervals and reliability are quite important when the car is to be operated constantly.

jpd80 · 18-04-2010, 07:52 AM

Maybe the new Hybrid beating Mondeo Diesel has a big role to play in the near future...

Melz · 18-04-2010, 07:56 AM

I think the taxi fleets show great diversity. Saw a Toyota Prius being used in Clayton, often see a Territory near the Tulla, seen plenty of camrys. At the end of the day they need a reliable somewhat cheap car that can be driven into the ground and do hundreds of thousands of kilometres. I've seen plenty of VWs with many kms on them so time will tell

mcnews · 18-04-2010, 08:14 AM

In Townsville all the taxis seem to be Prius, and the drivers rave about the savings per annum from them. In Darwin too I think from memory there was plenty of Prius taxis.

Yaw · 18-04-2010, 08:14 AM

Yeah, I can't see this being a long term thing. ANY euro car takes longer to repair and is more expensive to repair after an accident.

Simple plain fact: Euro car parts are not as readily available in Australia as is the Falcon and Commodre. I can't see taxi owners/fleets being happy to wait 5-6 weeks for parts to come from overseas.

fg_nitro · 18-04-2010, 08:24 AM

Not arguing about diversity or what badge they choose to run as a fleet. But saying you can save 20k over 6 years by using an expensive german car v's a relative cheap falcon/commodore is a big call.

Franco Cozzo · 18-04-2010, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melz

I think the taxi fleets show great diversity. Saw a Toyota Prius being used in Clayton, often see a Territory near the Tulla, seen plenty of camrys. At the end of the day they need a reliable somewhat cheap car that can be driven into the ground and do hundreds of thousands of kilometres. I've seen plenty of VWs with many kms on them so time will tell

We're getting a fair few Civic Hybrid taxi's coming in for services at work, the Hybrid is taking the taxi industry by storm, I see a lot of Prius around the joint in yellow now.

Also I've seen that Taxi Terri you talk of driving the Tulla

xr6turbo2005 · 18-04-2010, 08:29 AM

the fact that it's a wagon makes it a great option for a taxi. least a family with a bit of luggage now has some changes to going in just one taxi.

as flappist mention, dont thing they worry too much about re-sale value, but it will be interesting to see how they are running at the time they have to be retired from service due to age.

Mr Brooksy · 18-04-2010, 08:36 AM

Those things are used all round China and dang they take an absolute beating. But they always seem mechanically sound. One things for sure! I'm not going to catching a cab in Aus anymore if I have fold myself up 3-4 times to fit!

g220ba · 18-04-2010, 08:42 AM

I personally think this is fantastic news and is the first step in the falcon losing the taxi slur. Back in the early days of the BA ford stopped offering the taxi pack for a reason, it's not a profitable business and not image they wish to uphold.

xr6turbo2005 · 18-04-2010, 09:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 84ltd

I personally think this is fantastic news and is the first step in the falcon losing the taxi slur. Back in the early days of the BA ford stopped offering the taxi pack for a reason, it's not a profitable business and not image they wish to uphold.

i've never throught that using Falcon's as taxis, is a slur on the car.

think of it as a positive - given the km's that taxis do they need something reliable and capable of do the high km's

i remember when my dad was a commerical, he always had falcons and they use to have a "country" pack. from memory this included sump guard and better springs or some sort.

g220ba · 18-04-2010, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xr6turbo2005

i've never throught that using Falcon's as taxis, is a slur on the car.

think of it as a positive - given the km's that taxis do they need something reliable and capable of do the high km's

i remember when my dad was a commerical, he always had falcons and they use to have a "country" pack. from memory this included sump guard and better springs or some sort.

It may be a positive in the sense of how many km's they're capable of doing but that's not how the general populas see the car. The use of the vehicle is seen as a bad thing. Most cabs are brought second hand anyway so there really is no positive for ford in maintaining an image they don't want.

Mansal · 18-04-2010, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xr6turbo2005

i've never throught that using Falcon's as taxis, is a slur on the car.

think of it as a positive - given the km's that taxis do they need something reliable and capable of do the high km's

i remember when my dad was a commerical, he always had falcons and they use to have a "country" pack. from memory this included sump guard and better springs or some sort.

Totally agree - think of all them Mercedes - branded taxis in Europe. A strong, local automobile brand with their vehicles reliably meeting the challenge of the heavy use-and-abuse in a taxi application.

If VW successfully delivers the strong message about its ability to take on the taxi fleet over the Falcon, think about what it could do to Au fleet sales - not just for Ford, but also for any locally-produced car (ie: "The Aussies don't even drive their own cars").

Some food for thought.

Dr Smith · 18-04-2010, 09:27 AM

Wait until they have to reco a VW box...I know, I had one done under warranty and the local dealer sourced the box from a specialist in Dandenong...makes a brand new ZF look cheap.

As long as you can buy a one year old e-gas Falcon from the auctions, paint it "taxi yellow" and equip it with long standing electronics then the majority of cabs will still be Falcons.