In the data-base we had some shorter discussions about taxis, but I think, it would be nice to make a own thread over here to focussing it.

Last week, at my vacations in the U.S., I've seen, that the classic yellow New York-taxis like Crown Victoria or Caprice are retreatening. I've seen a plenty of Hybrid-Ford-SUV's and very man Toyotas. Mainly vans, but also some Avensis.

Ah, how wonderful, a thread all about taxis
Anyway to address your comment, at the current time (March 2008) Crown Victorias still make up about 85-90 percent of the 13,000 yellow cabs in NYC. This percentage has been going down slowly since 2005, when hybrid cabs were introduced. It will go down even faster after October 2008, when the law will go into effect that all new NYC taxis purchased must get 30+ MPG. Cars that will replace the Crown Vic include the Ford Escape, Nissan Altima, Toyota Camry, and Toyota Highlander (hybrid models of course). I personally think this is the stupidest law I have ever seen Converting 13,000 cars out of the 1 million+ cars that pass through Manhattan each day isn't going to make a difference in the emissions of NYC (and that's not even counting the dozens of factories in the city that spew out tons of pollution) By the way, the last Caprice NYC taxis have been gone since about 2001-2002, due to the fact that NYC requires that all cabs be replaced every 6 years at the most. Other cities with more relaxed regulations still use Caprices however, such as Washington DC, Detroit, and Boston to name a few. My town's taxi company (there is only one, it is not a big city) which has a fleet of about a dozen cabs, still has 2 Caprices in service, one 1994 model and one 1995-96 model. The rest are mostly 1995-1997 Crown Vics, plus two 1998+ Crown Vics. In fact, here are some pictures I took of their lot a couple of weeks ago:







Plus a 1995-97 Crown Vic I spotted while driving around:

And here's some more pictures of taxis that I took when I went to NYC over last Christmas:






Taken outside of our hotel (we stayed in a pretty bad part of town)
















The oldest cab I saw while I was there, a vintage 2001 model (Notice the gray bumpers and short wheelbase)

No wonderwhy you call yourself taxiguy.

It's just a hobby of mine
(Although my parents call it an obsession )

The location of the pic with the 4 taxis in a line is in front of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, am I right?

Just 2 weeks ago I've been there, to take the 163 to Hasbrouck Heights

From the sky train at Newark Airport I've seen several parking lots, full with taxis. Nearly all of them were yellow, but on one parking lot there were only white taxis.

As I wrote before, it's interesting to uses taxis in other countries, too.
Every travel-book is warning "Don't do it", but I've done it some years ago, and I had a lot of fun. In Cairo I've used of the legendary local taxis, a totally rotten Peugeot 504, like that ones:
http://www.bachstei.com/cairo-taxi.html

In late 1996, at vacations on Gran Canaria, I've used a 1978 Mercedes 240 D (W 123) as taxi. The car was in very good, clean, undamaged and original condition, so I've asked the driver "It's so good condition, the mileage is low, am I right?"
He answered only "1.2 millons kilometers."
:wow:

In Belgium the most common model for taxis are Mercedes-Benz, I guess that it is the same in Germany?

In Yaoundé (Cameroun) the taxis are all painted in yellow, and mostly Toyota Corolla and Carina of late 80s / early 90s.

You're right, it is in front of the bus terminal actually. Right across from the newly-built New York Times Tower (my other main interest besides cars is architecture/skyscrapers )

@antp: in the past (50ies to 70ies) in Germany up to 90% of the taxis were Mercedes.
But this has changed more and more. Nowadays nearly every 4- or 5-door-car, which is not too small, is used as a taxi.
I cannot count, how many different taxis are on the road.

I think, the smallest taxi-size, I've seen over here were the old Mercedes 190, VW Vento (Jetta III in the US) or Opel Astra Caravan.
Otherwise everything is possible. Since they have used BMW-Diesel-engines, you can see Jaguar's, too, also Chrysler PT Cruiser.
In the database I've shown the pic of a black 1962 Mecedes 190 D W110, which is nowadays in real use in Hamburg.

I've even seen 7-Series BMW, once a VW Phaeton, also vans like VW T5 and T4 are very populat, or Mercedes Vito and so on.

Ah, yes, my favourite VW K 70 was somestimes used as a taxi, too, but only in the 70ies, when fuel was still cheap. One taxi-K 70 has survived until the mid-90ies in Berlin. The owner had all the years one K 70 for special days in his stock. On others he had used Honda Accord. When he was retired, a friend of Luxemburg has bought this car for his K 70-collection.

@taxiguy: it could be, that in front of the new New York Times-building I was to see in some TV-news (channel??) at the 22nd of February. I was passing in the background, when they were filming.

Taxiguy those photos of New York City are just lovely

Why, thank you CCF! I took a total of 1072 Pictures over the four-day period I was in New York
Here's some more nice ones if you're interested:





Here's a surprisingly old (1993-1994) Crown Victoria taxi I spotted. Not a NYC taxi of course, but actually a taxi from New Jersey





I also saw this banged up old Caprice Wagon taxi (also from New Jersey):




Here's a taxi with a nice flower painted on the hood




The city at night





And of course... Times Square!

Oh dear my dream city, i must go there some day i simply love it and i agree with you on what you say about the city at night, cities at night are incredibly nice, and if buildings have a nice floodlighting set then they are even prettier

Look at this photo i took the last time i was there of one of Madrid's main avenues, Gran Via.


The second one is quite blurry but it is a very famous building in Madrid also placed in Gran Via, it is known as the Schweppes Building because of that big billboard with light that's been there for over decades, it had more adverts before on its front but they were removed when they restored it except for this Schweppes advert and a modern Vodafone one on the roof.

Here's a proper picture of it
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Callao_in_the_twilight_zone.j- pg
Enlarge it so you can see everythign better, perhaps now i make you like Madrid too


And what a nice Caprice wagon, i like it too much, it is quite rare

Taxiguy, nice photos. I wanted to ask you, when you went to New York, were ALL of the NYC Taxi Company Crown Vics the LWB version? Disregarding that 2001, of course.

@CCF- That Schweppes building is AWESOME!
It's at an intersection that is just like Madrid's own little Times Square
In fact, that building reminds me of One Times Square (that's the tower in the last picture I posted, the one with all the billboards on it)
I would love to visit there one day...

That first picture's very nice by the way! It's a little blurry, but it adds to the effect of the cars going by fast

By the way, a Caprice wagon taxi may be rare in New York, but when I visited Washington DC there were dozens of them (and many were in much better condition than this paticular one)
Actually, I might as well post some taxi pictures from my DC visit. After all, this is a thread about taxis


From fornt to back in the line of four cabs: 1998+ Crown Victoria, 1991-1996 Caprice Wagon, 1995-1997 Crown Victoria, 1995-1997 Mercury Grand Marquis




Another one of the many Caprice Wagons




A Chrysler LHS taxi (very strange)





A Ford Five Hundred taxi (also quite strange)





An old 1988-1991 Mecury Grand Marquis





A VERY old 1981-1985 Caprice taxi






A yellow 1991 Caprice zooming by...






Also it appears that my "City at Night" picture along with my first picture from my NYC post did not post correctly, so I'll relaod them now so you can see them. Take a look!

Yes, they were all long wheelbase models. I'm pretty sure that since 2002, the only model avalible with the taxi package is the LWB version. In fact here's Ford's CV taxi site, check it out for yourself if you'd like: https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/2008fleetshowroom/2008-crviccomm.asp

I am very glad you liked it Taxiguy, and please you dont need to tell me what Times quare is!!! i simply love it and i have not even been there in person (yet )

Also let me tell you that the photo of the Five Hundred taxi you posted resembles Europe, it is a car similar to our old Mondeo and seing the European look of the car it is as if it had been taken in Europe

How were you able to find the Grand Marquis and the Caprice from the 80's?