Taxis, LPG, Hybrids and diesel

[Phildo]

Originally Posted by jpd80

In Queensland, taxis have to be less than five years old.....

Yep, as far as I can tell, five years is standard across the east coast.

In three years time it's going to get very interesting trying to get jobs done that require a wagon.

[Jastel]

No - Qld is 6 years max for cars, 8 years for vans.
Some smaller towns can get exemptions for longer, ie the taxi doesnt do as many kms as city ones.

Phildo - glad you like your wagon, I'll will happily send all the people with 8 suitcases to you while I drive the business travellers around...LOL
That was my point, let the taxi operator decide what he wants to use.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Jastel

No - Qld is 6 years max for cars, 8 years for vans.
Some smaller towns can get exemptions for longer, ie the taxi doesnt do as many kms as city ones.

Phildo - glad you like your wagon, I'll will happily send all the people with 8 suitcases to you while I drive the business travellers around...LOL
That was my point, let the taxi operator decide what he wants to use.

Yeah, my fault because the driver said they buy them at auction and get a maximum of five years,
I was forgetting that the vehicles are already at least 12 month old...

So if the last E-gas S/Ws were sold at the end of 2010, the maximum time is 2016,
so they really only have about four years left maximum on the Falcon S/Ws

[Cabbie]

In Country NSW the age limit for none wheelchair Taxi is 8 years & 6 months from the D.O.B of the Vehicle,For a Wheelchair Vehicle it is 10 years & 6 months from the D.O.B for this Vehicle,as stated and i would assume,Country Taxis do less then City Cabs,can only talk for ouselves here,We at the moment are running around 120 to 130000ks per Cab per year,we purchase most of our Vehicles second hand,2 to 4 years old.

I think that the Vehicle that would make a Great Wagon will be the new Toyota Hybrid 7 seater,there is really no room in the boot as a 7 seater,We would look at removing the rear row and the boot space would be close to the size of a Falcon Wagon.We may have this vehicle replace our fleet of Falcon Wagons when it becomes time to replace them,still unsure,but we will look into this a little further when it comes time.

[jpd80]

Sorry to thread mine but I just spoke to another Prius operator, bought the car at auction , 3 years old with 80,000 km.
He claims that buying at that time gives best depreciation and three years fairly trouble free running but car will be
stuffed at 6 years and only good for parts. Interesting to see how these plans work out...

[Phildo]

All this speculation about what taxi owners will be buying in a few years time, and no mention of Commodore. Interesting...

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Phildo

All this speculation about what taxi owners will be buying in a few years time, and no mention of Commodore. Interesting...

Wouldn't read too much into it...

Could be just the operators I spoke to but they feel hard done by with the huge jump in gas prices.

It sounds like Taxis are trying lots of vehicles to see which will work out best...

[Jastel]

Commodore lost taxi sales because the old cast iron V6 engine they used for the last 20 odd years did not do LPG well. The valves mashed into the heads and needed to be redone every 150-200k, and there were 2 heads!!
They also dropped the bench seat well before Ford did.

Still no Commodores around here but have noticed a few in capital cities. Unsure how they go with the new LPG models.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Still no Commodores around here but have noticed a few in capital cities. Unsure how they go with the new LPG models.

Yeah, outside of Silver Service I don't see many new Holdens or Falcons as taxis, maybe one or two yellow cabs (maybe FG E-Gas?)

[mike_nofx]

Now that I just filled up this morning at 59.9c for LPG (Plus even less with supermarket discount on top!) and petrol is a steady $1.45, LPG is looking very good again! Especially considering that very recently it was 50% more expensive at 89.9c at most sevos in Sydney.

Let's hope we don't see another spike in LPG prices. The low price now may make more people look towards ECOlpi now?

[jpd80]

It's around 69c/l in Brisbane but LPG is down around $1.38/l

So it's still around 50% pricing...really weird.

[Brazen]

Interesting statistic. Within 6 months of Camry Hybrid being released from the Australian production line 333 brand new ones were bought by taxi operators - pretty bloody good for a brand new release with no reputation or longevity experience! Obviously no where near as much as what Falcons were sold back then as taxis but wouldn't be surprised if more camrys are sold now

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by ivorya

This is bad me saying this but....................

I hope all taxi drivers move to hybrid camry's etc!

It'll stop the general public calling all falcon's taxi's and maybe entice more people to the brand.

Falcon / Commodore are not very comfortable back seat (where as a client i sit in a taxi), so better for customer if they were using camry.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

Falcon / Commodore are not very comfortable back seat (where as a client i sit in a taxi), so better for customer if they were using camry.

Geez, I thought only Seppo's sat in the back seat

[Brazen]

Was in a new EcoLPI taxi this morning at Brisbane - only done about 4000km. Driver loves it.