A lot of the taxi companies near me are now running a fleet of petrol Astra Gs, and I have also seen a couple of 1.6 Zetec Focus with taxi plates on too. Now I wonder why this is?
Is it because diesel is quite a bit more expensive to buy so the savings are not so great? Is it because modern diesels are too complicated?
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Probably just a big discount for a bulk buy and a surplus of petrols giving a bigger discount than diesel.
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I just wonder if the increase in diesels with DPF and the fact that taxis are used mainly around town are going to increase in petrol taxis?
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My thoughts exactly CW, and the dreaded DMF to fret over, taxi drivers don't need the worries over down time.
Think of our very own Humph here who's two similarly sized estate cars one petrol 2.2 one diesel 2.0td cost virtually the same to run fuel wise, albeit much of it long haul, but then most taxi's will spend most of their time running warm.
Hopefully if Humph reads this he'll give us an update on his costings, very revealing to see 2 similar cars being run side by side and getting the true overall picture.
Have diesels finally become too clever for their own good, their big attraction (to me anyway) used to be simplicity and total reliability.
We may be having similar discussions when some of these new extremely high tec multi turbo'd petrol engine's (or rather the leccy/emission/turbo bits therein) start falling apart.
Edited by gordonbennet on 22/03/2009 at 21:04
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Still working out at 11p a mile in both cars GB.
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Chris you have a good point regarding the filters, it can really depend on the location if you were in Greater London or out in the sticks. The latter you'd be blasting the filter out everyday.
The last time I had a ride in a pretrol taxi was 2002, it was a Rover 620i either P or R reg, on a 10 mile journey back home.
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There's still plenty of diesels around without DPFs though, thats why i favour the "bulk buy" scenario, though I'd agree with you for the future... Why not ask them Rattle?
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Plenty of petrol taxis round here - I rode in a Berlingo petrol last year. Its nothing unusual.
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Petrol cars cost less to purchase and there are currently big discounts to be had, the short term economics favour their selection. In the long term they can be converted to run on LPG when oil prices take off again.
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In the long term they can be converted to run on LPG when oil prices take off again. >>
Providing LPG is available in the area....
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There's still plenty of diesels around without DPFs though thats why i favour the "bulk buy" scenario though I'd agree with you for the future... Why not ask them Rattle?
I understand the meaning of DMF but what is DPF?
MD
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Diesel particulate filter.
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Thanks Nick. Can you give me a brief on how it works and the problems that are being muted.
Best regards.........Martin.
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As it says in that link, if your own car use is mainly town-based, stop/start driving it would be wise to choose petrol rather than risk the hassle of incomplete DPF regeneration.
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Most of the taxi drivers near me have recently converted from Peugeot 406s to Skoda Octavias. Both diesels. The Octavias that they are running would be the 1.9/2.0 PD engine (probably the former) without DPFs.
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The problem for the taxi trade is that many Local Authorities impose an age limit on cars. This means that non DPF diesels are running out of time. I'll look after mine.
659.
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When I was working as a private hire driver in a diesel Octavia a few years ago (before vehicle age restrictions were introduced) there was a large food preparation factory in the area which closed down, making around 200 people redundant. The workforce had been quite well-paid and most of them drove fairly late-model petrol family cars such as Avensises and Primeras. Shortly after the factory shut its gates there was an influx of new owner-drivers coming into the licensed cab trade, mostly driving the aforementioned petrol cars.
We did also have a couple of 1.8 petrol Vectras alongside all the diesel Skodas and Peugeots in the company fleet. A P-reg Vectra that ran to 335,000 miles (although it had a voracious appetite for coolant for about the final 50,000), and an R-reg that also made over 300,000 miles without terminal incident. The R-reg had one fastidious driver from new, and he bought it from the company when he retired - even with the intergalactic mileage you'd struggle to find a tidier example.
Dave TD.
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 28/03/2009 at 04:15
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