Finest, greenest, & safest taxicab in the world. The story of cab 2545

I have seen LPG HyCam in Brisbane airport, so it is there somewhere. That particular HyCam had roughly 60k km on the clock.

Galaxy Nexus ? 2

 

nice thanks

 

MY BATT DIED THIS WEEK AT 159.575 KM .

AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE STYLE OF DRIVING MY JOLLY OLD TAXIFARING FRIEND .

 

Taxi drivers in San Francisco love the Hybrids. The old ford non hybrid taxis needed regular replacement of transmissions, cylinder heads and everything else you could imagine top to bottom. Plus the fuel savings goes right into drivers pockets. I imagine the Prius is designed for American and Asian driving patterns more than the speeds and patterns you are finding in Greece. If the expensive repairs out strip the benefits you could try a few things:
- reduce repair costs By doing in house service. You will need a scan tool. Stop going to the dealer if that is where you service it.
- improve preventative maintenance . Clean the battery fan etc.
- Just go back to the Peugot if Prius is not cost effective in your environment.

 

WHAT TYPE OF DRIVING DO YOU THINK WE GOT HERE IN GREECE ??? I LIVED IN NEW YORK ALL MY LIFE AND DRIVEN IN IT DRIVEN TO SOME OF THE OTHER STATES ... THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE IN THE TRAFFIC ... IF ANYTHING ITS MUCH BETTER

 

Sounds like weaker, cheaper parts are being used to save money as we don't have that 150,000 mile warranty mandated by California, New York and a few other States.

 

and let me tell you that most of us the taxi owners that got in to the prius got in to it because we believed in it ! what a let down !!!!

 

and denver is probably no piece of cake either, i would imagine. although, likely not as hot as greece?

 

Sell your Prius and grab something reliable.

 

Positive response

He probably will but it'll be a problem for Toyota long term. At the moment a taxi driver gives 30 (or so) 'test drives' to members of the public who ask questions about the Prius and the hybrid system. My local Toyota dealership sold more Prii than anywhere else outside of London. If you're giving a positive to 30 people a day, then some of them might just buy a hybrid and will debunk the fud out there. My dealer told me people bought the car because "if it's good enough to be a taxi, then it'll be fine".
HOWEVER (capitals for a reason), if the taxi driver is not happy about the Prius and Toyota and slags it off to 30 people a day, then they'll tell their friends and sales will drop.

How often has the fact that taxi drivers use hybrids in LA, NY and Canada been used as an example of their robust nature. How false that has now proved to be.

The Prius is fuel efficient in the US compared to your 25 mpg gas guzzlers. It's not much more efficient here compared to many diesel offerings, despite DPF issues, it's more expensive to buy and more expensive to fix.

£23,000 Prius 50 mpg UK

or

6 month old Ford for £11,000 41 mpg UK

Originally I took the Prius, now I'd go for the Ford. Once bitten....

 

Does Toyota offer a severe duty or commercial duty option on their vehicles?

 

Not here.

 

I have posted details of my own taxi operating experiences in other threads, but to save you all from searching for those posts, briefly they are:
Commenced operations Dec 2011 - brand new car
Only has 1 driver - me.
Average 300km per day, 5 days a week
Current odo reading 124,000 km
All maintenance done by dealer (costs me more, but no issues with warrenty). Warrenty was for 100,000 km, except battery which is 150,000 km. Australia warrenty is for distance or time since purchase and runs out when one or the other is reached, regardless of vehicle usage.
To date, no failures of any type. Brake pads still at 70% of original. (Australian Prius have discs all round).
I drive consevatively - no pedal to the metal for me, but still accelerate fairly quickly to keep up with the traffic flow, but try to avoid sudden stops. Most of my customers have commented that they appreciate the smooth ride. Most driving is around 60 kph (general speed limit in Australian cities, with surburban streets and CBD streets at 50 kph). Nowhere near the slow speeds that Grumpy and Socrates encounter, although can encounter very low speed traffic in the CBD, but, at most, only about an hour in these conditions before I can escape - very few fares around in these conditions as most people walk when the city traffic is so slow.
Had the HV battery fan checked and cleaned at 120,000 km - mechanic stated that it was not really necessary for the amount of gunk in the fan unit.
I keep the a/c on every day - temp set to 23.5 C and do not turn the power off, even when sitting at a rank for long periods (max time on a rank is about 1 hour, and generally only 30 mins).
I am averaging 4.8 litres per 100 km, which is saving me approx $20 per day in fuel costs versus LPG fitted Ford Falcons.
In my radio network (approx 180 cabs) I am the only Prius, and most likely will remain the only Prius. In the last 6 months, there have been a number of Camry Hybrids coming into the fleet, generally replacing old Fords, and as these are cheaper than the Prius, with more room for the passengers, and more luggage space, the chances for another Prius is very low.

I have been following Grumpy and Socrates problems, as they are also running gen III cabs. Most of the reported high milage Prius cabs are gen II; the gen III has not been around long enough to get up the miles. So very interested in the story of cab 2545.

 

What's CBD?

 

Central Business District

 

I don't think that the issue is the ambient heat, alone. I know that there is a fleet of gen II cabs running in Cairns (north Queensland) where the average temperature is about 28 C all year round, and I know that a number of these have clocked up in excess of 700,000 km still on the original battery. But the key here is that they are gen II cabs, not gen III that we are running. Darwin, at the top of Australia, with even higher average temps, is almost all Prius cabs, but, again, most are gen II, and again, no real issues that I have heard of.

I believe that the issue is a combination of factors - one being the style of operations - I understand from other threads that the general operation in Greece is to sit on the rank with the engine off, and the windows open - the car itself gets hotter, and that must affect the battery. However, that does not explain what Grumpy is experiencing - England temps are much lower than Greece.

Another is the fact that slow speed forces a lot more EV running, and thus deeper drain than normal on the battery. As I stated above, I also encounter some of this, but not as much as Socrates and Grumpy. However, I have experienced driving in Tokyo, which is also a lot of low speed driving, with some medium speed driving occassionally, and the Japanese do not appear to be encountering the same problems, or, at least, not reporting any issues. Again, most Japanese Prius cabs that I have seen are gen II.

As suggested by Grumpy, there is the possibility that the gen III is not as robust as the gen II. Grumpy has suggested in another thread that the European models maybe getting lower quality parts, but as they are all built in three factories, I cannot see this theory holding much water. But I could accept that the gen III is not as robust as Toyota made the gen II.

Finally, it may come down to the style of driving when the car is actually running - Cab 2545, your style is different to mine, but maybe more in line with how Socrates and Grumpy are forced to drive in their environments, which is why I am interested in your thread.