Claim's Cabbies Corner. Repo Revenge.

[Warren t claim]

A question for you.

This thread is in our Motorised Conveyances section. As you can see from my above post there's not much car content. Do you want me to move it do The Lentil Cave or quit my ramblings and stick to car content?

[Hooli]

I'm quite happily enjoying the ramblings as it's all sorta car related as it happens in a taxi.

I'd say the choice is yours remembering that here google etc & non-members can read it. The Lentil Cave is locked down so only members can see it.

[Warren t claim]

I don't think I've coughed to anything that'd incriminate me so far on here?

[slowanimals]

Since most of it seems to have taken place in or around cars surely it's in its rightful place. Damn good read by the way, thanks for sharing.

[mercrocker]

Only move it if you feel the need, Warren....I'll be reading it wherever.

[Scruffy Bodger]

As will I, ta.

[Hooli]

I don't think I've coughed to anything that'd incriminate me so far on here?

Not that I recall, slightly disappointingly.

[Warren t claim]

OK then. Just to steer this back to car content I'll share what was on offer at the local PH car rental emporium when I started.

As I said earlier I had the choice of either my M plate 405 or a petrol L plate 405. The rest of the fleet, from memory was as follows.

A 1995 Mondeo base in burgundy. This was a total plodder that'd struggle to hit 70. Aslo, like my 405 the heater was fucked. The lad who drove it commuted from Rhyl in North Wales to Wirral everyday in it and said it took that long journey to finally heat the cabin.

An M plate Escort 1.8 Ghia in silver was on the fleet. Somewhat tatty and having a dash that had blown most of it's lights this was briefly considered by yours truly but at a former job we ran one as a company car and it drank fuel. Within a week it was crashed into a skip that ran out in front of another driver.

An Astra 1.7 Isuzu TD was there too. This was always in for repair.

One car I ran for a few says while mine was in for repair was a P reg Escort/Orion Ghia powered by a N/A 1.8 diesel lump. No doubt when new this had a turbo diesel engine but now is really was a sluggard. Looked good in white and had the usual non working rev counter.

A 1995 Granada Executive 2.5 turbo diesel hatch in scruffy metallic red was also on the fleet. It sounded like a Transit and whoever had it complained about getting sub 30 mpg out of it.

A red 1994 Cavalier 1.8 petrol wasn't popular with either drivers or mechanics. It had the Ecotec motor and never ran right. Mechanic said it needed a clutch which wasn't a simple job like it was on earlier Cavs either.

I had the pleasure of watching a metallic red Peugeot 406 1.8 petrol rise from the ashes by being made up of two 406s welded together. I even helped push the rear half to the garage from the breakers. Sadly this cut and shut was unpopular with drivers due to having plenty of faults and barely hitting 30 mpg.

A tidy turquoise M plate Mondeo 1.8 LX arrived soon. I really wanted this and despite several promises it slipped through my fingers and I never ended up having it.

[Warren t claim]

So what about the owner drivers then I hear you ask?

Let's take Jaffers for a start. He had a Sierra 1.8TD with about 350,000 miles on the clock. Jaffers is/was an utter nutcase, Evil Warren has nothing on him when it comes down to torturing runners he's caught. He's called Jaffers due to having bollocks like satsumas, a fact he was willing to demonstrate to the girls in the office at the slightest opportunity. He's only about 5'7" but stocky as fuck with a reputation that precedes him. His Sierra failed an inspection due to a lack of fire extinguisher. To remedy this he drove to the office, lifted a commercial fire extinguisher off the wall, threw it in hos boot and drove back to the test centre. He was then given a pass cert and returned the halon extinguisher back to our office.

Barry was a hard working driver. Always put a shift in driving his EARLY PLATE MADNESS R reg Mk4 Astra estate 1.4 petrol. Sadly, this Astra was forever giving him shit and at one point was even transported down to Luton for specialist GM bods to try and find out what's wrong with it. They failed. Sadly Barry died of cancer six years ago. His Peugoet people carrier is still up his driveway as his wife wont part with it. A sad tale.

Louise was a good example of why young women never make good night drivers. She went straight from working serving in a chippy to driving a Renault 19 petrol hatch at nights. She was incapable of putting a decent shift in and was at her most happiest when the fan belt of her rented 19 snapped meaning she could spend the night in the office chatting to the girls on the phones. She thought that the answer to her problems would be becoming an owner driver so she bought a P reg Mk3 Escort 1.6 petrol from the local Ford dealer on finance assessed on the earnings from her last job in the chippy. As she slowly slipped into arrears she startted making up excuses why the Escort couldn't be worked. Obviously she couldn't pay her bill to the office so one Saturday night I leant her the datahead from my mum's taxi so she could work. She was caught by management and I was hauled in front of our general manager. I was expecting the sack but he just told me to be more careful next time! Cheers Dave!

[Warren t claim]

toyota1.PNG (749.4 KiB) Viewed 3024 times

Six years ago today this thing managed to drop a valve one week and 1225 miles into my ownership.