Claim's Cabbies Corner. Kill crazy rampage imminent.

[Warren t claim]

Let's chat about hacks for a bit. My local council, Wirral, used to limit the number of hacks it would plate to 124 of which one guy who I'll talk about later kept about 20 plates on the shelf for various reasons. This guy who's called Billy Kelly was forever taking my council to court for more plates quoting significant unmet demand for hacks in my area. Sick of permanently fighting legal cases my council, much to the dismay of existing hack owners decided to delimit the plate numbers and offer them to any driver willing to buy a purpose-built hack under three years old. Previously plates changed hands for £11,000 plus the cost of whatever hack it was stuck to so as you can imagine the fleet owners (but not their drivers) were up in arms over this as the cost of renting a hack went down from £330 a week in 2004 to £100 a week plus about £50 insurance as it is today. In our neighbouring council, Liverpool, the numbers are still limited and plates change hands for £25,000 each which is down from the £45,000 they used to be before Uber came to town. A year after we delimited I decided to have a go myself but obviously, I took the sensible option and rented first (at £230 a week) to test the water. For my money I got a bright yellow TX1 manual in base Bronze spec, cue Big Yellow Taxi jokes. I'm not one to normally remember registration numbers but I'm pretty sure it was X918UMB (I wonder if it's still alive?) This was powered by the Nissan 2.7 lump with a fierce reputation for reliability and to it's credit it was a fast example, 97mph flat out.

What's the TX1 like to drive? Well, it's hardly a quality product and the road manners and effort to hustle around largely mirror the Land Rover Defender of similar vintage. The electric window switches got so hot I could melt cheese on them, engine noise in the cabin was high, water leaks into both the drivers and passenger compartments were par for the course, more rattles and squeaks than you could possibly imagine and a best mpg of about 27. If I'm making X918UMB sound bad then I can assure you that it's actually a good example as normally five year old TX1/2s are rotting away nicely, not as bad as their predecessor, the FX4/Fairway but still at a level that would shame a Mazda MX5.

After a relatively successful month or so I managed to persuade Mutha_Claim to quit private hire and share a cab with me. Due to insurance issues (cabs back then were rented out with insurance included) I handed The Big Yellow Taxi back and swapped into A Y plate, black TX1 with the six seat conversion, the sixth seat being a very uncomfortable and cramped jump seat situated next to the driver. As I was working a mainly private hire system this meant that I could accept six seater jobs at fare and a half standard private hire rate, a bit naughty because a hack should never charge more than what the fare on the meter should be but hey ho, I was never caught. Far from complaining about having to sit next to the driver perched on an uncomfortable jump seat the passenger relegated to sit alongside me always seemed to revel in their first ride in the front of a hack! The only problem with this Y plate TX1 was that it possessed the heaviest clutch known to man, rowing it around town was a fucking nightmare so enter the Transit powered TX2 automatic that'll be the next thrilling* chapter in my tale.

Thanks for reading!

[Sloth]

im enjoying this, a neighbour in hull had an n plate cav tdi for eons as a taxi. he bought it new and ran it for 15 years or so. thing had 670000miles on it when the ol girl went. he replaced it with a mk3 astra tdi on an s plate.

[Warren t claim]

Today I replaced the rear tyres at 46500 miles. They were down to 2.6mm and I had to bodge one with tyre weld earlier this week. The minimum tread depth for licenced vehicles in my area is 2mm.

[bub2006]

I can drive the ioniq any distance with no discomfort which is odd for me. Even the so called high quality vag product Octavia couldn't do that!do you cope alright with the boot space too Warren?

[Warren t claim]

Yeah I can fit four cases if I remove the parcel shelf.

[Warren t claim]

I do shit myself about slamming the boot closed with protruding cases and zimmer frames as the rear screen is super thin.

[bub2006]

I've noticed the glass is very thin. As is the wings,bonnet etc! How do you find the auto setting on the climate? I tend to find it puts fans on too fast so tend to override fan speed and set position to my feet.

[Warren t claim]

My air conditioning is going to be dealt with by Hyundai as it's pissed poor. My mate has a similar car and it sounds like metal on brake discs when he turns it on.

[bub2006]

I have an occasional noise like the sound you get when there's grit in the brake discs but doesn't happen all the time. Have noticed today though that the bonnet isn't lined up on the passenger side. It's raised a little bit and more pronounced towards the wing. My AC is ice cold but it does like to be on full tilt through the face level vents if left to it's own devices so I the d to switch fan down and reposition it myself.

[Warren t claim]

I have an occasional noise like the sound you get when there's grit in the brake discs but doesn't happen all the time.

If you're talking about the AC then mine makes that sound too. A mate has one with a seriously fucking noisy AC.