Posted on 12/03/2012 10:15:40 PM PST by Olog-hai
The entire production line has stopped mid-flow as if someone has pressed a giant pause button. Time stands stillliterally. The clock above the factory floor has conked out, too. Scattered tools and wrenches bear witness to half-finished jobs which simply stopped on the afternoon of October 30. For that was the sorry moment when the company that makes one of the most famous vehicles in the world went into administration.
The (London Taxi) Company has shed half of the 300-strong workforce since going into administration following a series of financial and technical problems. I have come to meet the core team who are now on standby to resume production. But if no new owner can be found, then what?
Several car makers have tried to establish a foothold in the black cab market. Some failed to crack the 28-foot turning circle. Others produced designs which might politely be described as hideous or which failed to meet new emissions standards. Most challenging of all are the sums: how do you develop a design which a) complies with all these regulations and b) sells enough models to recoup your investment in such a tiny market? And that is the problem that has brought the London Taxi Company to its knees.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Sounds like a couple of similarities to what happened to the Checker Marathon, even though we did have a non-taxi version of that for a long time, and no US city had absurd regulations to dictate specifics of taxicabs. I do miss the Checkers; tough design, and nothing that followed could measure up.End of the road for the Black Cab? Theyre a British iconbut now the factory that makes London taxis has run out of cash. And without a rescue, its doomed.
well, raise their taxes, that’ll fix it
No, no. You’ve got it wrong. You’re supposed to subsidize them when they stop moving.
I remember driving to work one day a few years ago, I saw a London Taxi here in the Pittsburgh area, it was one of the old Austins. I thought, I sure would hate to pay that cab fare. B-)
If I remember right, it almost had a dance floor in the back. No worries about leg toom or getting in or out.
I loved those taxis!
Sitting in the back was comparable to sitting in the back of a Silver Shadow. (minus the little fold down tables)
Just need a new design.....
My first car was a very used checker.
100 dollars.
Could carry the whole hockey team in the back.
Export them to the US. I would love to ride in one.
“how do you develop a design which a) complies with all these regulations”
I think I found the heart of the problem.
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