Jesus, we’ve come a long way since the 1960s. Surely, they can make a taxi that doesn’t look completely ridiculous? With the launch of TX4, I guess the answer is ‘no’.
For some reason, we get tons of press releases about how great black cabs are, and how hard all other hackney carriages suck. Of course, it’s a bit tiresome, but we could live with that, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the LTI taxis themselves are complete dinousaurs, with ancient engines and ridiculous performance.
The newest incarnation, the TX4, is better in all sorts of ways, apparently. Apart from the looks. And the performance. And it still only does 35.2 mpg on the combined cycle. In comparison, the biggest Volkswagen people carrier, the Sharan 2.0 TDI, can seat just as many people, is 10% cheaper, and gets 42.2 on the combined cycle.
Have a word, sort it out.