(first posted 5/5/2016) Is there anything that blends into an urban background better than a taxi? Generally spending their lives being driven hard and toting around countless people, most are inevitably used up and scrapped. In many places seeing an old one is an infrequent event.
But this 1964 Biscayne is the real deal and it’s still around, even if temporarily off-duty.
From Wikipedia
The word “taxicab” is a hybrid, which seems apropos given the number of hybrid taxis currently in use around the world. “Taxi” is a truncation of the French word taximétre, a combination of the Latin word taxa, meaning tax, and meter, a derivative of the Greek work metron which translates to measure.
The first documented carriage for hire was in London in 1605, with the first taxi stand appearing near the Strand (a section of London) in 1636. Paris had its first carriage for hire in 1637.
York architect Joseph Hansom designed a taxi focused carriage in 1834 that was smaller and more agile, allowing more maneuverability in 19th Century London traffic jams. These carriages were referred to as “hansoms”.
In 1907, 30 year-old New Yorker Harry Nathaniel Allen founded the New York Taxicab Company, ultimately importing 600 gasoline powered cars from France. Allen coined the hybridized word “taxicab”, combining the French word taximétre and the Latin derived cabriolet, referencing the body style of car he was using.
Allen was sufficiently inspired to begin this business enterprise after an unscrupulous hack driver charged him $5 for a 3/4 mile ride back in 1907.
The early taxi business, at least in the United States, was a turbulent affair as labor riots engulfed the New York Taxicab Company within eighteen months of its founding. Rioters burned a goodly number of these French sourced taxis and pushed a fair number of others into a nearby river.
In 1922 Russian immigrant Morris Markin founded the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company (later renamed Checker Motors Corporation) and went into the taxi building business.
In 1929, Markin purchased Yellow Cab Company in Chicago from Austria-Hungary immigrant John Hertz, a company formed in 1920 as the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Corporation. While General Motors purchased the manufacturing portion of the company in 1925, Hertz retained ownership of the Chicago based taxi firm. It was at this time GM entered the taxi business in New York with Terminal Taxi Company.
If the Hertz name sounds familiar, it should. When Hertz sold the cab company to Markin, he refocused his efforts on his car rental business. Hertz has retained the yellow color in its various logos as a nod to their Yellow Cab Company heritage.
After the early growing pains of the taxi industry finally culminated in some degree of normalcy, the major auto manufacturers realized there was a modest yet steady market there to be served. A number of them exploited this market for both expanding business and out of necessity. Chrysler was one of the first to hail this market – for both reasons.
When Chrysler introduced the Airflow in 1934, the DeSoto division over enthusiastically jumped in with both feet. Unlike Chrysler, DeSoto did not keep a “traditional” styled car in their line-up. Sales plummeted.
For 1935, DeSoto received an Airstream model based upon a body found elsewhere within Chrysler Corporation, and immediately doubled their sales due in no small part to taxi sales. DeSoto sales doubled to 26,800 for 1935, with a shade over 5,000 long-wheelbase versions built for taxi use.
It was also during the early to mid-1930s General Motors delved into the taxicab production business with the General. Utilizing various components from the Yellow Cab purchased from John Hertz the General was built specifically to be a taxi. Looking like an enlarged Chevrolet, the General used Buick and GMC engines at different times along with a Chevrolet truck rear axle.
Here is another in service, found in Kew Gardens, New York.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s Checker and DeSoto remained the dominant makes found in the taxi business. That started to change in the late 1950s and 1960s as other manufacturers started to gain traction in this steady market.
Chevrolet officially entered the police car business in 1956; while not an obvious parallel, both types of vehicle utilize many of the same heavy-duty parts needed for constant use in extreme conditions. When both Ford and Chrysler began offering a factory built “police package”, they both dipped into the taxi parts bin for their heavier-duty pieces of hardware. It’s only reasonable to figure GM did likewise.
This supposition also acknowledges the amount of taxi regulation that occurred in many U.S. cities during the 1930s. New York City implemented fairly strict rules on taxicabs, stating they must be purpose built cars from the manufacturer. This came about as retail cars pressed into taxi use had proven themselves to have painfully inadequate durability, so the inclusion of heavy-duty parts undoubtedly followed this 1930s era regulation.
So what exactly did buying a purpose built taxi from Chevrolet give an operator?
Specifics for 1964 aren’t exactly plentiful, but information from 1958, 1960, and 1961 is readily available. Let’s look at these to see what develops over these years; plus, with so few changes between 1961 and 1964 on the retail side, it’s safe to assume any differences would simply be refinements of an existing idea.
Some items from 1958 are pretty much a given, such as the larger brakes and stouter seat material. Fifteen inch wheels were optional, with grease zerks for the clutch pedal and wider opening rear doors being standard equipment.
Most interestingly are the special hinges for the rear doors, allowing a 14″ wider arc when opening.
You can tell Chevrolet was trying to sell a taxi when the six-banger was given more prominence than the small V8. That would never have happened in a retail brochure during that time period.
Refinements continued on into 1960. Many of the specialty items found in these brochures should have been standard on all cars, not just the purpose built ones.
Taxi operators could opt for a specially jetted carburetor that was biased toward economy and a heavier duty 11″ clutch was available with six-cylinder engines. By this time, Chevrolet was also advertising the taxi package as having an RPO (regular production order) code of 330.
If Chevrolet didn’t mean business with the taxi market, it’s doubtful there would have been coding specifically for taxi purchases.
Continuing its apparent concentration on gaining share of the taxi market, there was a lot more specificity to be found for the 1961 taxicabs.
Many of the features unique to taxicabs remained unchanged from 1960 however each of these features is much more prominent for the prospective fleet buyer, with each being spelled out and not tossed as haphazardly into a brochure as it was in 1958.
Dedicating two pages in their brochure indicates a certain degree of seriousness, a palpable change over the course of three years.
And, as an aside, one could get a Corvair and Greenbrier taxicab. The take rate on these would be fascinating to know as it’s undoubtedly scant.
From what could be discerned, a goodly number of these taxicab specific features made their way onto our featured 1964 Biscayne. This car is a sight to behold; or maybe it’s the story the car can tell.
A recent meeting of the Mid-Missouri Old Car Club took place at a business establishment here in Jefferson City. During the meeting, the owner of the business stated he had just purchased this Biscayne from somebody here in town. He said the car been cloaked under a car cover for years at a house near the Catholic high school; I have been driving by this car for two decades of living and visiting here, only able to tell it was a very basic Bel-Air or Biscayne.
The new owner was told this car has been off the road for a while; this is reinforced by the license plates which expired in 1983.
Even better, the Montgomery Ward brand battery is date coded as having been purchased in 1975.
Upon getting the car back to his business and going through the interior, the bill of sale for this Biscayne was found as was the taxi license for the gentleman who purchased it. This Biscayne was indeed a taxicab used here in the state capital, purchased new for that very purpose. If only the interior could talk.
The only options found on this Biscayne are a Powerglide and air conditioning. With the humidity here in the summer, the a/c was a wise choice but with that and the PG bogging down the 230 cubic inch straight six, it certainly made for some leisurely travel around town and up the endless number of steep hills we have here.
The new owner is going to make use of this Biscayne for his business and he figures the car has a lot of life left. How so? It’s in phenomenal condition for what it is and especially for the use it saw. The only rust is surface rust on the roof due to the car cover.
I went to this meeting with no intentions of taking any pictures, however this old Biscayne was simply too juicy to pass up. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a 52 year old taxi?
Related reading:
Time Warp Theatre: Everything You Wanted To Know About London Taxis by PN
The CC Taxi by PN
A History of Checker Motors by PN
My Checkered Career With Checker Cabs by Kevin Martin
We have seen Crown Vics, and the Toyota Previas Paul has in Eugene, can go 600-700k miles in taxi duty. With not enough digits on the odometer, that would have been a useful add to the taxi package by the way, I wonder how much shorter taxi life was then. The Chevy 6 and the Powerglide were long lived and simple. I would guess 250k miles.
The trick back door hinge was cool, but was probably lost eventually to coke bottle styling. Thanks Jason for the writeup.
San Diego Yellow Cab, which had an effective monopoly there for many years, used Chevys exclusively. They used four-cylinder Chevy IIs for some years, and then switched up to the full sized again in 1970. When I drove for them in 1976-1977, their ’70s and ’71s were getting near the end of their life, having run over 500k miles or more.
They had a complete service facility that included an engine rebuilding room. They always had some rebuilt sixes ready to drop in when one of them needed it. I’m guessing the sixes lasted about 250k miles or so.
The best prove that an old style BOF american car is very solid. Here in Norway the taxi owners changes the Mercedes E-classes (diesel taxis) after 4-5 years and 250.000.300.000 km. Some go further but they mostly changed out when passing 300.000 km. Today it is not only Mercedes who runs as taxis, also some Toyotas, BMW’s, VAGs, but still it’s mostly MB’s. But around 250.000-300.000 km the cost of running these cars is too high compared to buy a new one.
I had wondered about the Euro MB diesel lives. I wonder if at 300k kilos the 4 year old taxi gets exported to the third world, perhaps Beirut or Lagos where there is still expertise but service is less expensive, for a more difficult second life.
I do agree the BOF is great for taxi body repair, one wonders about this aspect of Prius taxi service. The sheetmetal on my wife’s Prius C seems quite thin and flimsy, though the safety cage performed well in an accident.
The days of thinking body on frame construction is stronger than unitary was over by the mid 50s its cheaper which was important to Detroit but not stronger. Taxis when I was in OZ had a mandatory replacement after 8 years, the generally accepted daily mileage of a Cab in Sydney was 1000kms every day for 8 years,
very few reached the used car market in reasonable condition, I looked over a EA2 Falcon ex cab it was a wreck to the point it wasnt even worth seeing if it would run none of the hanging panels fitted properly it had four retreads on but not a set of rims and holes all over the dash where the cab equipment had been pulled out not unscrewed.
Jason, Great write up; fascinating taxi marketing material. I’d think certain long term thinking car buyers (you looking at me?) would have liked to have all those heavy duty options on their personal cars.
I chuckled at the Corvan Greenbrier taxi. The cabbie who drove that better have a good supply of fan belts. And a long piece of heavy duty twine. Once while traveling east on the Long Island Expressway the throttle cable of our Greenbrier van broke. We tied the twine to the rod connecting the two carbs and it was pull for go and let go for no-go.
Greenbrier fan belts broke so often we could change them at night, in the dark, by feeling alone.
Oddly enough, my ’63 Monza with the higher output engine, which revved a bit higher, and four speed never once popped its belt. Maybe by ’63 they had improved the pulleys or something?
Possibly the alternator installation the later ones was easier on the belt than the original generator. GM experimented with Delrin plastic to reduce fan inertia. Apparently, rapid changes in rpm, especially downshifts in manual transmission cars, led to most belt failures. Later cars did have a redesigned magnesium fan.
Nor did I ever throw a fanbelt on either my ’61 or ’62 Greenbriers. I think the problem cropped up on the 1960 models and the main fix was going to a wrapped belt that didn’t have sharp edges that would “walk up” the pulleys.
Belt tension, like tire pressure, was different on Corvairs. Overtightening the belt would cause bearings to start failing and wobbling, leading to thrown belts.
Thanks Good history lesson. Any interior photos available of the cab?
I didn’t get any although the interior is surprisingly immaculate. It’s a greenish-bluish vinyl.
Interesting stuff. I had no idea that Chevy was building purpose-built taxis.
Studebaker went after that market in 1958 with the Econ O Miler taxi, that used the long wheelbase President trimmed like a Scotsman. They offered a lark version in 59-60 with a longer wheelbase that became the basis for the bigger Larks of 61+.
And we know why the car spent so many years parked under that cover: the poor bastard couldn’t stand to drive it. 🙂
Researching this I found some terrific old shots of then-new Studebaker cabs but couldn’t find a good spot for them. They were pretty compelling.
Funny you say that about the guy not liking to drive it. Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the business of the guy who owns the car to tell him this article was running today. In our discussion, he said this Biscayne has all of 35,000 miles on it. The original owner bought it for his taxi business but never drove it that much. This certainly reinforces your theory on the enjoyment level.
I’m sure that Stude Econ-O-Miler was a much better driver. 🙂
Touche’. 🙂
They used to reckon a Sydney cab did 1000kms a day never cold turned of for oil changes and tyre changes only unless sitting on a rank Falcons came as dedicated taxis right out of the packet 3.3 motor 3 speed auto heavy duty seats and plastic floor coverings basicly hose out LPG tank in the boot and off you go, like these Chevs full of heavy duty parts and a low compression engine.
A running ’64 Chev isn’t all that unusual… there are several early 60s Chevies in my neighborhood.
But a 1975 battery still working! That’s Guinness material. Maybe it was kept in storage without water for most of its life?
Fantastic find. Is that roof light original?
No, it isn’t. However, it appears there had been one there earlier in its life. The holes from the meter are still in the dash – and why I didn’t get an interior shot I’ll never know!
A Falcon will clock easily 800K kms here in the span of 5 years. The trade has switched to hybrid Camry over the last 2 years.
The newer ones are starting to trickle to self serve wreckers. With juicy vapour injection LPG some of them.
Those Falcons just seem to run forever. A local cabbie neighbour was given an Avalon to replace his Falcon, and hated it! I could never get him to nail down exactly what he hated about it so much, but I suspect it was the different torque characteristics of the 4 litre Ford six compared to the 3 litre Toyota.
“I went to this meeting with no intentions of taking any pictures, however this old Biscayne was simply too juicy to pass up. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a 52 year old taxi?”
I guess that could be the same type of question asked about the Dodge Dakota convertible on the other side of the Chevy.
I have not seen one of those Dakota convertible trucks for years.
Great piece — taxis are easy to overlook as a slice of automotive history. They seem ubiquitous and slow-to-change, but then you see a relic like this one and realize that there are great stories to be told.
I wonder — over the decades — how taxicab fleets varied between purpose-built cabs like this one, versus simply big old cars that were converted to taxi use. I’ve read that in the 1930s, for instance, the vast majority of cabs were beat-up old hacks that their operators bought for virtually nothing, yet your historic photos above suggest otherwise.
In more recent decades, it seemed like the majority of cabs were retired Crown Vic police cruisers, even though Ford offered new CVs with a taxi package. But right now, many local governments regulate the age or mileage of taxis, or require them to be hybrids, which seems to have swung the pendulum back to taxi companies buying purpose-built cars again.
I think the source of cabs varies by market area. In major cities like New York and Chicago, the cabs are fleet buys purposely specified for taxi use. But in the suburban areas, local operators convert used minivans and mid size cars to taxi use. American Taxi in the Chicago suburbs uses that approach, and you see hundreds of these converted cars/minivans at O’Hare airport. In downtown Chicago, the fleet of city cabs now seems dominated by Toyota–the old Crown Vic cabs that were so prevalent in the city for years are now mostly gone.
They really are. I live in the suburbs, but I’ll go to downtown often during the summer season, and one year, in the span of a single winter, all of the Crown Vics were GONE!
Very true. I think that Crown Vics will be like the passenger pigeon… one day they seem ubiquitous, and the next day they’re virtually extinct.
(and note: I say this as a Crown Vic owner/driver!)
Around here the carpool lanes leading to and from the airport are packed with Yellow Cab Prius much of the day, but get into down town Seattle and they still have lots of Crown Vics plying the streets. I guess they have figured out the math that says that based on the number miles the huge in city MPG increase doesn’t offset the number of miles per day of the Prius that are making the Airport trip. I do suspect that it won’t be much longer before all the Crown Vics disappear from downtown. But I thing that low fuel prices are going to make that drag on a little longer that it would have if they hadn’t dropped as much as they did. So might as well drive the CVs until the engine or transmission dies.
I’m a bit surprised to hear about ratty cabs, even in the 30s. Maybe that was in some smaller cities. Keep in mind that cabs back then were not typically used by working-class folks, especially in places like NY. They used the subway, trains and buses. Which explains why the NYC and other big city cabs back then were generally big and almost limo-type cars. It was more like livery service, and not all that cheap. Which also explains why the cab business was a big one back than, in terms of profits, and why there was a lot of sleazy deals to get franchises and such. Checker is a key example; they held a number of franchises/monopolies, and is why they got into the cab building business too.
It was really more in the 50s, and 60s, like so many things then, that cabs became more affordable and ‘democratized’ .
I bet it did vary a lot by locality, and also by the extent to which the big cab companies in the City could influence regulations that kept out smaller (and cheaper) competitors.
I think in many places in the 1920s & 30s, people could effectively do what Uber and Lyft drivers do today — use their own cars to pick up passengers. It was easy money, and though the cars were ratty, from a passenger’s perspective, it beat walking, or dealing with a perhaps equally ratty public transit system.
But this may well have been more common in smaller cities. Regulation likely had a lot to do with it as well, as even today taxi industry regulations are completely mystifying in many cities.
Another standout post and due diligence research on your topic, Jason. Your finding about MOPAR dominance of the taxi market explains the NYC street scenes captured in films and photos of the 40s and early 50s are populated with DeSoto hacks.
+1 My own personal exposure was from the LA Noire video game (set in 1947), I thought the developers may have just been lazy with their cab selection but they did their homework on that too.
http://lanoire.wikia.com/wiki/DeSoto_Custom_Suburban_Taxi
As many will be aware, San Francisco’s oldest taxi company is the DeSoto Cab Company (unfortunately now being rebranded “Flywheel”). This was originally started by James Waters, “world’s largest DeSoto-Plymouth dealer.”
According to a page on Allpar, Waters had a facility in Long Island City, New York. that converted DeSotos for taxi use. The DeSoto “Skyview” taxi of the early 1940s had a plexiglass roof panel, allowing tourists to view tall buildings.
The DeSoto Cab Company was loyal to Plymouths for many years, but more recently has experimented with many different makes.
Correct. I found a picture of one of their cabs from the mid-00’s. It was a crew cab Dodge Dakota.
Great find and great write-up! Tons of interesting information. And I really like that old Biscayne–cars don’t come much more honest or functional than that.
I’m not sure I’d want to ride in a car with Terminal Taxi on the side. When I saw that my 1st thought was Twilight Zone (not entirely sure why), and an episode that doesn’t exist where folks get into this particular taxi….but never get out, a la “Hotel California”.
Then, in a tiny bit of whimsy, I thought Terminal Taxi would make a good slang term for a hearse.
LEON, in the last 10 years I’ve seen 2 of those Dakota convertibles, one when I lived in Memphis and now there’s one for sale in St. Augustine, Florida. The owner in St. Augustine has been trying to sell it off and on for at least a year. It’s on, or was recently on Craigs, I’ll see if I can find the ad and link it here.
Starting today, I’m using “Terminal Taxi” for hearse! Both types of cars are designed for relatively short rides!
I hope your rates are not to stiff!!!
Don’t stiff the tip!
They’re a Hell of a deal!
… and both “one way.” 😉
There is a bright pink Dakota convertible in Marco Island, Florida, owned by a local business and parked in their lot. Not sure how often it moves but it did have a current registration the last time I was there (2013) IIRC.
That probably implied they were doing airport terminal to hotel service. That huge trunk would be big enough to hold 4 or 5 fares.
What is it about dog dishes that look so *right* on a car (at least to our 21st-century eyes)?
It’s also interesting that the doors are lacking the surface rust present on the fenders and horizontal surfaces. I wonder if they were painted differently (thinking maybe taxis and police package cars had the doors painted via a separate process for multi-color livery)?
Jason said it was due to moisture being trapped on the horizontal surfaces under a car cover.
Yeah car covers can do more damage than good when a car is stored outside in all kinds of weather for extended periods of time. To me the tops of those rear fenders and that one rear corner says that cover flopped around in the wind for many years and acted like sand paper on those sharp corners and the one end.
Interesting car and an interesting history of the taxi business. Thank you, Jason.
Matchbox offered a 1964 Chevrolet as a taxi cab in its line-up for several years in the 1960s, but it was an Impala four-door hardtop!
Nice find Jason! As a side note, I rode in a Crown Vic taxi in Vegas with 662K on original engine, but it’s 3rd transmission
Nice write-up, Jason. Thank you.
All those taxi cab heavy duty features are exactly what I would want on a car: heavy duty parts, purpose built features.
Make mine a 61 Biscayne with the rubber floor mats, six and three speed manual.
Well-researched article with a great mix of history, documentation, and an interesting vehicle. A+
Coming from a taxi background, I will add my observations. First, when it comes to body on frame sleds, one can bolt parts on them indefinitely. However, over time, the mounting points of said parts get sloppy and the entire car gets rattly. Then it is time to cash in your cab for a new one. Amazingly, in owner operator companies, there were still guys who kept cars around for emotional reasons, or bought a specific brand for the same reason. They didn’t last too long in the taxi business.
We never bought new cars for cabs. Victoria BC was full of cheap sleds, and once painted up the customers never knew what year they were. When you can get a clean Impala for $1500, it doesn’t make a lot of sense ordering a $15,000 taxi pack. We never found that the “heavy duty” stuff lasted any longer anyway, with the exception of brakes.
A smart taxi operator, meaning one that doesn’t go belly up, will always look for car with low costs and high passenger satisfaction. Reliability is number one, since a broken cab makes no money.
I can see why they probably bought new back in the day when vehicle longevity was much lower than it is today. But in relatively modern times I just doesn’t make sense to buy new when for 10% of new price you can get a vehicle with 50% of its economic service life left.
Of course there are areas that now regulate the age and sometimes the vehicle miles so that can turn the favor back to a new vehicle.
I do remember a story about the last Checker in NYC and it had been grandfathered in to be exempt from the age and mileage restrictions. However it failed the annual inspection and that apparently closed the loophole. I think if I owned it I would have made damn sure it went to the inspection fully pre-inspected and sure to pass. Yeah it was probably past it’s economic service life in daily taxi duty but the worth as a marketing piece could have bee worth it. Send it out in parades and for special occasions to have the advertising hook that your company has the last for hire Checker.
Did you ever try out Toyota Coronas. The fours would have a mileage advantage and they were related to the Crown Comforts, the national taxi of Japan, at least pre Prius.
Interesting experience-based observations, especially the point about “heavy duty” components not lasting any more than “standard” components. So what, in your opinion, do “heavy duty” components get you?
As I read the “heavy duty” component descriptions, it looks like they were borrowed from the light-duty 1/2-ton truck part bins, no more durable than passenger car parts.
In 1960s -’70s Pittsburgh the Checker dominated, But at least one suburban company (Diamond Cab, Turtle Creek,PA) used Chevrolet Biscaynes and later added some “colonnade” Buck Centurys (Centuries?) like Kojack’s but in black & white “livery”. Tube City Cab co. (McKeesport, PA) used MoPars at one time (IIRC,Plymouth, maybe DeSoto..) But switched to Checker. I took my one and only ride in a BRAND NEW (1979) Checker from Tube City. A Checker with “new car” smell had to be the rarest thing on earth in the ’70s!
Great story and cool pics, Jason!
Reminds me of my own ’64 “Bisquick”
Mine was a white 4-door with blue carpeted interior. Although my 230 didn’t have A/C, it did have Powerglide, power steering and manual brakes. Purchased around 1983 with about 65,000 miles for something like $165. Ratty driver’s seat and slightly mangled right-front fender no extra charge. 😉
Not very fast, but not altogether slow, either. I remember it as seeming kind of thirsty for only having 6 cylinders.
I’ve since remembered that the cab operator in the small town I grew up in had two ’64 Biscaynes in service during the ’60s. They were copper brown in color.
Also, I really like the “Radio Dispatched ” logo on the featured cab!
Factory A/C Jason? Quite rare in 1964 for any non-luxury car. I thought that GM required V-8’s for factory A/C in this era. At least that’s what I heard from a Chevy salesman when shopping for a ’69 Nova back in the day.
FWIW, I sure don’t see any sign of an A/C compressor or hoses under the hood.
But yes, “factory air” wasn’t all that uncommon, in hot and humid areas by 1964. And yes, they would put it on a six back then.
The compressor and all components for the a/c had been removed at some point and were in the trunk. Had I taken an interior shot the pieces seen by passengers would have been hard to not notice.
We have seen a trickle of taxi-orange Ford Transit Connect minivans around here, that apparently came out of taxi service in NYC…”flat rate to JFK” decals are the giveaway.
They tend to be ROUGH, with poorly repaired sheetmetal damage, mismatched paint, and extra orange lamps and reflectors on the outside.
Several have turned up on the local Craigslist too…
All of the taxi’s in the Chevy ads above, as well as the 64 feature car lack any door mirrors. Strange.
Maybe, maybe not. A quick search revealed that while this seems odd in retrospect, they don’t appear to have been required until later in the 1960s, primarily 1967 or 1968.
List by states here, with Missouri, New York, and Kansas having specific dates: http://ecomodder.com/wiki/index.php/Mirror_Laws_by_State_(U.S.)
I had a 1962 Galaxie with no exterior mirrors nor had it ever had them.
Not odd at all. Outside mirrors were not standard, and not all that common. Driver’s side outside mirrors were more common then passenger side ones, which were decidedly uncommon in the 60s.
Our Fords had no outside mirrors. Our ’65 Coronet wagon had an optional driver’s side mirror, which was more commonly ordered with wagons. But none on the passenger’s side.
As Jason said, I think the driver’s side mirrors started to be required in the late 60s or so, but the passenger side ones not until sometime later, IIRC.
1966 was the first year of a standard driver’s mirror. This was part of the “GSA” safety package which preceded the first federal standards in ’68.
In ’66, the GSA demanded a basket of items including the mirror, emergency flashers, backup lights, padded dash & front and rear seat belts.
Since they bought so many cars, the mfgs just went ahead and put them on all cars. AFAIK, there has never been a Fed requirement for a passenger mirror, they just became universal through market forces.
Think our “73 Fury lll” may have had a passenger door mirror. First car we had with one.
Wonder if the AC is factory? Alternator was probably cab only in ’64. Armstrong steering, manual but heavy duty brakes.
At least the driver was treated to Powerglide but the 3 speed would have been more useful with the 230 and AC. Smoother shifting for the passenger, though.
I found when using grease fitting equipped U joints in my heavily overloaded C10, the hole drilled for the grease fittings creates a weak spot in the joint and would crack in this spot. Glad I caught it before it broke. Machine shop guy said he had seen it happen a few times. I changed all joints back to solid design. They would only last 30-30k miles anyway. I upgraded to the 11 inch clutch after the original one wore out. The flywheel is flat and you can install any size up to 11 inch.
I wonder if Uber cars will be required to be built to taxi spec to be legal.
Great time capsule find!
67Conti,
You raise an interesting point about the Uber taxi service. I don’t think people who contract as an Uber driver realize the additional wear-and-tear effect taxi service has on their personal vehicle. And since taxi service is a commercial usage of the vehicle, wouldn’t using your personally-owned vehicle in said commercial application void the vehicle warranty?
If the warranty terms exclude commercial service and the dealership (or manufacturer) discovered it was used for taxi service, I don’t see why the claim could not be denied.
This could apply to an extended warranty as well.
Honda does specifically limit warranties for commerical use. I dont remember Toyota having such a limitation.
Ford Au tried offering their factory built taxi in NZ a few years ago, Toyota responded with a 400,000km warranty offer on Camry hybrids, there a very few Falcon taxis about and plenty of Toyota hybrids used as cabs and Toyota build a hybrid of everything in their lineup including Lexus cars and Hino trucks,
That would certainly lessen the number of people sidelining as Uber drivers. Right now, I think the only regulations are number of doors (4) and age of the vehicle (I think 10 years old or less). In the probably 8 or 9 times I’ve used Uber, the vehicles have ranged from a Kia Spectra all the way to a nearly new, loaded F-150 Crew Cab.
The main reason Desoto and others supplied long wheelbase taxis in the 1930’s until the early 1950’s was many cities had a minimum passenger capacity regulations such as six passengers in the rear compartment. The front seat was not utilized for passengers, cabs had only a driver’s seat, the other half of the front compartment used for luggage. Drivers were partitioned off for security and privacy reasons.
Around 1950, many cities relaxed their minimum passenger capacity regulations to allow regular production sedans to be used as taxi cabs. That change affectively killed the long wheelbase market for all but the Cadillac 75 seven passenger sedans and limousines, Chrysler and DeSoto quit after MY 1954. Only Checker continued to offer an extended sedan on a longer 129″ wheelbase with small jump seats for occasional use in addition to their regular 120″ wheelbase taxi.
Packard had a foray into the taxi market with purpose-built cabs beginning in MY1941, continued postwar until the whole effort failed in 1950. It wasn’t one of their better gambits, the 1948-49 22nd Series New York-type cab on 141″wb powered by their flathead six produced no profitable business and ruined whatever prestige value long wheelbase Packards still had.
i almost passed on clicking this for the story. the title and pic didn’t give a hint to the wealth of taxi history and minutiae contained within. thought it was going to be about some beater 64 jitney service. nice surprise though. great work.
Yes of course, there is a huge difference between the vehicles of now and the ancient one. The models have been modified a lot so as the technology and features also. I enjoyed reading this article whole as it gives a lot about the modifications in auto industry. It just not happened to Chevrolet but all other brands too go through the same but still the most important thing for a car is its maintenance. Without timely maintenance, no vehicle can last longer. Thanks for representing the collective info.
FWIW, Checker’s own chronicle of its first 30 years of taxis (preceding the ones familiar to most of us, I reckon) [Henry Ford Museum]:
There was an early Checker (I’m thinking Model T, but could be mistaken) on display at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana in 2014. It was really a very attractive car, especially given what its purpose was. It’s the only early one I’ve ever seen.
From the ’58 brochure: “50-ampere heavy duty alternator-type generator produces high output at idle and low speeds for special alternating current requirements.” (“I donno, it’s some screwy new kinda generator. C’mon, c’mon, just write words to fill the space; we gotta get this brochure off to the printer!”)
Yeah, eh! Like those doors that open extra-wide, with sturdier position checks. And those grease fittings on moving parts that bear on each other. I had the same reaction when I read some years ago about Nissan putting special steering linkage on NV200s built for London taxicab service, to comply with local turning-radius regs. Umm…do we not think everyone else buying an NV200 might also appreciate an extra-tight turning circle?
I believe that’s a nod to the Leece-Neville alternator’s auxiliary power tap capability.
Use in a taxicab? I’m not sure, maybe radio equipment?
Another taxi charging system oddball was an “overdrive” to, well, overdrive a generator to increase it’s speed and output at low engine speeds.
H’mm. Every generator and alternator I’ve seen is overdriven—its driven pulley is smaller than the drive pulley on the engine. Y’mean just a smaller pulley on it?
Speaking of a compact 2-speed planetary gear that overdrives the generator at low engine speeds, to achieve good output rate. Gear then shifts to direct drive at higher engine speeds, to avoid generator overspeed.
Wow! Never heard of such a thing. Guess it was obsolete immediately alternators came on the scene.
Thought I’d dig around for an image, looks like we just missed a new unused one!
Fascinating! Looks like we missed it awhile back; it’s scrolled off eBay’s servers and can’t be pulled up by item number or completed-items search. I did find an (the?) applicable patent.
Now what happens to the generator-belt-driven “piggyback” windshield washer pump, does it go into overdrive too? Lol
I believe that’s a nod to the Leece-Neville alternator’s auxiliary power tap capability.
Use in a taxicab? I’m not sure, maybe radio equipment?
Another taxi charging system oddball was an “overdrive” to, well, overdrive a generator to increase its speed and output at low engine speeds.
The Acc position on the ignition is interesting. Most cars had it in the ’50s but regular Chevys didn’t.
My 2012 Fiat 500 does not have an accessory position which did surprise me. You can turn the radio on without the ignition being on, and it turns itself off after some time, maybe 15 minutes?
The devices added to Hansom cabs in 1894 were originally called taxameters (from the German) and almost at once they became, in the vernacular, taxicabs (probably for no reason other than it rolled off the tongue more naturally than taxacab). The English soon adopted taximeter under the influence of the French taximètre which were added to Parisian cabs in 1898, (although most sources note in France they were until 1904 called taxibread). The gas-powered vehicles reached New York in 1907 where the English “Taxicab” was also adopted.
https://nihilistnotes.blogspot.com/search?q=Taxi
Growing up in the 60’s I rode in cabs from time to time, with my parents except once. My (dim) memories were of late model American cars, “full sized” windows down, which likely meant no A/C and sunburnt drivers whose necks always looked like rare roast beef. Yeah, odd, what can I say, that’s what made an impression on me.
Fast forward 50+ years and anything/everything can be a taxi. I saw a BMW 750i as a taxi one time, I think picking up someone from the county jail. Hybrids, minivans (which make a ton of sense) and everything inbetween. As a certifiable BMW nut the 750 just made me cringe. Not because of possible clientele, but rather that while the basic platform was good, the details were not and could bankrupt you if you weren’t careful. The joke was there was nothing more expensive than a $500 BMW 750i.
The Uber model, which I like in concept, I think is a bit of a scam. While I don’t think auto insurance companies are exactly stellar in the treatment of their customers, let alone unintended clients, I bet 90% of Uber drivers are ignoring the subtle change in risk factor when they become a commercial vehicle for hire and in a sense the rest of us are subsidizing them. With Uber ignoring from a distance.
Do any of those 1930’s GM “Generals” survive? Were they actually titled as such (making the General arguably the most obscure GM marque), or were they registered as Chevrolets or GMC’s?
The Corvair sedan would have been a terrible taxicab because the seats were way too low. The side doors on the Greenbrier did open 180°, and it had nice high seats, but air conditioning wasn’t available. Quite a few Greenbriers were used in airports shuttling passengers between terminals. I guess AC wasn’t crucial for five or ten minute rides.