No, not one for BBD. As mentioned elsewhere, I've been travelling a bit recently, which has meant some half-hour motorway trips to Heathrow and back. When I'm driving I tend to be focused on other things than ride comfort, but in the back of a taxi I became acutely aware of it.
The local firm I use has a variety of vehicles. Most recently I've had:
- Volvo S80 (twice) My idea of what an airport taxi ought to be. Capacious back seat, ample headroom and a good view out. I can't say I actually noticed the ride in these, which may be a good thing or may be because it's so similar to what I'm used to in my S60.
****
- Audi A6 Nicely shaped back seat, with sideways support sufficient to counteract my driver's rather exuberant method on roundabouts. Tight for headroom, though, and the grey-beige leather felt more DFS than Connolly. The ride was noticeably jiggly, especially on the rough bits of M4 round Heathrow.
***
- Ford Galaxy (VW Sharan era) Lots of seats, but I only needed one and the one I sat in managed to be both too high and too close to the floor, so I sat with my knees in the air. It was jiggly and uncomfortable even by Audi standards. Not nice
**
But they all got me there or home on time, so perhaps it doesn't really matter. Even so, I'll ask next time if they can do an S80. Does anyone else have experiences or preferences?
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>>Does anyone else have experiences or preferences?
>>
I so rarely travel in the back of any car and then only locally at lowish speeds.
All the hatchbacks I have been in including big Rovers suffer from wind noise around the hatch so my preference is for a saloon.
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Good point, Henry - I forgot to mention the wind noise. The Galaxy made such a howl at speed that I wondered whether the driver had neglected to latch the tailgate and my suitcase would be bouncing along the M4 behind us.
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The new 07 on Galaxy is vastly superior.
I went in the back of our 1 Series the otherday for the first time, the 5dr 120i, and it had more leg room than I thought.
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I once managed to fit my 6'1" frame into the back seat of a Fiat 500 (the original one) when a mate of a mate gave us a lift home after a night on the town. Being very tired and emotional helped me to cope.
Most comfortable back seat ride was in a Citroen D5 mini cab, like floating on a magic carpet.
Most embarrassing was a massive chunter in the back of a Zephyer or Zodiac, another mini cab and again in a tired and emotional state.
Most exciting was in the back of a Skoda, but I can't tell the tale as the thread would get deleted just after I was banned.
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The back of the 7er's a nice place to be. The seats are really wide, and you sit in them, there's vertical support either side - not racing seat style support, just a nice leather butress to prop you up rather than cocoon you.
No noise, double glazing, heavy duty sound deadening under the rear parcel area (saloon obviously).
I don't get to enjoy those seats enough, no great hardship, the driver's seat has the "massage" function too.
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Peugeot 607 is the most comfortable taxi I've been in, second favourite a Phaeton.
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A current Mondeo has acres of leg room in the rear.
I'm 6ft and was very surprised that I didn't feel cooped up in in the back of a Fiat Cinquecento when driven in one in the 1990s..:-)
I've also had far more interesting experiences in the back of a Morris 1000.....
Last edited by: Stuartli on Fri 3 Jun 11 at 19:22
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I got a lift last year in the back of the T reg Mondeo Ghia I'd owned in 2003. Despite it having now racked up 200,000 miles it still felt smoother and quieter than I had any right to expect. The Ghia trim came with extra sound deadening, I suppose.
I too have some back-of-a-Skoda tales, again sadly not for publication :)
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 3 Jun 11 at 21:49
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It seems that the girls from North of Watford are easily impressed.
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Not so Zero
my 'erm. back seat experiences were in my spanking new B reg 205Gti, which garnered much more interest from passers by than my future MiL's new 520.
Much to her chagrin.
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I have a "back seat of a Ford Tudor" tale, but similarly cloaked in discretion!
(I was very young, compared to my 3/4 of a century these days!)
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...my 'erm. back seat experiences were in my spanking new B reg 205Gti, which garnered much more interest from passers by than my future MiL's new 520.
Much to her chagrin.
Let me get this right, LL: when you and your MiL-to-be were in the back of the 520, you got less attention than she'd have liked, so you had to squeeze into your 205 instead? In which case, as AC might say, chapeau!
};---)
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Not so Zero, my 'erm, back seat experiences were spanking in my new B reg 205Gti
There we go, fixed the typo ;-)
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>> It seems that the girls from North of Watford are easily impressed.>>
But we are talking about a time before you were born.....:-)
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>> Most exciting was in the back of a Skoda
>> I too have some back-of-a-Skoda tales
I'm doing something wrong i think :-(
:-)
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For a short time in the late sixties I was working freelance, my first marriage had broken up and I had an undeserved, abused and maltreated R Type Bentley.
I had a rapid relationship with someone who lived in the outer northern fringes of London, even up a bit of A1. This girlfriend was a good driver and one day when I had to finish a report in a hurry for a meeting in town, I let her drive and sat in the back with my typewriter on the walnut picnic table, working. The only time I ever rode in the back of that car.
She did fine and loved it, I sort of finished the report and I can say that the back seat of a proper Rolls-Royce is a good place for that sort of thing.
For the other sort of thing, I later discovered, the front seat was more than adequate actually.
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>>For the other sort of thing, I later discovered, the front seat was more than adequate actually. >>
If it had been an RR, it would presumably have been quick rolls in the Rolls..?
Just hope you were equally as adequate....:-)
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When I was young - in a galaxy far away - I had a 1953 Rover 75 - Leather bench front seat and column mounted gearchange (which worked very well). The range of movement of the front seat slider meant that the backseat was never needed.. :-)
Violent cornering - with a soft suspension and no seat belts did , however, lead to some interesting seat sliding!
Last edited by: madf on Sat 4 Jun 11 at 06:51
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One of the Capris best features was the large chrome handled seat recliner, and the seat would collapse backwards with one swift hand movement.
How would one mange with the large round knob one has to twiddle a lot these days?
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 4 Jun 11 at 09:00
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...Awaits advice from Poland.
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American Fords went on using that lever well into the 1990s. The first time I drove one a long way I tried to make a small adjustment on the move as I was used to doing with ratchet levers at home, only to find myself in rearward free fall. Could have been lethal; didn't make that mistake again.
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>> One of the Capris best features was ... the seat would collapse backwards with one swift hand movement
The original shape Panda had the same arrangement. I wonder if the current shape still has it, and whether anyone here could tell us if it's of any use? :)
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 4 Jun 11 at 10:21
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>>How would one mange with the large round knob one has to twiddle a lot these days?>>
Too much information about your private life...:-))
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>> One of the Capris best features was the large chrome handled seat recliner, and the
>> seat would collapse backwards with one swift hand movement.
So that's why BMW still use a handle to recline the seat :-)
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>> Audi A6 Nicely shaped back seat, with sideways support sufficient to counteract my driver's rather
>> exuberant method on roundabouts.
You live near Reading, yes? I think I know this bloke. He managed to make my missus puke on a trip from Sonning to Caversham.
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Not far downstream of there, 'Vić. I wonder what employment model these cab companies use. I imagine the drivers could be freelancers with their own vehicles, who are on the books of several local firms.
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You pass your taxi test, you buy a license from the local council ( not that easy but not tough) and then you join whatever taxi circuit suits you.
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>> You pass your taxi test, you buy a license from the local council ( not
>> that easy but not tough) and then you join whatever taxi circuit suits you.
When I did private hire you had to have an offer of a place in a company circuit first, in order to take the test. The council then had to be notified if you changed companies, and the car's official signwriting had to be altered to reflect the fact.
Stops one-man-bands setting up on the cheap, and preserves the revenue stream from operator's licences as well as drivers' and vehicles'.
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Anyone can take the test, its 70 quid. You then choose your council ( the criteria vary form council to council, and there are two types of license, Taxi and private hire. One of my local councils insists on the vehicle being a eurotaxi type with disabled access to get a taxi license. the other doesent. Then you join your cicuit.
If you get the taxi license you can ply for hire at a cab rank, so you dont need a cicuit.
Round here, best by far is to get a merc and do collar and tie airport pickups or golf club dinner and dance
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BIL has moved more into the airport run type work with little old ladies shopping trips inbetween. He dosent bother with new years eve now - to much hassle for a few extra quid.
Thin if it was me I would rather do the longer airport type jobs
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Two more taxis yesterday. Another A6 first thing (or rather, about three hours before first thing ought to be.) Rather more sympathetically driven than the last one, enough to make the early start less of an ordeal.
Return in the evening was a different matter. Driver stood in the wrong place in the arrivals hall, where I had no chance of seeing him. Then he drove as if the steering wheels and pedals were switches - I don't think there was a single progressive movement in the whole trip.
But he could have been the Queen's personal driver on his day off and we'd still have been in a Vauxhall Vectra. I know a couple of contributors here have these things and I mean them no offence, but honestly, what a shockingly awful car it is!
On my own in the back I was OK for legroom but my head was against the roof. The bit of the seat I could actually use was only marginally better padded and shaped than the penny-pinching airline perch I'd endured for the previous two hours. But I suppose a shorter person would have managed; perhaps I'm just a bit big for it.
But that doesn't excuse the ride or the noise. It never settled, even at motorway speed, jiggling over small bumps and lurching over big ones. The tyres roared on any kind of surface, and the diesel engine transmitted a fatiguing rumble into the cabin. The driving didn't help, of course, but after a long and tiring day, I was looking forward to a calming ride home and this mechanized heap of (s)crap was entirely unsuited to providing it.
Please don't mistake this for badge snobbery. I've ridden happily in taxis made by Ford, Skoda, Toyota, Seat and others. But I'm surprised that anyone thought that this car was suitable for customers who are used to this firm's usual standard of transport.
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Kind of agree with you, but Kind of don’t
Which Vectra was it B <2002 or New shape C =>2002?
Vectra B Never owned one, but by all accounts it’s not the best – if this is the one you have ridden in then I’ll take your word for it.
Vectra C – Yes the ride is stiff, far to stiff for my liking – it’s so stiff that I can tell you what I’ve just run over and it does bump and bask over the slightest bump – even more so I have my tyres on “economy” Settings.
But then what do you do? People want cars that can be flung round a track according to the gospel of JC – not ferry a family around which is what they are for really.
I agree it should not be sloppy and wallow round corners – but for what it is, a large family car it handles as well as expected- probably better if flung round corners.
Build quality? How many scruffy ones do you see? Not many – and Its better build than a equivalent Renault Laguna which past experience you only had to sneeze at, and something would fall off or cause a light on.
I’ve found them very comfortable, and ample room in the back and front – I’m 6’3” – was ok for me the only one time was where I wasn’t comfortable was in the back of one in a Taxi (full of people) I got in at the wrong side behind the driver and he had the seat so flat it was a more like a bed – that was uncomfortable and I was too late to swap seats in the back, and too polite to ask the driver to move it.
Road noise? Agree it does rumble on the motorway – but I think this is more to do with the tyres and my penny pinching methods of having them blown up to “economy” settings.
The Bridgestones that originally came as factory fit and I’ve replaced like for like, seem to hold the car to the road very well but there are comments on the T’internet that they are noisy.
Please don’t think I’m trying to argue with you – just giving you my experience of owning one as a day-to-day car – which at the end of the day that’s what it is, and it does that job very well*
*Apart from snapped springs – due to said stiffness/potholes and speed humps Grrrrrrr!!!!
Ps Experiences in the back seat
Can't repeat on here, but I would say the front seat is better for that.
Last edited by: Redviper on Wed 2 Nov 11 at 12:38
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Please don’t think I’m trying to argue with you...
Spoilsport, RV! Argue away - it's what we're here for, innit?
};---)
Last night's car was what I've learned here to call a Vectra C. Didn't check the plate but it had the headlights side by side rather than one above the other, which makes it, I think, post-2005.
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Experiences in the back seat - henry k
