City Cabs Skoda's scrapped

mvpr

Just after seeing a tow truck on the quays with 4 of the yellow/blue City Cab Skoda's stripped down and ready to be crushed.

Any idea why they'd do this? Surely they would have been worth something to someone?

Steve

Because they're Skodas;)

-Chris-

mvpr wrote: »

Surely they would have been worth something to someone?

I wouldn't expect so.

All the yellow and blue Skodas that you see as taxis were (afaik) ordered in by one particular dealer.
They were brought in specifically to be sold to taxi drivers - diesel, non-metallic, lowest possible spec - you can't actually buy one of these cars new from any old Skoda dealer, they're not an official engine/spec combination!

And due to the fact that there's so many identical (weird) spec, high mileage cars in identical colours, they're pretty much saleproof!!

mvpr

Right, I didnt realise they were special orders. Thanks for that...

HJL

They'd still have a big boot though!

meathstevie

+300k miles and 78 different drivers maybe ? Most of those are the yokes they used to rent out...

waxon-waxoff

This is more about accounting than anything else. Those cars would be worth something, even for parts, but it suits them to declare them as worthless. The taxi company will write them off on their accounts as a loss and so lower the tax bill. They will show them depreciating by a set amount every year until now. The company will now buy new cars and reduce their profits for their year and so reduce the tax they pay on profits. If they didnt spend the money on new cars, they would hand it to the revenue as corporation tax.

bazz26

You never know you might find one for sale on eBay next week.

carchaeologist

waxon-waxoff wrote: »

This is more about accounting than anything else. Those cars would be worth something, even for parts, but it suits them to declare them as worthless. The taxi company will write them off on their accounts as a loss and so lower the tax bill. They will show them depreciating by a set amount every year until now. The company will now buy new cars and reduce their profits for their year and so reduce the tax they pay on profits. If they didnt spend the money on new cars, they would hand it to the revenue as corporation tax.

So much for saving the environment:rolleyes:! Those cars cant have been very old?

Gary ITR

Those cars would have been ran like the Garda cars, changing drivers at the base after each shift

carchaeologist

Im sure they would have around a billion miles clocked up so:D

Steve

Onkle wrote: »

Those cars would have been ran like the Garda cars, changing drivers at the base after each shift

Like the German taxis... Mecerdes guarantee them for 500k km or something as long as they never switch the engines off and Mercedes service them.

Don't think skoda would give the same deal.

carchaeologist

tht sounds incredible, how do they service them with the engine running.....:D:D:D

Churchy

stevec wrote: »

Like the German taxis... Mecerdes guarantee them for 500k km or something as long as they never switch the engines off and Mercedes service them.

Don't think skoda would give the same deal.

Ermmm you got a source for that??????????????????????????????

Steve

nothing I can back up - I was told this on several occasions by taxi drivers in Frankfurt.

Damien360

Not quite true.

I have had German sevice engineers and sales people in my car here and they explianed the typical setup for taxi and sales people in high end mercs.

Under a lease agreement they guarantee the car for 300K km as long as mercedes services it only. The service may not be part of the lease (just like here) but if it breaks down at all or has any faults, they drive to the nearest Merc dealer and are given a replacement. At that point they never have to recieve the old car back. The customer in my car told me that he sent back two E-class mercs under this system for the same fault. His Sat-Nav crashed and took about 3 minutes to reboot, without turning off the engine or stopping. That annoyed him, so he got the cars replaced. This is an expensive system and was done for E-class and up.

Niall1234

Autograss racing maybe ?

carchaeologist

Damien360 wrote: »

Not quite true.

I have had German sevice engineers and sales people in my car here and they explianed the typical setup for taxi and sales people in high end mercs.

Under a lease agreement they guarantee the car for 300K km as long as mercedes services it only. The service may not be part of the lease (just like here) but if it breaks down at all or has any faults, they drive to the nearest Merc dealer and are given a replacement. At that point they never have to recieve the old car back. The customer in my car told me that he sent back two E-class mercs under this system for the same fault. His Sat-Nav crashed and took about 3 minutes to reboot, without turning off the engine or stopping. That annoyed him, so he got the cars replaced. This is an expensive system and was done for E-class and up.

Sounds like a good deal, you get total peace of mind,you would have to be a good customer to get that kind of service though i would expect?

what does niall1234 mean??

Timmaay

Autocross racing = bangers being raced flatout around fields etc. They'd be perfect for this, they dont need to be registered, and will prob be wrecked/crashed after a few meetings, so the high milage doesnt matter.

Fair enough, the taxi company declares them worthless for tax reasons, but what ever happened to a cash in hand sale:p:D

Steve

Damien360 wrote: »

Not quite true.

I have had German sevice engineers and sales people in my car here and they explianed the typical setup for taxi and sales people in high end mercs.

Under a lease agreement they guarantee the car for 300K km as long as mercedes services it only. The service may not be part of the lease (just like here) but if it breaks down at all or has any faults, they drive to the nearest Merc dealer and are given a replacement. At that point they never have to recieve the old car back. The customer in my car told me that he sent back two E-class mercs under this system for the same fault. His Sat-Nav crashed and took about 3 minutes to reboot, without turning off the engine or stopping. That annoyed him, so he got the cars replaced. This is an expensive system and was done for E-class and up.

Was starting to think I imagined it - thanks.
The story I was told was obviously given some embellishment.

The whole deal with not stopping the engines (apart from servicing) was to keep a constant temperature in the engine and lubrication system.

The cars were hot swapped and run 24/7

colm_mcm

They didn't do that with the last model E Class did they? my mate would've got 7 new cars in the space of a year if that came to Ireland!

Steve

colm_mcm wrote: »

They didn't do that with the last model E Class did they? my mate would've got 7 new cars in the space of a year if that came to Ireland!

That'd be nice....

No, they were purpose built Merc taxi's all the same spec, colour, fitted with a meter and satnav.

carchaeologist

I wonder what happens to them when their taxi service is up.....