Taxi Driver Online

So's Elvis.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Reinforced fiberglass body so no rust, and all the parts from the Ford bin or Toyota if he can get one with that engine.
At least the metro will still be going when the fairway is made into bean cans

And a fun job trying to figure out which parts were actually used, a hotch potch of whatever was cheap at the time.
Many from models not available in the US.

For example:

Metrocab s3 headlights and front indicators came from a Leyland Daf Truck............over £150 + VAT from Lucas.
(A tenner from the truck breakers once I found out what else it was used on...................)
British Leyland Montego dash clocks steering column and ignition lock
Ford granada door locks
Ford Transit G/box and rear axle..........(how easy are transit parts to come by in the states?)
Land rover rear drum brakes
Modified Ford Transit prop shaft.
Ford industrial 2.5l diesel engine (can be replaced with a transit engine with a few tweeks)

and that's just what I remember off the top of my head. Never again.....

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Alex, why is it when I write tra.nny it posts as bald?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Many years ago we had a strange member, yes even more stranger than those still here, and he/she/it kept on about tra.nnys which drove me mad. So I word censored it to another word.

Can't remember if I deleted him/her/it, but clearly the word censor is still active.

Alex

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Maybe time to remove it now?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

so what happens if i write a bald tranny driving a tranny van

Well now you know

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http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

This looks OK

What I think I will do is buy it for the asking price, put £7,000 on top and sell it to some mad yank.

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IDFIMH

I have to respond to the very nasty smear against both myself and my very hard-working staff, and I am sure that you will agree that there are always two sides to a story.
Firstly this large amount is not what it appears, shall we say that $16,000 is roughly £10,000, Ok Before we start let us deduct £1200 for the actual freight cost, take off £2100 for a new a/c installation, so the actual nett price that we charged was £6700, take a cab out of service, completely strip it out, all mechanics, brakes, cooling, suspension, exhaust, steering, tyres, and bottom up a rebuild with all new parts, anyone want to guess what that costs, what does a PCO overhaul cost in London, any change out of £2000 plus for this type of overhaul, or dare I say even more. Now take this cab and strip out the body, wings off, sills off, replace all rusted parts, glass out, etc supply all new wings total repaint inside outside, anyone want to guess what it costs,
I am sure that you now see, that this was not some old rust bucket that we lame brained on some poor unsuspecting fool, but a cab that we had been right through & spent loads of time in preparation and we certainly did not make any fortunes here.
Now let me add this to the equation, we did the deal in $US as generally the Yanks dont understand anything other than dollars. Once the deal was agreed, we stayed in dollars, I take Mastercard, they will not allow me to bill in $ I have to convert to £ on the day at the published rate in the Times on that day, not the tourist rate. and that is exactly what we did, the rate can go up as well as go down, but we had agreed a deal, and that is exactly what it was. How dare this fellow accuse us of impropriety, we value our integrity and we are certainly not bomb site cowboys.
Lastly we recommend a spares pack which includes a hard-bound copy of the workshop manual plus many spares, he declined to pay the extra, expecting me to give it to him FOC, nice guys we are, but not Santa, I have a business to run and staff to pay.

Lastly he forgot to mention that we listened to him, we held his hand, we shipped him $500 worth of free issue parts, and after a whole litany of spurious argument we actually gave him a ex gratia payment of $1500 to help him. Is this the the type of behaviour of an irresponsible company as we seem to have been painted
If we were the nasty thieving persons that he depicts, we would have ignored him.
Yes and another e mail yesterday asking me for advice which I helped him with, would you have done so

Thank you for allowing me to point out the injustice of these false accusations, what I do know, is that we have many many happy clients in the US who think that we are great, getting many referals, we have a full order book, we have a great team here, and we are dedicated to our job. Yes we know that the FX/Fairways are noisy, rusty things, but how far do you go with a refurbishment on a limited budget, that has to include literally everything, I think that we do a damm fine job here

JB

Opps.......wrong post

Hi all - thought I'd update everyone who was kind enough to listen to my ranting about John Bradley at London Taxi Exports. After weeks of sniping and denying and avoiding specifics..he finally agreed to refund some of my money, albeit a small portion. He sent me close to $500 (his prices!) worth of parts and an additional $1500 with the caveat that he has no culpability and the matter is closed.

so rather than carry on indefinitely I decided to take my lumps and consider this a lesson learned. The taxi itself sits on stands in my garage until spring where I can start the process of its recovery. I have very much appreciated the help and solace offered by many of you - and hope that you will allow me to impose upon you further for advice on parts and repair as time goes by. Thanks also to Skippy for your concern regarding the fumes in the cabin - I found a suitable rubber weather strip for the top of the firewall in the engine bay. It seems to have stopped the fumes from blowing out of the oil breather/filler cap and into the vent at the bottom of the windscreen. No more sore throats and I seem to be able to multiply two digit numbers again. God knows what it did to the previous owner!!

Lastly, I received an email today from John Bradley accusing me of defamation and inaccuracies in my reporting on this forum. As usual, he is not specific as to what he considers defamatory or inaccurate so it is difficult to defend myself against his statement. I have his email promises and photographs of what I actually received if anyone is interested. They are specific and self-evident.

Carry-on all,

Joe in NY
Carry on, all

Joe in NY

£6700 for an old cab

If what I think you have is what it is it's worth £500 if the lump is any good, TX's are rusty, not very well built in the beginning and scrap metal when they finish street life, I know it's novelty value across the pond but you are way better off buying a 4 year old one for £10k that is better built, won't be rusty yet, Jon is just doing what business does, mugging off rubbish to those stupid enough to buy it, many lines of business do this so it's not something you can point at him and say you rogue even though basically he is, he's seen an opportunity to turn hundreds into thousands fast, sadly this is the modern UK now, I despair of it and all those participating in it.

I've had the chance to do this, but high morales stopped me, I can con the ass out of anyone because I know how it's done, but as the old saying goes, just cos I can does that mean I have to.

I just read the venerable Mr. Bradley's post. Very smooth, like his sales pitches. e.g. "We actually check for rust holes and discard, and where we see layers of filler, we know that the panel is rusted out, so this is usually replaced. We know that door bottoms are notorious for rust and we cut the lower half out and weld in a steel section so no filler is used"...or..."In reality there should be no issues with the vehicle if we have done our job correctly." ...or..."Front plastic wings fit very well and don’t shake rattle or roll!"

In reality, there are several rust throughs, badly rusted and bondoed door bottoms were plastered over with black tar and never replaced and the front wings arrived with hand loose and or totally missing mounting bolts and brackets and shake rattle and roll to beat the band. Rust bubbles have already appeared in all the areas you would expect. What was welded looks like it was done with a coat hanger wire by an angry teen. The vehicle looks good at 20 ft...but don't look close. The taxi lamp is a useless painted over rusty shell - no light, no wires and no switches, although Mr. Bradley did send a fiberglass replacement shell.

I wanted to attach photos that show all of these things but they will not load in for some reason. If anyone cares to see them and knows how to get them loaded in please let me know. Thank you for your sage advice, doom...although it did make me feel a bit of gobbo for buying what you describe as junk off the assembly line from a scammer of the highest order! Having been raised by British expats here in the states, I have always has a soft spot for all things English...the taxi being a good example. However, I have researched a bit on this side of the pond and found that, owing to the novelty factor you describe, I can make between 2 and 3 thousand dollars a week as a limo service for weddings or various other functions. This is working mostly on weekends. So there is a bit of method to my madness. Hopefully, all is not lost and I will be able to bring this taxi back from the brink.