Thats a lotta k,s !!!!

[Jonno ba]

Went in a 2004 ba sedan taxi on the weekend with 860 000 km on the clock, no joke ! Cabbie said it will be off the road at end of year and will prob hit the million mark.... He reckons its done two diff,s two batteries and gets it serviced every 10 000 km which dosnt sound to over board unless you do 5 000 km in a week then its every two weeks. Well done again to ford for leaving their more fragile opponent [ HOLDEN ] just shaking there heads.

Never stray from the ones you trust !

[Mechan1k]

There a few members on here that own ex-taxi's with that many kays and more.

Was in a BA cab once and remarked on the low kays (just under 200,000km) ... driver said it had already clocked the odometer and started from zero again.

[SumoDog68]

Taxis get driven 24/7 and can do over 100k a year - so do many trucks - it is nature of their usage that dictates high milage.
I think choice of a car is down to running cost ( fuel,parts and maintenance) and since Falcon runs well on LPG it is locally made and relatively simple to work on it is a pick of a local market for taxi duties.
I wouldnt assume it is "stronger" car as many claim ...

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

Taxis get driven 24/7 and can do over 100k a year - so do many trucks - it is nature of their usage that dictates high milage.
I think choice of a car is down to running cost ( fuel,parts and maintenance) and since Falcon runs well on LPG it is locally made and relatively simple to work on it is a pick of a local market for taxi duties.
I wouldnt assume it is "stronger" car as many claim ...

You are right when it comes to running costs determining choice of taxi. In the early days, Commodores were tried but most cabs were lucky to get more than 300 - 400ks out of the V6. Whereas the Falcon i6 regularly lasted over the million k's mark, so that's where the "stronger" claim comes from.

Interestingly, most Gold Coast cabs are now Prius ... must be cheap to run but I don't know about the longevity of the power plant.

[Jastel]

The V6 wouldnt take LPG very well, the valves wore into the cast iron heads which meant replacing them every year, and there was two of them!!

They have probably fixed this with the newer LPG models one would hope.

Prius are cheaper on petrol for sure but not necesarily cheaper to run overall.
Repairs and parts, if you can find any, are the problems with Prius.

[burnz]

Originally Posted by Pedro

You are right when it comes to running costs determining choice of taxi. In the early days, Commodores were tried but most cabs were lucky to get more than 300 - 400ks out of the V6. Whereas the Falcon i6 regularly lasted over the million k's mark, so that's where the "stronger" claim comes from.

Interestingly, most Gold Coast cabs are now Prius ... must be cheap to run but I don't know about the longevity of the power plant.

some priuses are allready over the million..

any engine will do a million or two if never allowed to cool..

[poppa smurf]

I was in one a while back that had clocked 1.3 million!......had a lot of work done on it though!....engine untouched! except for usual service

the driver stated the only reason he went Ford was because of the dedicated gas.....he said personally he wouldn't have one....in his words it was a box of crap

his own car was a holden!

[Jonno ba]

This cabbie reckons he ain't really touched the motor or any acc ie.. Starter, alt, under the bonnet, you don't see many commodore cabs on the road or fleet cars for that point. Gov fleet cars are usually ford.

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by Jonno ba

This cabbie reckons he ain't really touched the motor or any acc ie.. Starter, alt, under the bonnet, you don't see many commodore cabs on the road or fleet cars for that point. Gov fleet cars are usually ford.

How many times would he have needed to replace the front lower balljoints. I've lost count of how many times I've had to do my BA's.

[Jastel]

Two batteries in 8 years in a taxi????

I think he is only telling you about the repairs HE knows about, not what the owner actually does.

[z80]

Engine is always at operating temperature.

A high degree of engine wear is at startup, never buy a car that was used for lotsa short trips.

[aussie muscle]

proof that they are over-engineered. good if you buy second hand, not so good if you get a new car ever 3-5 years. (probably the reason VW are still popular, good so long as nothing breaks in the first 3 years, after that, someone else's problem).

[Mr Hardware]

Any cab with 860k on the clock will not have done two batteries, it will have done more like about 12-15 batteries. Batteries only last 6-8 months in cabs.

[XR Martin]

It would have done atleast two transmissions too.

[flooded one]

the commodore isnt really that bad of a car. * waits too be shot* main reason i stay away from them is most people i know with them treat them like crap!!! in terms of durabillity however the falcon is the better car. have had many a cabbie tell me that. i have noticed an increse of hybrids being used here. bit of a shame considering when i was growing up most of the taxis getting around where falcons.

[jpd80]

Taxi work is not that stressful on the engine, that's why they last so long.
It's all the other bits that wear out on the car that need constant replacement.

[graham7773]

Old one but HZ Holden with taxi pack, speedo 1,530,000K's, second time around on original engine second diff and third transmission. LPG of course.
Re speedo, reading 530,000 now so 1,530,000K's and a long time since it was a taxi.

[Smoke Pursuit]

Theres a company that transport specialised parcels around Australia with some very high km XR6 Turbo utes I am told... Apparently these utes do 20,000 kms a month!

[falconnut]

Sounds like a cool job dash, got a name for the company?

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by falconnut

Sounds like a cool job dash, got a name for the company?

nope... Sorry... All I know is they have a few FG XR6 Turbo utes and ship confidential paperwork all over the country.

Another mob that have high km XR6 Turbos is Brisbane Hi Loads... No doubt these utes do 8,000 kms a month... They are BF MK1's and still going so I'd say they would have 350,000 kms on them by now, if not more!

[SteveJH]

Why would a Courier company spring for Turbo's?

[Smoke Pursuit]

Originally Posted by SteveJH

Why would a Courier company spring for Turbo's?

From what I am told hes not cheap.... And he does not muck around....

Does a lot of court documents apparently and other sensitive info.

[Neale]

[QUOTE=DASH GT]nope... Sorry... All I know is they have a few FG XR6 Turbo utes and ship confidential paperwork all over the country.

Another mob that have high km XR6 Turbos is Brisbane Hi Loads... No doubt these utes do 8,000 kms a month... They are BF MK1's and still going so I'd say they would have 350,000 kms on them by now, if not more![/QUOTE

Reminds me of the stories that dad told me about the old hotted up F Truck newspaper trucks that would leave the printers in Sydney in the early hours of the morning & deliver papers all over the state.
They apparently had some work done to them to make them go faster when they were fully loaded.
This was also in the days when there was no speed limits when you got out of the city.

[burnz]

Originally Posted by Neale

Reminds me of the stories that dad told me about the old hotted up F Truck newspaper trucks that would leave the printers in Sydney in the early hours of the morning & deliver papers all over the state.
They apparently had some work done to them to make them go faster when they were fully loaded.
This was also in the days when there was no speed limits when you got out of the city.

yep a syd morning herald subbie had ford F250's and chev C60's about 12 each and not a small block to be seen in any of them..

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by burnz

yep a syd morning herald subbie had ford F250's and chev C60's about 12 each and not a small block to be seen in any of them..

Main "paper trucks" I used to see in those days were Dodges with modified 318's in them.

[falconnut]

Ah cool.

[Hitman]

We have trucks at work that do (averaged) 22400 k'ms a month ;)

[jrfttf]

Have a cabbie that comes through work, his retired ba got to 1.4mil!

[saber]

Originally Posted by jrfttf

Have a cabbie that comes through work, his retired ba got to 1.4mil!

Wow, that’s a heap of kays!

Having clocked up so many kays, and being a taxi (it will be serviced every 10-15000km using mineral oil), does this justify the idea that you’re wasting your cash paying more for synthetic because it offers “greater protection for your engine”?

Granted taxis are used 24/7, but they do a heap of starts (hence why the batteries in them last only 6 or so months), and it’s claimed that most engine damaged is caused when starting your engine...

PS: Not looking to start a "mineral vs synthetic" debate here!

[LTDHO]

So by the end of the year, keep eye open for a low klm BA, recently resprayed! One owner.