newyorktoLA

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ipp

Thats how it is In europe. Since these cars are bought without tax and then sold to private persons second hand for a "taxed" price the taxi company can buy a new e-class without putting too much In between. Off cause the long term reliability has a lot to do with the good resale value for longmilers. A friend of mine went in a 1.200.000 km W210 taxi the other day.

In my town most of the taxis are MB, Volvo or VW (all diesels). Some years ago one taxi company started to buy cheaper japanese cars but the bad resale value for long milers made the stop since they ended up paying more than they did with their MBs even though they are much more expensive to buy.

Also MB in Europe has special taxi discounts and factory delivered taxi equipped models.

Forgive my bad grammar and spelling...

Bossanov

In Germany, MB Taxis are even more prolific. Remeber, they are domestic cars in Germany. It has been my experience that MBs are the taxis of choice throughout Europe and even the Eastern European countries.

Dema

I agree, all taxi in germany are E-class and the same color. W212 are not so common yet, however I was very impressed how good W212 looks as a taxi, unfortunately battery of my camera ran out, so enjoy only W211.

Dema

Regarding your inquiry how taxi can be expensive car. I can answer simple, only reliable car can be taxi. You can’t afford Civic as taxi, too much repair and small trunk. Most countries use most reliable cars for taxi service and police. Ford Crown Victoria is a good example, if you ever drove the car you know what I mean. I found another surprise, if you got to Switzerland, you will see S class as taxi, or A8 as taxi. I really enjoyed ride to airport sitting in A8.

Bossanov

One thing I noticed is that these taxis are not "loaded" they are stripped down and do not have most of the extras we are used to seeing in MBs in US.

NorseWagon

Yeah, pretty normal:
I drove MB taxis in Europe back in the late 70s and early 80s.
C-220 D, C-240 D and C-300 D.
All with manual transmission and of course diesel.

200,000 miles easy before major work. MBs had a stellar reputation for qulity back then. Not sure what happened...

Enjoyed the job, but also drove other cars as cabs, Volvos mostly, but also some French cars and the lone Chevy Malibu. Polish Fiat was also introduced, but some pax got pizzed off and demanded a different taxi, preferably a Mercedes...The Fiats and the Ladas did not last long in the heavy duty world of 24 hour a day driving summer and winter.

K-A

Funny thing is, Europeans have so much more (justified) pride in their Domestics. Out here, the Ford Crown Vic, or whatever other quintessential Taxi is seen as a very low-end car (mind you, the Crown Vic is an incredible automobile for its strong points, proof is in the pudding), while in Europe, it's very complimentary and prideful that an E-Class, for example, is used as a Taxi. It speaks volumes about the cars durability and strength, reliability and longetivity, not to mention comfort, and all those things a Cab needs to be. Those aspects draw people to see the cars in a high regard, unlike us out here, where it diminishes the cars cachet.

That said, I don't think I want to go to Europe anytime soon, as I'd like to not have my Americanized head messed with, in regards to seeing M-B's and E-Classes as prestigious "expensive" cars.

Dan98

Mercedes-Benz has some special prices and packages for taxi's. See their special vehicles for taxi, police, ambulance, etc.

http://www.mercedes-benz.de/content/...ons.flash.html

They are not really 60K $ cars. They are more like 40-40K cars with 0% interest and other benefits when a taxi company buys an entire fleet of cars once a couple of years. However, it's great to have a ride in a Mercedes taxi. They even have the new facelifted S-Klasse as a taxi

K-A

It's funny, because out here where I live, more often then not, when I see a black S550 without AMG Package, it's a "Limo", with the white lettering on the back bumper. Now whenever I see a black W221, I always assume they'll be the white lettering on the back.

AMGTTV8

Electronics - expensive to replace and never reliable

Dema

Electronics is very reliable, no moving parts and can stay forever. I have a transitor from 50s and it still works like a charm.

Fastgreek

they are all over the place in europe