Some of my taxi driver friends drive these Mercs and they would get great mpg's in line with what this article found (adjusting for UK mpg's). Just because it sounds crazy doesn't mean it isn't true. Now you can see why the Prius and hybrids have such competition here in Europe.
I'm curious, what kind of mpg do you get from your prius cab? I get well under epa because of hills and short trips. Everyone I know with a diesel exceeds epa on the highway, as if the tests penalize them here. But I would expect the amount would be small. I'm sure you have driven both, why do you advocate hybrid over diesel.
No longer in the cab game - think you've seen the double dip recession news over here. Times are hard. Locally petrol is cheaper here in the UK by a few pence. Petrol litre £1.39, diesel £1.44 or $8.14 US gallon gas, $8.44 diesel. The opposite of these figures apply in most places on mainland Europe where diesel is cheaper. Taxi fuel consumption figures in my particular town the are as follows; Petrol automatic 2.0 litre engine = approx 20 mpg (US gallons) Diesel automatic 2.0 litre engine = approx 23 mpg (US gallons) Petrol manual 1.8 litre engine = approx 25 mpg US Diesel manual 2.0 litre td engine = approx 30 mpg US My Prius over 12 months averaged 41 mpg US. These mpgs are based on my heavily congested town where an average traffic speed is about 11-15 mph. There are big savings with the Prius BUT they are much more expensive to buy now then 3 years ago when I got mine, compared to alternatives. It is also quite an expensive car when it goes wrong.
Sorry to hear, I hope things work out for you. Did you sell the Prius ? Or is it being subsidized by a different job ?
Neither. Still out of work, the car is on finance so can't get rid of it yet as it owes more than its worth. I can hand it back in mid summer but hope to get another job by then. Living on savings and have about 5 months of that left!
Sorry to hear. If you do not mind me asking, was it your decision to stop cab'ing ? For some reason I thought you were independent. If you have a choice and the Prius is a sunk cost, I am a bit surprised it would not still be to your favor to continue that work. Apologies if you feel this is prying. The economics of cab'ing has always interested me; it just seems like a small scale model of the bigger world -- for better or worse.
