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Sydney Taxi T4514 - 3 years of running

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by AussieOwner, Dec 29, 2014.

  1. cyclopathic

    cyclopathic Senior Member

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    Holly macro, that's 109,000mi annual!
    (for comparison avg mileage of NYC cab is ~21,000mi)
     
  2. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    That can't be right - for the NYC cab. I was covering 35k miles a year and there was just me as an owner driver. Cabs that are double manned run 70/80k miles a year easy. Some company cabs that are run 24/7 will cover 100k+ a year. My old company cabs would have around 300k miles on them at 3 years old, and that's just in a small town.
     
  3. clayton4115

    clayton4115 Junior Member

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    ok thanks, so an adult mountain bike should def fit in the prius with the passenger seats down
     
  4. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    Yes. I recently carried "an adult mountain bike" and a 61 cm road bike in my Prius simultaneously. Also, the mountain bike and three humans (including driver) simultaneously.
     
  5. AussieOwner

    AussieOwner Active Member

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    According to the NYC taxi fact book (http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/2014_taxicab_fact_book.pdf) the average NYC cab runs approx 70,000 miles per year.
     
  6. cyclopathic

    cyclopathic Senior Member

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    I saw that too. The 21K came from insurance rag, so not sure if the diff is cabbie vs cab or they just quoted wrong #s. Irreguardless it is a lot of miles.
     
  7. myPriusAcct

    myPriusAcct Junior Member

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    Do you follow the Australian Prius manual/fuel lid instructions and put Premium 95Ron petrol in the taxi or do you put e10 in it? USA owners seem to have regular 87 gas recommended in their manuals but also get pretty poor mileage on fuelly stats. I consistently get 3.8l/100km and always assumed this was due to the fuel requirement for Australian models until I saw your stats. I'm surprised your consumption average is 4.95l/100
     
  8. AussieOwner

    AussieOwner Active Member

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    I use Premium 95RON.
    As a cab, I cannot always drive to minimise my fuel consumption. Also, on hot days, if I am stuck on a rank, because I always leave the power on, the air con drains the battery and thus needs to kick off the petrol engine to top it up. I have noticed that my fuel consumption always goes up when I have a slow day.
     
  9. AussieOwner

    AussieOwner Active Member

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    Woe is me!! Just on a month ago, I had an early fare to the airport. On the way back, it started to rain, then rain heavily, and finally it was really bucketing down. Just for half an hour. As I neared home, I headed down a road that is subject to flooding. It is not well lit, and as I got around a corner, I could see water across the road. There was a car slowly moving through in the opposite direction, and I did not think that it was too deep.

    Wrong!!! The road dips on my side of the road, and the water got up to about knee height. I got through, but just as I was climbing back onto dry road, the dash lit up like a Christmas tree and the car staggered. I could just get out of the way, and off to the side of the road, but then the car was dead.

    Found that I had got water up over the engine, through the air filter, and into the manifold. Once the workshop had stripped the engine, found that I had bent the conrod. Solution - buy a new motor. Given the low number of Prius in Australia, this meant that I had to get the engine from Japan, so the car has been off the road for a month. Finally got it back, all fixed, today. So now I will have to work extra hard to pay for it all.

    So a warning to all - be very careful in driving on flooded roads - it appears that it is very easy to get water up over the engine, and you do not want that to happen.
     
  10. CR94

    CR94 Senior Member

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    Long ago, I knew a kid who plowed just a little too close to the pond with his father's diesel tractor. It toppled and landed upside-down in the water. Result? Exactly the same as for your Prius. Water's hard to compress.
     
  11. Emcguy

    Emcguy Member

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    I found, that on a recent trip to Sydney,it was very hard to get E10 rated at RON95. It all seemed to be 87 that had been bumped up to 91 obviously resulting in cheaper costs. In Victoria United fuel is the only one that guarantees 95ron e10, although caltex is close with 94 e10. The bottom line is, if I can't go to a Victorian United, i will always buy premium.
     
  12. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    It floods all the time here and you never ever drive through water on a road you don't know. Many areas that flood often will have a depth marker but if it doubt, turn around. A city near me floods all the time and sometimes you don't have an alterative route. I'd always make sure I had enough battery charge in the car and then drive through the flood slowly in EV mode. The main concern doing it that way was not engine damage but flood water coming into the car - you really don't want that!

    To AussieOwner, did your insurance not pick up the tab? Over here if you've got Comprehensive cover they'll pay for engine repairs due to flood damage so long as it's cost effective. I'm guessing taxi insurance is as expensive over there as it is here but even considering that, a claim for a signficant engine repair might be worth doing.
     
  13. myPriusAcct

    myPriusAcct Junior Member

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    Caltex e10 is 91 RON. It's Shell E10 that is 94 RON. See my references below.

    United e10 - 95 RON
    www.unitedpetroleum.com.au/united/fuel/unleaded-e10

    Shell e10 - 94 RON
    www.colesexpress.com.au/shell-fuels/shell-unleaded-e10.aspx

    BP e10 93RON
    www.bp.com/content/dam/bp-country/en_au/media/fuel-news/fuel-octane-power.pdf

    7-eleven e10 (exxon mobil) 93RON
    www.exxonmobil.com.au/Australia-English/PA/products_fuels_ethanol.aspx

    Caltex e10 - 91 Ron
    www.woolworthspetrol.com.au/our-products-and-services/
     
    #33 myPriusAcct, Feb 20, 2015
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2015
    Emcguy likes this.
  14. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Oye! Closest I got was just shy of the bottom of the car. The clue that stopped me from going further was the water was up to the door sills on the police car parked on the road which meant the water was deeper up ahead. I backed up and parked the car elsewhere with the front of the car on higher ground.