SF Cabbies forced to retire their hybrids at 300k miles

wow, those ford escapes are that good? that's toyota miles territory!

 

If Ford was smart they would make a major advertising campaign about this. Ford remembers a better idea or something like that.

 

I'd like to know what repairs (besides scheduled maintenance) were performed. With 15 vehicles in that fleet, how many transaxles, traction batteries, inverter coolant pumps, suspension parts, etc. had to be replaced?

 

Full hybrids with eCVT are proving to be reliable, no surprise there! Simple mechanic reduces the number of moving parts.

Ford buy the hybrid transaxle from the same supplier that Toyota does.

 

I looked at the FEH portion of GreenHybrid to see what problems have been reported. It's kind of funny to see that FEH problems are very similar to problems that Prius owners report. I suppose that is not surprising since the cars share a similar architecture. See for example:
"Stop Safely Now" - Page 11 - GreenHybrid - Hybrid Cars

It appears that "Stop Safely Now" is the FEH equivalent of seeing the Red Triangle of Death (Master Warning Light) and the hybrid vehicle or traction battery icons appear in the Prius MFD.

Looks like the inverter coolant pump (aka motor electronics coolant system pump or MECS) on FEH is a common trouble area, just like Prius.

A couple of FEH traction battery failures reported on Edmunds.com:
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f16fe2e/20

 

So what's the big deal? Why don't they just go out and buy new Escapes? If they are actually saving money overall with the Hybrids then it should be an easy choice on what vehicle to purchase next. Why should the Hybrids receive a special exemption while the vast majority of cabbies driving conventional automobiles are required to purchase new vehicles at 300K?

300K miles does not sound to me to be an unreasonable limit for a automobile to be retired from commercial service. It may still be OK for private ownership (for me no, would you want to depend a former taxi automobile with 300K of city driving miles?? I'll pass on that one) as all the risks would be assumed by the owner, but the standards for commercial use must be much higher to ensure the safety and level of service the paying public expects.

Rick
#4 2006

 

The reason cabs are not allowed to exceed a set mileage is not due to engine wear or drive-train wear but is due to normal wear on suspension, door hinges, seats, carpets, door trims and seat belts.

During the life of a cab the interior, carpets brakes seats doors etc are operated far more often than a private or even company owned vehicle. These vehicles are visitors first contact outside the airport on arrival in your state. A new visitor to a city who gets in a worn tired cab will quickly form the opinion that the city is worn and tired. There is no reason the Escape Hybrids can't be replaced with new Escape Hybrids, they still make them don't they?
Other cabs are also forced out of service long before they are no longer fit for service. I'm guessing most customers would prefer that to long after they are no longer fit for service.
If a company was saving $9000 per car per year for 3 years then they have saved enough to buy a new Ford Escape Hybrid, and look at the bright side, right now is a great time to buy a new hybrid!!

 

Germany used to have a law, and I assume they still do, that limited taxis to new Mercedes. I recall that they couldn't be over a year old, but that could be wrong. What I do remember is that they were all brand new, with manual transmissions, and the drivers drove them like we were in a race.

Tom

 

I can certainly understand requiring that an old car be put through a close inspection before it is allowed to continue public service, but arbitrary mileage limits are silly, and just stink of pre-planned obsolescence.

Part of environmentalism is minimizing waste.

 

No, no, think of it as re-use. These retired taxis will replace filthy beater vehicles. Everyone wins.

 

I wonder how much these retired hybrid taxis could sell for...

 

Resale value of FEH should be much higher than the Crown Vics.

 

See? Not all Fords are bad. :madgrin:

 

Aren't the Ford's using the Hybrid Synergy Drive systems bought from Toyota and the primary reason we can't get a Rav4 with HSD? (Competition between similar models).

 

Ford developed their own system, which turned out to be nearly identical to Toyota's. As a result, the two companies decided to engage in cross licensing to avoid a protracted and expensive legal battle.

Tom