Taxi topper effect on MPG? Are gen II's most reliable prius for taxi service?

Aero drag comes into play around 35 MPH or so and gets worse as speeds increase. It's one of the biggest factors in fuel usage. The bigger the "hole" you have to punch in the air, the more fuel. A taxi medallion is relatively small, but still would likely have an impact in highway MPG, maybe 1 or 2 MPG.

This is why SUVs come with roof racks but not the cross bars. The US EPA requires cars to be tested with the bars installed if they are included and they result in a 1-2 MPG hit on the window sticker.

 

Apparently the gen3 Prius in America suffer no issues whatsoever in taxi service, yet in Europe it's a pup. There are three long standing European taxi owners on this forum and two of them have had significant issues (me being one fo them).

In my local city the taxi drivers are avoiding the gen3 but swear by the gen2. Go figure

 

Hi Grumpy, do you happen to know the specific issues that taxis owners are having issues with on the Gen3's?

 

statistically speacking losing 1-2 mpg in the long run comparing with the income vs how much you spend on gas is still pretty good

 

I don't I'm afraid. It was all rather anecdotal. I was getting a local cab home from Leeds and was talking to the driver. The subject got onto cars (I didn't tell him I used to be a cabby) and he asked what I had. I told him and he mentioned some of his colleagues had Prii and were very happy with them but he said (without any prompting) that the new ones were no good. I said I had a new one and we laughed and he told me not to use it as a taxi!

I smiled wryly to myself but didn't tell him. He did ask how I'd found mine and I'd told him of the issues but that it was good on fuel. The consensus was that Toyota aren't as good as they used to be a decade ago. He drove a Skoda Octavia diesel with about 200k miles on it and all the warning lights on the dash were lit but it drove ok.

Škoda Octavia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Along with other Škodas, the Czech-built Octavia has been a markedly reliable vehicle – more so than the Audi A3 and Volkswagen Golf, with which it shares platforms. In 2006, Warranty Direct, a UK-based provider of mechanical warranties for used cars, rated Škoda the top manufacturer (above Mazda and Honda), while Audi came seventh from bottom. The Octavia specifically had a reliability index of 32.74 (lower being more reliable), while the Golf produced over the same period was 87.28, and the Audi A3 99.43."