It’s (well) time to retire the “Getting Passed On The Right” Series, and start a new one: Taxis of Eugene. There’s quite an eclectic fleet plying the streets here. I’ve already shown and told you about the large number of Previas, one of which is in the background. But a Honda Odyssey? Aren’t they the only mini-van to challenge the older Chrysler mini-vans for self-destructing transmissions? Maybe they’ve figured out how to rebuild them and make them last. Speaking of the Previas:
Is the unmarked Previa being sold off, or a new recruit? I’m guessing the latter, as they presumably run these until they get hit or die.
I’ll take the Previa to go, please.
Wow! Good luck with that one. Especially if it is an EX with the power sliding doors – taxi duty will tax them heavily, and you can easily spend $1500 per side at a dealer getting things refreshed (motors, latches, pulleys, rollers, cables, switch contacts, etc). But it does look like an LX (manual doors) since it has the steelies with wheel covers, although I can’t discern the door handle colors – if they are body-colored, it’s an EX.
And speaking of transmissions, my 2001 Odyssey was already on its third transmission at 107K miles when I purchased it. My sister’s 1999 Odyssey (purchased new) is now on its third transmission at 170K miles. The neighbor’s Odyssey also had its transmission replaced at well under 100K miles.
Knowing this, I specifically limited my search for a used Odyssey to one which had a fresh transmission in it. Head on over to odyclub(dot)com and you can read all about it for yourself (a must if you own and maintain an Odyssey).
The secondgen Odyssey was the first car Honda ever focus-grouped. People told them, more or less, “We want a Chrysler minivan made by someone other than Chrysler”, and that’s exactly what they got – complete with non-opening second row windows, red rear signals (pre-facelift) and, I now learn, self-immolating slushboxes.
The Previa will last on taxi duty they are popular here for that, the Oddity why bother its junk and will eat components one of the biggest POS from Honda yet.
I do vehicle damage appraisal, and I had an assignment on one of these Oregon Taxi Co. vehicles a few months ago. When I looked at the registration to verify ownership, I was surprised to find it was privately owned – not owned by the taxi company. Maybe this partially explains why there are so many different vehicles in their fleet. They probably hire the drivers on an ‘independent contractor’ basis. The one i was looking at was a 2-yr old Corolla.
The independent contractor taxi driver is very common, it insulates the company from a lot of potential costs like annual transmission replacements on an Odyssey.
That is common. They are owner-operated and have an arrangement with the cab company be dispatched and the cab company gets their cut. Also some of that has to do with the type of service the cabs provide. Eugene is not that big and not particularly urban so I can imagine taxi service is a multi person affair quite often. In NY one person per trip for relative short distances is more the norm. They used big cars for comfort and durability but don’t often see vans in major urban areas outside of airport runs. In Charlotte I am acquainted with several cab companies both owner-operated units and leased vehicles. Now outside of airport runs (which sanctioned by the city and have separate rules over and above normal taxi rules) its quite often to see company and intermediate cars for hire. Cloud cars and Chrysler Sebring sedans have become popular as well as Chrysler minivans. I just got back from NYC from attending the NY Auto Show (and Charlotte Auto Fair this weekend) and Ford Escapes are starting to replace Crown Vics at a substantial rate now follow by Toyota Camrys in a very distant third place. Finally, given the eclectic nature of the buying public in Oregon, the supply of foreign make minivans is probably high, especially since most of them probably started out as privately owned vehicles.
In Chicago, Camrys, Scion Xbs, Altimas, Panthers, and Escapes were waiting at McCormick Place in November.
Sorry for the crummy picture.
Did the Oregon Taxi co. run out of Previas already? Looking at the pristine civillian Previas, obviously they’re not looking hard enough…
Maybe this contractor didn’t get the memo or didn’t do his research and assumed that since Honda cars are as good as Toyota cars an Oddy aught to be just as good as a taxi as a Previa.
Good luck with the Oddy. As some others stated, it would be far from my first choice for taxi duty. In my area, I even see Windstars used as taxis, but never Odysseys. Everything I have ever heard is that the Chrysler and Ford transmissions can be rebuilt by about anyone and fairly cheaply. The Honda unit is not that way – they are expensive, and tend to last not as long as the original unit. I liked my 99 Chrysler minivan way more than I liked a friend’s 04 Honda.
I believe the Honda ECM was supposed to be replaced and reflashed after a trans replacement on this gen Odyssey. I wonder how often that procedure was followed at a non-dealership shop, and how it affects failure rates of replaced transmissions?
I bought a 2004 Odyssey new. I loved it, but within the first month I began to feel a vibration at about 50 mph. A friend who was a Honda mechanic told me that the vibration came from insufficient torque converter fluid pressure. The web basically stated that few Odyssey transmissions lasted for more than 50k miles. After eight years of trouble-free operation and 52,000 miles, I decided that I didn’t wan’t to own the Odyssey when it puked up it’s $4000 tranny. Hello Impreza!