Photo credit: Mark Hillary
When is a black cab not a black cab?
These vehicles are things I took for granted in the past. When I was going to the local big city (Glasgow, in my case) I was always told to avoid them because the drivers charge more than other taxi drivers.
I have no idea if that is true or not but apart from this nugget of money saving information I never paid that much attention to the county’s black cabs. I only ever used them on the odd occasion when I was down in London on business and the company was paying. Well, I was always too full to walk after a 7 course lunch and a fine bottle of wine on the expenses.
It was a surprise then, when I returned to the UK after a year away and got really excited about seeing black cabs in London. And red double decker buses. And the few remaining classic phone boxes.
It seems that black cabs in the capital are part of the place’s attraction and I was as pleased to see real life ones as any camera toting tourist. However, now it seems that the traditional black taxi is set for a makeover.
A New Nissan Taxi
Photo credit: MotorBlog
The good people at Nissan have successfully unveiled a sleek, modern version of the old classic in New York and Tokyo, and now it is has been revealed in London too. The vehicle is called an NV200 and is based on the Nissan NV200 van. It is said to be more fuel efficient, more environmentally friendly and more affordable than the old style taxis. There is even an electric version to be unveiled shortly and it has been called the “taxi of tomorrow” in New York.
The big question, though, is where or not it will tempt tourists to whip out their cameras and go “oooh”.