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Topic starter
17/05/2017 6:08 am
Does anyone here recall seeing station wagons used as taxis in the mid to late '50s? Seems to me that with the ease of loading luggage, wagons would have been perfect taxis but all I can remember seeing in that role are four-door sedans. Now, of course, we have vans and minivans in taxi service.
If you remember seeing station wagons as taxis, what makes were they? Thanks!
17/05/2017 8:36 am
I only remember the Checker long wheelbase taxi wagons.
It would have made more sense. I read an entry somewhere where the writer drove a Checker cab in Chicago. He claimed they couldn't use the trunk because of an old city law ,enacted during prohibition, that the trunks were welded shut to prevent booze hauling. Apparently they never repealed the law.
17/05/2017 9:08 am
Checker Aerobus wagon
photo no longer available
John F. Quilter
Eugene, Oregon USA
17/05/2017 11:46 am
Good question. No recollection of a wagon taxi except a Mercedes in 2000 Copenhagen, so...
I Googled "taxicab brochure" images and while there were quite a few from Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth in the '50's and '60's they all illustrated sedans and only the aforementioned Checker wagon showed up.
So, I then went to the Inernet Movie Car Database and did a specific search on station wagons from the 50's. It turned up 109 pages. However, random poking around about half a dozen pages yielded no station wagon taxis. My bet is that if you looked at all the pages, you would find a few, likely showing a small town taxi taking the major character out to a place in the country.
Oh, yes, Google did mention a '68 Chevrolet station wagon taxi in the movie - Taxi Driver (it figures).
Good luck, Rick, if you should decide to do this sleep provoking activity.
Topic starter
17/05/2017 12:09 pm
Thanks, Randy. I found a few on google's images pages, including a '90 Ford Crown Vic wagon taxi and, further down, a Chevrolet Celebrity wagon one. I guess they weren't unheard of. One image on the google page shows an early GM woody, like a '50 Chevy, with a young woman climbing in and it's allegedly a taxi though no taxi markings are visible. And I can't make out what's on the roof.
The majority of wagon taxis appear to be Australian Fords or the ubiquitous Mercedes-Benz wagons. I'm sure that there were some independent cab drivers with wagons, so I don't think my proposed project is a complete fantasy. My Colonial Cream '58 Yeoman is a great candidate, I think, for a taxi makeover!
17/05/2017 1:39 pm
Rick, the Yeoman sounds like an excellent candidate!
18/05/2017 2:19 am
Pics: Top Gear Trax has a 1962 Holden station taxi
photo no longer available
photo no longer available
Here their website: https://www.topgear.com.au/