New is not always safe

5:08pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in Letters

PART of Newport council’s argument for forcing taxi firms to have new cabs was the aspect of ensuring the roadworthiness of vehicles.

However, just to show having a brand new vehicle doesn’t necessarily mean a safe vehicle. Manganese Bronze, maker of the London cab, has suspended sales of its taxis and recalled 400 which have suffered from a defective steering box.

D Fothergill, St Julians Avenue, Newport

Comments(12)

Riley2012 says...
9:48pm Wed 17 Oct 12

Yep that's what happen's with cheap and nasty Chinese build quality, anything made in China is rubbish, the engineering in this country has been sold down the river, made in England used to be the best, you know what they say you pay peanut's, you get monkey's working for you.

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smokintheweed says...
1:52am Thu 18 Oct 12

The computer and all of its peripherals you are using has almost certainly been made in China, so has your phone, and your television, and most of the rest of your electrical goods and probably a great deal of your clothing too. Before you criticise a few taxis have a look around you.

If you are so anti-China why don't you throw away all of your Chinese goods.

As for British engineering have a look for company called British Leyland. It is rather sad that this country's engineering sector has been slowed down but other countries can produce the goods cheaper and in the case of most appliances, better.

drawing comparison to a the Chinese and monkeys is also rather prejudiced of you. Twerp.

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gathin says...
6:47am Thu 18 Oct 12

I thought this was because the town council had a last minute panic in the run-up to the amazing golf weekend that was held at Tel's hotel a couple of years ago?? A-hum, really put town on the map, that 'un didn't it? Lucky all that funding came through otherwise town would be in a right mess wouldn't it?
Oh, that's right it is a big, badly run town- sorry!

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Mudwolf says...
3:51pm Thu 18 Oct 12

That said some new cars do suffer setbacks but are usually more comfortable and safer that a twenty year old Toyota or Cavalier with 200,000 miles on the clock. I catch taxis regularly in Newport and many of the cars are in a terrible condition. I think it also reflects badly on the city when someone new arrives say on business and steps out of the swanky new station to see a line of decrepid old taxis. Even when you visit supposedly poor countries like Portugal all the taxi's are very young Mercedes.

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smokintheweed says...
1:02am Fri 19 Oct 12

I'm sure every cabbie in this town would not be able to afford brand new Mercs. Unless of course you wanted to take a loan out before you wanted to go anywhere. Newport has greater problems than old taxis.

To suggest they are less safe is a strange concept to me too. I may be wrong on this but every vehicle has to pass a road worthiness test regularly to be considered safe on a public highway. Also, most cars are made by manufacturers that are well renowned for reliability and safety.

The only thing that can go wrong are other road users or the piece of meat behind the steering wheel.

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Mudwolf says...
10:16am Fri 19 Oct 12

Not at all Weed, sure it doesn't have to be Mercs, that wass just an example from a "poor country" in economic distress such as Newport is. While a yearly MOT test is good for your average car doing say 12,000 miles per year of mixed motoring, taxis can be covering easily 50,000 miles in the same period and predominently urban mileage with potholes and speed bumps. Some of the cars I have been in recently were certainly close to re-plating time judging by the peculiar noises coming from the suspension. I know one taxi driver who recently bought a Cavalier that was already over 10 years old with a new MOT to run for a year without any maintenance, six hundred pounds doesn't get much of a car. As for safety take a look at EuroNCAP ratings, you may learn something, or do you think that there are no safety improvements made to newer models of cars along with cleaner emmisions.

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taxi imformation says...
8:21pm Fri 19 Oct 12

Mudwolf wrote:
Not at all Weed, sure it doesn't have to be Mercs, that wass just an example from a "poor country" in economic distress such as Newport is. While a yearly MOT test is good for your average car doing say 12,000 miles per year of mixed motoring, taxis can be covering easily 50,000 miles in the same period and predominently urban mileage with potholes and speed bumps. Some of the cars I have been in recently were certainly close to re-plating time judging by the peculiar noises coming from the suspension. I know one taxi driver who recently bought a Cavalier that was already over 10 years old with a new MOT to run for a year without any maintenance, six hundred pounds doesn't get much of a car. As for safety take a look at EuroNCAP ratings, you may learn something, or do you think that there are no safety improvements made to newer models of cars along with cleaner emmisions.
Thats why taxi,s are tested twice a year by the council plus their standard mot,and didn,t the cavalier go out of production in 1995 which would make it at least 17 years old.

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smokintheweed says...
12:51am Sat 20 Oct 12

Burn!

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Mudwolf says...
3:29am Sat 20 Oct 12

taxi imformation wrote:
Mudwolf wrote: Not at all Weed, sure it doesn't have to be Mercs, that wass just an example from a "poor country" in economic distress such as Newport is. While a yearly MOT test is good for your average car doing say 12,000 miles per year of mixed motoring, taxis can be covering easily 50,000 miles in the same period and predominently urban mileage with potholes and speed bumps. Some of the cars I have been in recently were certainly close to re-plating time judging by the peculiar noises coming from the suspension. I know one taxi driver who recently bought a Cavalier that was already over 10 years old with a new MOT to run for a year without any maintenance, six hundred pounds doesn't get much of a car. As for safety take a look at EuroNCAP ratings, you may learn something, or do you think that there are no safety improvements made to newer models of cars along with cleaner emmisions.
Thats why taxi,s are tested twice a year by the council plus their standard mot,and didn,t the cavalier go out of production in 1995 which would make it at least 17 years old.
That just makes the situation even worse surely.

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smokintheweed says...
3:20am Sun 21 Oct 12

Mudwolf wrote:
smokintheweed wrote:
Burn!
Idiot.
Perhaps I have read this wrong. It would seem that taxi's are subject to greater MOT scrutiny than a regular car.


Burn!!!

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smokintheweed says...
1:33pm Sun 21 Oct 12

You seem to be launching a personal attack against me based on a username and then an assumption of my employment status. That is a pretty sad thing to do and shows that you have little else to go on.

As for your comments on appearance and emissions I didn't question that so I have no idea why you are trying to bring that up in an attempt to win a futile argument on the internet. I was talking about taxis that were arguably more mechanically fit to be on the road than most other cars of a similar age.

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smokintheweed says...
1:02am Wed 24 Oct 12

How is that a burn? You merely made an assumption without any evidence.

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