TDI Taxi Actual Customer Comments

Dozenspeed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 1, 2012
I probably should have started this thread a long time ago, and I still have mixed feelings about it as I write, but here goes.

As you may or may not know, I took a brand new 2011 Jetta TDI sedan 6MT and immediately put it into service as a full-on proper commissioned taxicab about 51 months ago.

(Four-year anniversary of purchase pic)

Operating in the greater St. Louis MO USA metro area where at the time virtually all other taxis were former cop cars, (Ford Interceptors, Chevy Impalas) a couple Lincolns and domestic minivans, I believe this was the first serious cab around here that was 1) European, much less German, VW, etc 2) Diesel 3) Able to break the 30 mpg barrier in service. It was also the first manual in over 30 years. At the time it was the most expensive known car bought to be a taxi in these parts and came before the idea of Prius cabs and other small cars hit the St Louis area market.

While the interior of the MK6 Jetta sedan is nearly equal in size to the Crown Vic/Interceptor, it was at the time technically the smallest cab installed to date, now overshadowed not only by the Prii but a Nissan Versa, Corolla and Ford Focus as well.

Anyway, understandably this would generate quite a few comments from those used to riding in unremarkable ex-goverment chariots of the industry norm.

This thread is about sharing those real actual comments, in hopes of possibly providing enlightenment, world perspective and if we are really lucky, perhaps something to mock and laugh at. ;) (In the event you find this thread annoyingly frivolous and not pertinent to VW or TDIs useful for members, may I argue against that and say it does and I hope to adequately illustrate that with the real-world data comments from real people who usually are way out of the VW loop, unlike us, and certainly something can be learned from that?) :) But I way digress...

Originally my thought was to call this thread "comment of the day" because usually somebody says something....but realistically......:rolleyes: So I mean to try to keep up with it for at least a while anyway...

I put a fair effort into keeping it clean, because I enjoy it and the ensuing compliments. I like to make people guess how many miles it's got and revel in their gross misunderestimations. Smart, sober people in full daylight have missed the mark by well over 100,000 more than once.



People typically don't guess it is a VW. Only 1% or so know what the car is, but then they KNOW, and typically applaud my choice. The Bosnians are best at this.* Often when folks realize they are in something different, they ask, commonly asking if it is a _________ which can get amusing. The stick-shift is the most observed and is usually the spark. Common comments:

"I have never seen a stick cab."

"I haven't seen a stick in years." (Cab or otherwise)

"I didn't know they made these in manual"

"I didn't know they made manuals anymore (at all!)."

"You have a stick, that is so cool!"

"You're driving a manual, respect."

Usually people don't figure it is a VW, and 99% are surprised when I tell them diesel. I have even given rides to people who OWN a MK6 Jetta and didn't realize they were riding in one!

Since the advent of many Prius cabs about 3 years ago, most people guess that is what she is. Often I will pretend they are offending my car and pat the dashboard lovingly. "Don't listen to them baby, they don't mean to call you a Prius."

Here's a list of more actual guesses and assumptions of cars mine is taken for:

Chevy Cruze, Impala
Ford (not specified)
Dodge Charger
Toyota Camry
Honda Accord
Acura
Audi
BMW
Jaguar (ok, she was pretty drunk)


When I do identify the car, with the surprise usually comes approval and positive impression, especially those whose only experience was a T1 Beetle. :rolleyes: On occassion a VW fan will regale me with their tales, or a nice techie conversation will take place.

I've lost count of how many have said it is the nicest cab they've been in. About 20 have said it was their first ever cab ride. Most people are pleased with the room in the back, unless there are three of them. The elderly seem to have a hell of a time buckling their seatbelt, they struggle with the recessed-in-the-seat reciever. Only 1 in 8 people who have been drinking can seem to understand the words "to recline the seat use the triangular lever at the pivot, not the long horizontal handle down the side, the one where the back and the base meet, no, not that one, the triangle one at the pivot, yeah, no that's just raising it up, the other one...." About half give up. I have to pump the seat back down all the time. One little girl was scared of the open sliding roof.

Now, for more specific comments. But first, let's pause for another disclaimer!

*I don't wish to have to say this, and I shouldn't have to, but just in case I should, I will. In this thread there will be identifying references of description such as age, gender, race and others. Their purpose is never in any way meant to be a slight (somehow?) but to help paint the picture of real life as it is. Race, nationality, heritage etc is nothing to be ashamed of or hide, but the true reflection of humanity as it is. Let's not read unnecessary offense where there is none. Moving on...

Okay, with all of that out of the way hopefully it is just the nitty-gritty from here on. The remainder of this post will attempt to recount the memorables from the first 51 months.

"This has got to be the coolest cab I have ever seen."
-young Asian male professional from a Clayton hotel going to the Washington Universtiy campus; very first official customer


"When did you get the G-ride?"
-fellow driver in our fleet, at the airport exit traffic signal about 3 weeks after I got it

"This is a nice cab! VW? Is it diesel? Very nice."
-cop who pulled me over maybe a year ago for going faster than I was but was kind enough to not write a ticket anyway

"I feel like I'm back in Europe"
-otherwise unmemorable youngish white female

"Damn boy you rollin' the fly taxicab ain't ya? That looks ******' sweet!"
-3 young crusing black guys who rolled up fast on me dropping off on a south city saturday night

"I like your car, it's so pretty."
-Elderly white lady whom after my arrival just wanted to tell me that she wanted a cab later in the afternoon

"It looks angry."
-Cab driver from another company at the taxi commission office, quite foreign darker-skinned guy but I'm not sure where he was from

"This car is too nice be a cab."
-middle aged white male going to the strip club

"I don't think we took a cab home. This was like, a real car."
-some super wasted white girl to her super wasted white girl friend

"It's okay honey, all that matters is we're home and I paid the guy money. Now get out of the ******* car. Thank you sir."
-what the super wasted white girl friend of the first super wasted white girl said next

"This car needs brakes bad. I feel them."
-rather drunk middle aged white guy about 230,000 miles ago. It still doesn't need brakes currently.

"Your power steering fluid is low. I know, I can hear it."
-middle aged white woman who knows everything about cars

"Sounds like your engine is about to blow up."
-cop outside the station where I was picking up a release a few hours ago.
I let him know it was diesel, which seemed to satisfy his interrogations

"Man, this car is really tight."
-elderly man and manual fan from the grocery store last week over rather rough pavement actually

"This feels like a race car."
-young African female college student

"I love feeling the way this car accelerates. It reminds me of riding on the back of my friend's motorcycle."
-visually-impaired young adult white male

And finally for now, the spark of this thread:

"Is this one of them Priuses?"
("Naw, this is much better, it's a Jetta TDI with a diesel")
"B*******, you wish."
("No, it really is.")
"Whatever, it's a ******* Prius."
-slightly surly unshaven middle aged white male transporting an ever-dwindling can of beer to the casino last saturday afternoon

"Oh **** this is a Volkswagen, isn't it? You got the diesel in here?"
-same slightly surly yada yada guy about 10 minutes later

I'll post again if anything interesting (or maybe uninteresting) is ever said ever again, cheers for now. :)
 

sloinker

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2015
Location
Casper, Wyoming
TDI
'15 Sportwagen '15 Golf Hatch
Cool! Did I miss where you told us the actual mileage on this vehicle? The service history for that mileage?
 

hskrdu

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Location
Maryland and New England
TDI
2003 Golf GLS 4D 5M, 2015 GSW SE 6M
Well, I had fun reading it- probably more so the history of your car and it's place in STL than the pax comments (but they were fun, too).
 

Dozenspeed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 1, 2012
My apologies, I didn't want to be boringly redundant for those who might have known her history already...:eek:

But real quickly I'll recap:

-Bought with 19 miles for $23,618 5-19-2011

-Maiden fare @ 400 miles 6-8-2011

She is pretty much maintained by the book on schedule by Oilhammer except the first 8 services by the dealer. Castrol oil for those, Pentosin ever since.

Timing belt changes at 120,2xx and 240,118.

~183k N75 turbo control wire frayed apart so I soldered it ;)

~198k the intake manifold flap failed to I zip-tied it for function :p

~217k a deer jumped on the hood :mad:

~256,624 the turbocharger gave up :(

On her second wiper motor but would like a 3rd...2 horn failures prompted the twin horn Hella mod. On 3rd battery and tire set 6. Otherwise mechanically original including factory brakes. :cool: The pics above are at about 250,000 miles and more of her story in this thread. Currently has 264,3xx. :)
 

Jeta Life

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Location
NJ & North Pocono
TDI
2009 Jetta TDI DSG Auto
Hey Taxi Driver (excellent DeNiro flick) !

Nice car ! Looks cool in red and white. Mark VI huge back seat. Rarely see those. The problem with driving is you get addicted to it. Don't get high on your own supply of diesel.

It figures the Bosnians of St Louis would recognize that VW, plenty VW diesels in Albania and Montenegro too. Make sure to stop in their restaurants for 2 great Eastern European fast foods: Cevapa (sausages served with onions on pita) or Burek (spinach, feta cheese or meat and onion usually).

Those passenger stories are the best.

Good luck with the car, it sounds like it's held up pretty well, I'm sure thanks to Oilhammer who when I looked him up reminded me of Merlin Olsen the ex football player turned actor. Slight resemblance.
 

3L3M3NT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Nice stories. IMO VW should pay you to be a spokesman for them and should be paying you and others to raise awareness of the brand. Especially of the TDI engine and the fuel economy it can achieve.

Keep the stories coming.
 

Dozenspeed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 1, 2012
IMO VW should pay you to be a spokesman for them and should be paying you and others to raise awareness of the brand.
I agree! :D Hell, if they just hook me up with a replacement MFD when I take mine beyond it's limit I'd be pleased.

Anyway, last weekend held the typical stick shift comments, those happen nearly everyday. I did get 2 driving compliments this week, those are much rarer (few appreciate good driving, go figure :rolleyes:) though not really the subject here.

This morning:

"Is this a Jetta turbo diesel?"
-Puerto Rican male mechanic going to Airport

More to this story: I asked where he was from because usually only foreigners know what the car is, which is what I told him. Then to be cheeky I told him the brakes were all original and asked how many miles did he think I possibly could have with them. He guessed 50k miles, and was fairly shocked when I showed him the 266k mi+ odometer. :cool:


I also remembered an older story, maybe a couple years ago: My customer was a young black female with which I had a nice conversation with during the 20 minute fare. About 2 minutes from the destination.....

"Is this a stick?"

("Yeah, are you just now noticing?")

"Well I saw you moving your hand around doing something, I thought maybe there was something wrong with you!"


(Ok that story wasn't totally on point but amusing to me anyway)
 

Stoneage

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2013
Location
Portland, Oregon
TDI
1.9 Mk3 Jetta TDI
Since the advent of many Prius cabs about 3 years ago, most people guess that is what she is. Often I will pretend they are offending my car and pat the dashboard lovingly. "Don't listen to them baby, they don't mean to call you a Prius."
???????
 

1854sailor

Resident Curmudgeon
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Location
Westerly, RI
TDI
2015 Golf SE SportWagen, 2015 Golf SE Hatch Back.
Hey, Dozenspeed! Where have you been? We miss you over at the scavenger hunt. :D
 

Dozenspeed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 1, 2012
Hey, Dozenspeed! Where have you been? We miss you over at the scavenger hunt. :D

Posted one today just for you. ;)


So, related to the topic at hand, while I routinely still recieve compliments on the car's condition and that it is a manual, I'm trying to keep these reports relevent to the VW-ness of the car.

First, I want to state that those few who recognize it is a VW, 9 out of 10 times they ask if it is a Passat. Seems to be due to the upsizing of the MK6 model over previous years.

Someone this morning said I should have gotten the diesel. :p And I had a guess from this car guy of 125,000 miles. :cool: (271k+)

Only about 3 dieselgate conversations so far, with one having a sort of snarky, "good luck (chump)" sort of connotation to it. I have to admit, since dieselgate I've been more reluctant to point out her diesel-ness. :( (But screw it, I still love her. :p)

But my favorite of recent time was a guy going to the casino, at night, (and admittedly with a buzz going) who commented on the car's amazing-ness after I took a corner and inquired as to what kind of car it is. He wasn't shocked it was German.

He says he works for a local dealer who among other makes sells VW and Nissan. Then he tried to sell me on getting an Altima, and that he'd get me a good deal. I explained I nearly have this one paid off, so I'm not ready for any swapping, and that ended that.

My favorite bit was that as part of his pitch he aspoused the virtue of the Altima's CV transmission, and that when driving one you don't "feel those little hiccups of the gears changing" like in my car. I don't think he ever realized, and I did not tell him that mine is manual and I was actually doing the shifting. :D
 
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snakeye

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2009
Location
Montreal, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta and Wagon, GLS 5sp
How do you drive to get so many miles out of your brakes? I change my front brakes every 100-150k km. Don't even ask about the rear...
 

Dozenspeed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
May 1, 2012
How do you drive to get so many miles out of your brakes? I change my front brakes every 100-150k km. Don't even ask about the rear...
Hmmm, well since you ask, I'd be glad to go into it for you. :)

First, from what I understand your older VW has more susceptable-to-wear brake components than my MK6.

I see you have a manual too, which can be a factor in your favor if you use it right. Now most people jump to the conclusion "oh you must downshift a lot" :rolleyes: but I really don't. I don't believe in downshifting, it seems hard on things to me.

Now, some of my circumstances may not be of use to you, but some of my habits may be. I'll start with explaining my driving conditions.

I drive a lot at night, in low traffic situations and choose routes that require me to stop less frequently. As one might imagine my high familarity with the road geography gives me an advantage.

The rest of the story lies in operational execution. First, it is mostly about throttling. Braking should be a supplement. More on throttling later.

Brakes are not a button, finese is good. Using a deliniating curve of "just enough" pressure not only when beginning to brake, but slowly letting off the pressure again as the car comes to a stop, avoids the "jolting". Here I made a couple of crude charts (hard to draw a nice line by hand :rolleyes:) to demonstrate:







Now I tend to be acutely aware of my surrounding traffic conditions, always looking at the next light to time my flow. If it is clear and green and close-ish, I'll press it to make sure I make it. If it is red already I'll moderate speed to increase odds it will be green by the time I get there. Whenever possible, I look to the status of the traffic light of the other direction as a clue to when the light may go green for me. I'm really quite good at this, especially at night and many times can glide through right as the signal switches back to green for me without a flinch of the brake pedal. You must always carefully watch for rouge red-light runners when doing this!

Knowing when to let off the throttle:

When going down the road and the light turns red ahead, let off the throttle instantly. You KNOW you're gonna have to stop, don't be in denial. You can do as much as half your braking this way, and occasionally the light will be green again by the time you get there. Feeling out that throttle let-off point for fixed corners, curves and stop signs is another key element. I look to "swoop" every right-hand yield ramp carrying as much ("legal") speed at possible. This also requires strict attention to other traffic by looking as far as possible to any other conflicting traffic, including intersection signal status to determine any intereference to your swoop. It may seem silly, but use of "racing lines" in corners and curves can require you to slow less for them, a tactic I employ all the time.

So when I know I have to slow or stop and lay off the throttle immediately, I don't downshift or throw it in neutral either. I'll "ride the current gear" down to about 1000 RPM and then push in the clutch, maximizing the natural resistance of the drive train to slow down.

Oh, and maintain "perfect" following distance of course! This means far back enough to to avoid stressful jams on the brakes but not so far back you look like a rude jerk leaving too big of a gap. Watch for the actions of as many vehicles in front of you as you can, not just the one in front of you. Get out from behind larger vehicles that block too much of your vision whenever possible. All this will help you stay off the brake pedal. ;)

This all of course is more thought, effort and concentration than most drivers can or will muster up, but this is how I roll, literally. :p

(PS, my factory brakes currently have the equivelent of 438,350 km. :cool: I state my driving is about 50/50 city/highway.)
 
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shrifty

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Location
Western PA
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
Funny stories, looking forward to reading more as time goes on :)

On a somewhat related note, do you have any stores with passengers and the Driving Game Challenge? I've had to ask other people for assistance from time to time that were riding with me...

Can't you find 4 people with hats on to take for a ride? ;)
 
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snakeye

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2009
Location
Montreal, Canada
TDI
2003 Jetta and Wagon, GLS 5sp
Wow Dozenspeed that's a lot to think about, but I'm sure it becomes second nature if you do it all the time. I used to drive similarly for fuel economy, but the soot would clog up my turbo vanes so now i just drive my car hard and neglect my brakes. Oh well :p

I guess it makes for a comfortable ride for the passengers, too, btw!
 

Ol'Rattler

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Location
PNA
TDI
2006 BRM Jetta
How do you drive to get so many miles out of your brakes? I change my front brakes every 100-150k km. Don't even ask about the rear...
Mostly because many folks don't know how to drive a manual, coast up to a stop in neutral and over utilize their brakes. I see it all the time. Folks that brake for no reason, sometimes for very long distances and don't understand the concept of downshifting.

I got 100K miles on my rear brakes and at 160+ miles about 1/3 left on the fronts.

It just kills me that folks will say, "brakes are cheaper than a clutch so that is why I coast up to a stop in neutral and never downshift".

Well bonehead, hypothetically if the only wear your clutch received was downshifting it would last about 1,000,000 (one million) miles.
 
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Ol'Rattler

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Location
PNA
TDI
2006 BRM Jetta
Ya. I really debated about the comment. "Genius" Would have been more suitable and still made my point without bordering on being insulting.:rolleyes:
 

where2

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 29, 1999
Location
North Palm Beach, FL, USA
TDI
One '13 JSW_TDI & One '04 Variant_TDI
Although your diesel taxi is no doubt a novelty to many Americans, China is actually covered with VW TDI Taxi cabs (They were mostly a MkIII hybrid labeled a Sagitar). I've got a photo of the dash in one we rode in one evening with 765k kilometers on it... Felt like it needed a suspension refresh though. ;)

You've got a few more miles left in that TDI based on what I saw in China, no matter what those American diesel truck guys tried to tell you. :rolleyes:
 

shrifty

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2010
Location
Western PA
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
Recently I was fortunate enough to be in St. Louis for work and had the opportunity to ride in this taxi. It runs as if it was straight from the factory! It is in wonderful shape, I would expect it to last at least 500k :)
 
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