Mexican Beetle taxis may soon be a thing of the past
Creative Commons - Flickr - JM3
Just as the traditional black cab has been an icon of London streets for decades, little round green and white Beetles have served a similar duty in Mexico. Long after the Volkswagen Type 1 had ceased being produced everywhere else in the world, VW's Puebla Mexico plant continued to build Beetles until 2003. Many of those Beetles continue to shuttle passengers around Mexico City and elsewhere, but perhaps not for much longer. Just as cities like New York and San Francisco want their taxi fleets converted to hybrids over the next few years, Mexican officials want to retire the classic Beetles. Mexico City has some of the worst pollution in North America and the old bugs are blamed for at least some of the mess. Transport Ministry officials have set 2012 as a deadline for replacing the bugs but haven't yet picked a replacement. Whatever is selected will likely top the 19 mpg the Beetles get, and be safer and much cleaner.
[Source: Forecast Earth]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Derek 2:54PM (9/06/2008)
How do I get one sent here? A new/old Beetle would be awesome.
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ThatTallGuy 7:27PM (9/06/2008)
I've ridden in these -- the nice thing about them is the front passenger seat is removed, so there's a ton of room...
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ale 11:43PM (9/06/2008)
how do they only get 19mpg? most beetles Ive heard of got 50 or so...
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wave54 6:46PM (9/07/2008)
You must have missed the word "TAXI" -- stop-an-go in one of the world's most-congested cities will dramatically reduce gas mileage.
Beetles didn't get super mileage anyways -- maybe 30-40 mpg. I had a new 1974 standard Beetle with manual transmission and zero options and it never exceeded low-30s. That's no better than some modern subcompacts with power accessories, A/C, numerous safety features and nearly double the horsepower (Versa, Fit, Yaris).
stas peterson 2:14PM (9/09/2008)
These bugs get improved mileage. The original bugs when first measurted by the CAFE rules got all of 16 mpg. back in '75.
You would have difficulty getting that poor a mileage in a HUmmer today.
Yet the yahoos complain that "no progress" is being made... Some people are just nantural know-nothings, and basically yo yos...
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Dave 12:41AM (9/08/2008)
Good riddance to old rubbish.
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