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'GM's General Taxicab'

 
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Sun May 11, 2008 7:52 pm    Post subject: 'GM's General Taxicab' Reply with quote

As you all know, General Motors is famous for making passenger cars, trucks and, for many years, the best buses in the world – but did you know that the company also manufactured a ‘purpose built’ taxi cab through the 1930’s that it appropriately named the ’General’?

By the mid 20’s, the taxi industry nationwide was growing rapidly but without much local regulation as to the quality of the vehicles being used to carry paying passengers. Stock cars were bought off the showroom floor, repainted in typical taxi cab livery, put out on streets that in most cases were poorly paved and expected to churn out hundreds of thousands of trouble free miles.

With a rising rate of breakdowns (and breakups), this expectation proved false and passenger complaints abounded finally reaching the ears of those city officials responsible for public transportation.

It was New York City that first enacted laws dictating that all public livery vehicles be ‘purpose built’ meaning that they be specifically engineered for the environment that they were expected to operate in. Specifications included beefed up frames, heavier front ends and steering gear, oversized cooling systems, oversized brakes, larger tires and even minimum seating and luggage capacities.

Other large cities followed suit and specialty cab manufacturers and remanufacturers such as Checker, Yellow and Waters began to spring up to meet the challenge.

In 1925, the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Co. of Chicago--created by John D. Hertz of rent-a-car fame--merged with General Motors Truck Co. For a short time, Hertz remained president and manufacturing operations were kept in Chicago, but eventually the business relocated to Pontiac Michigan and survived until the late 1930s making General Cabs. To sell his taxis, Hertz had created a financing program, which later evolved into General Motors Acceptance Corp (GMAC).

One reason General Motors' top management had been attracted to the Hertz company was because it built Yellow Coach buses. Bus manufacturing was a fast-growing business at that time and GMC executives engineered a merger with Yellow Motor Coach Manufacturing which led to the formation of Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Co.

The General Cab (sometimes called General Motors Cab) was the former Yellow Cab re-named in 1930. It had a 6 cylinder Buick engine which was replaced from 1931 to 1934 by a GMC-built 6-cylinder plant. The 1933/34 cabs had a Pontiac-like appearance. There was no production in 1935, and the following year a new model, the 0-16, was introduced which was simply a long-wheelbase Chevrolet in appearance, using a rear axle from Chevrolet trucks. Wheelbase was 124 inches compared with 113 inches for the passenger cars in 1936, and 127 inches compared with 112 inches in 1937 and 1938, when the cabs bore the designations 0-17 and 0-18. General Cabs were fitted with jump seats as standard, but a single front seat and divider between front and rear compartments were options.

Pictured below (top) in a factory pose is a 1937 General Cab Model 0-17 in a basic Chevrolet configuration followed by other specimens from the era.

Some information supplied by Coachbuilt.

Mr. Linsky – Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY



Other taxis of the era.

1938 Checker

1938 GM General taken in Kew Gardens, NY

1939 Checker (this is my favorite!)
Notice the removable roof in the passenger area and the luggage rack.


Last edited by Mr. Linsky on Mon May 12, 2008 2:52 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Cyberider




Joined: 27 Apr 2007
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PostPosted: Mon May 12, 2008 2:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for more interesting GM history, Mr. Linsky. Didn't know that anyone other than Checker made cars specifically for taxi service. They sure knew how to build cars back then!

Dave
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ripta42
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PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2008 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cyberider wrote:
Thanks for more interesting GM history, Mr. Linsky. Didn't know that anyone other than Checker made cars specifically for taxi service. They sure knew how to build cars back then!

Dave


Ford has had a "taxi-only" model since 2002, the Crown Victoria P70. It's six inches longer than a conventional Crown Vic.
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Tue May 13, 2008 3:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ford had a 'Taxi' package long before 2002 (as you can see in the 1959 brochure below) when they did do a 6 inch stretch just as is now found on some factory Lincoln Town Cars.

The Crown Victoria Taxi version is similar in many ways to the Crown Victoria 'Police Interceptor' (which is not available to the public) in that much of the mechanicals are heavier than the showroom models.

New York City's regulations require that all 'medallion' cabs be purchased brand new and must be phased out in no more than three years.

In Los Angeles it's a differnet story; the cab companies buy used Crown Vic police cars and repaint them.

How do I know this? simple, the front door anti dent moldings are missing and they leave the 'Police Interceptor' badges on the trunk lids.

Funny thing; years ago New York police cars used to be in such bad shape that we joked that they must have been used cabs!

Now we come to perhaps the most interesting 'remanufactured' taxi and one that was the backbone of the New York fleet through the forties and fifties.

Pictured below (lower frame) is a 1948 James F. Waters Desoto 'Skyview' taxicab.

James F. Waters, who started his business in Detroit in the late thirties, bought stock seven passenger DeSotos from the Chrysler Corporation (which were delivered to him in prime paint) and then proceeded to custom rebuild them with beefed up mechanicals, deep and very comfortable genuine leather seating in the passenger areas, a sun roof so fares could view the skyline (especially in New York and Chicago) and very eye pleasing color schemes usually in a red a cream combination.

These cabs were buillt like trucks and featured Chrysler's famous but notoriously slow 'Fluid Drive' transmissions - but they had guts! and would probably still be running today if their lengths had not done them in! (they were truly the 'Old Looks' of the taxi world).

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY


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ripta42
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mr. Linsky wrote:
In Los Angeles it's a differnet story; the cab companies buy used Crown Vic police cars and repaint them.


A lot of Chicago cabs are ex-cop cars, too.

I was in a cab in Philadelphia once that had once served in New York. It had been painted a different color on the outside, but the door jambs were still yellow. The divider still had a sign: "Complaints - call (212) NYC-TAXI"!
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Michael,

For some time years ago, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission did have reign over the Philadelphia taxi system and that's probably why you saw that phone number! (if you believe that, I'll tell you another one!). only kidding.

Can you imagine anybody buying a used New York cab to be a cab again somewhere else?

I will tell you this which is true;

When NYC banned the long wheelbase cabs sometime in the late fifties or early sixties and allowed only regular size five passenger cars, the cab companies would beat them to death, and then fix them up and repaint them for resale as 'low mileage' private vehicles.

After enough complaints from duped buyers, the city forced the taxi operators to 'perforate' in the steel dashboard and in clear view the words 'taxi cab'.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY
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ripta42
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 2:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You almost had me, though I can't imagine Philadelphians would be happy having to call long distance to complain!

I came close to buying a used police cruiser with "only" 73K miles, but passed bacause it was a little too worn out. I saw a number of ex-cabs of similar vintage also advertised - with more than 300K on them! But where else can you gat a four year old car for under $2,000? Very Happy
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Dieseljim
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:24 am    Post subject: Don't Forget the Checker Marathon Reply with quote

Don't forget the Checker Marathon. That car was built for both taxicab and private use and also came in a stretchout model that could seat as many as 15-18 passengers, same as small buses and had a row of six doors on each side. Plus, there was also a stationwagon that was both a taxicab and family vehicle. The body style of the car remained virtually unchanged until Checker s topped building them in the early 1980s. If there ever was a car that could take a pounding in any event, the Checker Marathon was about as tough a customer as you could get, short of a former police cruiser.
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N4 Jamaica




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PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Regarding Skyviews and the 1940's: Sometime in that era, my mother's mother remained in St. Vincent's Hospital for a long stay after successful colon surgery. Mom would bring my sister and me to the hospital just east of Seventh Avenue in the Village. With the approval of the receptionist-Sister, Mom would leave us at the small waiting room adjacent to a stoop facing 11th Street (or 12th Street). My sister and I would stand on the stoop and count SkyViews endlessly. I remember nothing of the totals. I wonder when large numbers of Skyviews joined the New York fleet.
Joe
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I believe the first of the James F. Waters Desoto Skyviews hit New York streets about 1941 or 1942 before production was cut short by the war.

However, streams of them began to fill the avenues in 1946 (as pictured above), and by 1950 there may have been as many as 8,000 in operation with only a smattering of Checkers as competition.

One of my most memorable trips in a Skyview occurred when my mother was taking us into Manhattan for dinner with my grandparents (she usually drove but I guess her car was in the shop or something at the time).

Anyway, we were crossing the Queensborough Bridge with my mother seated in the middle and my brother and I to each side.

We must have been acting up (we were just kids) because it made her so angry that we both got smacked in the face at the same time!

From then on, I made it a point to sit in one of the jump seats!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY
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Mr. Linsky
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 2:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Found another great photo of a 1946 DeSoto Skyview on a typically snowy day in New York.

These cars were so tough that it wouldn't surprise me that in this scene it's pulling the plow out of a drift!

Enjoy.

Mr.Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

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