Jeremy Clarkson Forum

[TRUBRIT]

I think I have watched most of the Top Gear programmes and don't recall ever seeing any road tests on the great British Icon which is the London Taxi. Maybe the offering below will inspire the team?
Will the “London Cab” overtake British red phone boxes as a British icon?

The sight of distinctive British red phone boxes anywhere abroad in foreign countries always draw my attention and stir the same recurring curiosity that it mattered to someone that something so distinctly British should have its place in their country.

Another unique British icon is the “London Cab”. During my latest visit last week from London to Warsaw, Poland, my dear friend greeted me with a beaming and secretive smile at the new terminal building and with a lively stride led me out to the taxi waiting for us – a “London Cab”. How the world is getting smaller!

The driver looked vaguely familiar displaying all the characteristics of a “cabbie” – I stood and wondered. It really seemed the car and driver had been transported in the hold of my plane from Heathrow to meet me at my destination. Maybe the impression is made by the raised and upright position of the driver’s seat. But, no, it turned out the driver was a Pole. The London Cab was on Polish number plates.

The London Cab which we stood for a while and admired was new yet not so new as to arrive that day. First of all it was yellow – a New York shade of yellow. Apparently there’s more of them and they’re all going to be yellow in Warsaw. The driver boasted - as many as 400 of them within the next few years. What a dramatic change of landscape in a country where the favourite color is differing shades of grey.

Why yellow? I was told Warsaw’s colors are yellow and red. Yellow is also the common color of taxis which make them visible to customers. So the taxis are yellow. My friend pointed out that the cars have been the talk of the town in the last week and the public love them. He speculated it will be just a matter of time before they are all over Poland.

The cab was made in Shanghai. Maybe because it was new and had a feeling of freshness but my impression was that it was better built than the one that had taken me to Heathrow. A kind of German better built. The ride into the centre of Warsaw was a new experience for me. The large windows gave me a new view on the passing scenery and it was difficult to ignore the glances of pedestrians and other drivers. Everything about the experience could be summed up by smiles all round.

I would have liked to have been taken everywhere during my stay in the “Warsaw Cab” but I was told that at the moment there were too few in Warsaw to use them at every calling.

I then recalled something I read about a year or so ago that the makers of London Cabs were launching a worldwide sales initiative having developed a left hand drive version. I scoured the internet to see where else I could get an airport transfer in a London Cab. Far away South Africa, Beijing and Riyadh have heralded the arrival of London Cabs but that’s about all. It seems at least in Europe the British red phone box will continue for some time to be a more common sight than the London Cab.

But why? I found a survey where over 40% of a sample group of European travelers voted the London Cab as their preferred form of transfer from airports to hotels. More than their nearest rival Mercedes. So, I’m not alone and it’s not due to lack of consumer demand.

The makers of the London Cab, Manganese Bronze Holdings, boast planned sales this year of over 1,000 cars. According to a BBC article from as far back as 2006, the new production plant in Shanghai, a joint venture with Zhejiang Geely, has even larger potential, even up to 20,000 cars. So where’s the missing link something seemingly the width of the Grand Canyon, between build capability and consumer expectation? Are we about to see London Cabs at every European airport destination?

I looked for distributor web sites throughout Europe and could only find one fledgling distributor, in Poland. The impression is that the maker of London Cabs hasn’t so far made more than this single foot print in Europe.

One of the possible explanations is that it’s simply too British? Without doubt, the distinctive yellow color and black and white checkered markings of the Warsaw cab gave it a differentiating appearance – the driver, ride and the interior are familiar but the external appearance gave it a “local” flavor. The images of the car from Riyadh and South Africa also gave the impression of a “local” interpretation. A comforting familiarity and yet different.

So, if an isolated distributor and a handful of local taxi companies can find ways to meet customer expectation when can we expect to see the London Cab throughout the rest of Europe? In the absence of a Europe wide distributor network and the apparent lack of “connecting” with consumers by the manufacturer seemingly it will be a very long wait and maybe even never.
The car industry is struggling in the current crisis but will survive through leapfrogging each other with compelling and affordable solutions.

Maybe the uniqueness of the London Cab therefore a self-perceived monopolistic position on the part of Manganese Bronze Holdings has bred a British passiveness in the same way as Britain does not have an dynamic exporter of red phone boxes – the other great British icon.

For the time being the only place in Europe where there are more London Cabs than red phone boxes is Warsaw - I for one, but clearly not alone, will happily use the yellow “Warsaw Cab” – a home from home.

TRUBRIT