the rapids are really starting to come on up in the taxi buissness here there are about 11 now and last week there were 6,

one of my mates has a denim blue se spec 1.6 tdi on as a ph and i had a shot of it and seems okay here is one of a general one too

And one of my PH taxi

The base s spec cars look a bit bland - glad I have gone for an elegance spec and fancy wheels lol

Can see why taxi drivers like them though.

we suspected they would go down well with taxi drivers due to rear passenger leg room and HUGE boot

only thing is taxi firms usually want cheap as well, so unless they have got hold of a few pre reg / ex demo cars I would have thought they would have been to expensive

Edited 3 April, 201313 yr by bluecar1

we suspected they would go down well with taxi drivers due to rear passenger leg room and HUGE boot

only thing is taxi firms usually want cheap as well, so unless they have got hold of a few pre reg / ex demo cars I would have thought they would have been to expensive

drivers up here have been used to paying £16000 or 17 for a brand new car e.g octy so it won't affect them to much and there are a few toledos too

I noticed Skoda have an advert in the Private Hire Monthly for a Rapid at just under £48 per week.

So they are going after the private hire industry, which makes sense as the previous Octy was very popular and the new one is bigger/more money.

I just took delivery of my new Seat Toledo this week. Got it from the Taxi Centre in Scotland. The deal they were doing was quite good and the dealers here in Leeds (both Seat and Skoda) couldn't get anywhere near it. I've not actually worked in it yet as I've been getting it plated up, seat covers, mats, radio etc.etc. ready for next week.

Gotta say I'm very impressed with it so far. I never test drove it, but it had to be better than my 04 plate Octavia I had, that quite honestly had become a bit of a shed.

Yes, the boot and rear legroom are the things that appealed to me right away. I was always being asked to move my seat forward in the Octavia being that I'm 6' 2". The fuel consumption is great too. Just my pootling about this week getting it ready has clocked up an average on the computer of 63mpg!!! The ride is nice and not at all harsh as some reviewers had said. The stop/start system works fine too and helps to get the mpg as high as it is. Not sure if the stop/start system is available in the Rapid diesel though. Are they saving that for the Octavia?

I have the SX model of the Toledo which is a Taxi special order. Basically it's the SE model with the electric mirrors downgraded to manual and the alarm box removed. Then they add a full size spare wheel and a centre rear headrest to compensate. It gets the car to pass all council regulations across the UK.

The rest of the spec I find to be a bit on the low side. As mentioned, this model would have come with electric mirrors, but wind down windows in the back. I would have thought that should be the other way round. Wind down windows went out with the 90s and in a taxi it can be annoying when peeps leave them down. The hard plastics don't really bother me except on the steering wheel. Had to get a cover for that as it did feel cheap. I do like the controls on the wheel though for the on board computer and stereo. The computer is upgraded from the one on the old Octy and shows more info than before, like which door is open etc. There's no digital radio though but I do get a USB slot to play MP3s through the system.

All in all very impressed. Some people turn their noses up at cars because they are popular with the taxi trade. I really cannot understand that as we are the people working in them day in day out. Loading and unloading all sorts of things in the boot. We demand reliability, cost effectiveness, practicality and safety in our cars, Look at what taxi drivers are using to see what ticks all those boxes. So far in Leeds I haven't seen any Toledos or Rapids on the roads. But it won't be long. A lot of those Octys have to come off now and if they decide to go new there's nothing in the C segment to beat these cars on those criteria I mentioned.

The only other car I considered was the Citroen Berlingo, simply as it was an even cheaper deal than the Toledo from the same supplier. It beats these cars on space and practicality also. But the published fuel consumption is even lower than my old Octy so it was dismissed almost immediately. I demanded an improvement there to offset part of the finance payment. Plus I didn't fancy driving a van all day.

I just took delivery of my new Seat Toledo this week. Got it from the Taxi Centre in Scotland. The deal they were doing was quite good and the dealers here in Leeds (both Seat and Skoda) couldn't get anywhere near it. I've not actually worked in it yet as I've been getting it plated up, seat covers, mats, radio etc.etc. ready for next week.

Gotta say I'm very impressed with it so far. I never test drove it, but it had to be better than my 04 plate Octavia I had, that quite honestly had become a bit of a shed.

Yes, the boot and rear legroom are the things that appealed to me right away. I was always being asked to move my seat forward in the Octavia being that I'm 6' 2". The fuel consumption is great too. Just my pootling about this week getting it ready has clocked up an average on the computer of 63mpg!!! The ride is nice and not at all harsh as some reviewers had said. The stop/start system works fine too and helps to get the mpg as high as it is. Not sure if the stop/start system is available in the Rapid diesel though. Are they saving that for the Octavia?

I have the SX model of the Toledo which is a Taxi special order. Basically it's the SE model with the electric mirrors downgraded to manual and the alarm box removed. Then they add a full size spare wheel and a centre rear headrest to compensate. It gets the car to pass all council regulations across the UK.

The rest of the spec I find to be a bit on the low side. As mentioned, this model would have come with electric mirrors, but wind down windows in the back. I would have thought that should be the other way round. Wind down windows went out with the 90s and in a taxi it can be annoying when peeps leave them down. The hard plastics don't really bother me except on the steering wheel. Had to get a cover for that as it did feel cheap. I do like the controls on the wheel though for the on board computer and stereo. The computer is upgraded from the one on the old Octy and shows more info than before, like which door is open etc. There's no digital radio though but I do get a USB slot to play MP3s through the system.

All in all very impressed. Some people turn their noses up at cars because they are popular with the taxi trade. I really cannot understand that as we are the people working in them day in day out. Loading and unloading all sorts of things in the boot. We demand reliability, cost effectiveness, practicality and safety in our cars, Look at what taxi drivers are using to see what ticks all those boxes. So far in Leeds I haven't seen any Toledos or Rapids on the roads. But it won't be long. A lot of those Octys have to come off now and if they decide to go new there's nothing in the C segment to beat these cars on those criteria I mentioned.

The only other car I considered was the Citroen Berlingo, simply as it was an even cheaper deal than the Toledo from the same supplier. It beats these cars on space and practicality also. But the published fuel consumption is even lower than my old Octy so it was dismissed almost immediately. I demanded an improvement there to offset part of the finance payment. Plus I didn't fancy driving a van all day.

one of my mates has a 13 plate toledo on as a taxi a 13 plate one and it looks so similar to the rapid, he likes it and the space is reasonable, but i think compared to my superb it is small but does the job

Is that a specific taxi spec Rapid then? It looks like an S but for retail customers that trim is only available with the 1.2 petrols.

A taxi driving collegue of mine is about to order a Toledo with the taxi centre. When he asked about the rapid, he was told that they are coming in about 2K more, so the Toledo is the one to have.

Regards the berlingo, there is a big downside to them as a taxi in that elderly/limited mobility customers don't like them because they think they are too high and so can't get in. We have a few on our fleet, and due to complaints from customers, we now have internal "high car" and "low car" codes.

Saw a burgundy Toledo as a taxi in where I live, didn't look too shabby

Is that a specific taxi spec Rapid then? It looks like an S but for retail customers that trim is only available with the 1.2 petrols.

the 1.6 tdi is available in s spce just not the greenline its se and above

Oh, that's not a good look. Stick a Korean badge on the boot and rewind back to the 1990's and bingo!

Base models work fine for taxis and that's about it.

Thank god for factory fitted options

Oh, that's not a good look. Stick a Korean badge on the boot and rewind back to the 1990's and bingo!

Taxi drivers don't really care what the cars styling looks like as long as it is reasonably priced and reliable