[ku69rd]

Just out of curiosity, can these yellow board padminis which are older than 20 years be bought and converted to white board? Am sure some emotionally poor owners might do that to preserve their legacy.

Surprising as to why premier auto have not made any attempt to slot in the national engine with some modern utilities like power steering/air conditioning and power mirrors.

With a price of 4 lakhs and with some improved body work they can have a niche market just for themselves.

RE did it with Classic and now they are laughing all the way to the bank.

[aerohit]

Does that also mean that if for example, a Suzuki Swift manufactured in 2005 will be off the road by 2025?

[dreadknight5]

Originally Posted by Diamond_dawg

Its gonna be sad seeing the old taxis go! i just hope they dont increase the fare now since there will be newer taxis!

Well they can't do that on that premise. The cars were pretty old anyways.

In my opinion, most taxi owners wouldn't feel that big of a pinch when going for a new vehicle. The old vehicle's operating and maintenance cost should be high enough. Most of the owners should be able to recover most of the transition cost( if not all) in the next 3-4 years in my opinion.

Originally Posted by KarthikK

Just curious to know, have the taxi unions in Mumbai not protested this drastic move?? What happens to the thousands of drivers who depend on these cars for their livelihood?? They ought to be phasing out the taxis gradually by allowing newly registered (modern) vehicles to slowly replace the outgoing generations, a bit like how the green colored LPG autorickshaws have now slowly taken over the Bangalore auto scene from their 2-stroke petrol/kerosene counterparts.

Someone pointed out the figure to be around 9000 padmini cars. If thats acccurate, its a pretty small figure in Mumbai. This was probably in the works for sometime before the announcement. To run vehicles on the roads ,the vehicles need to adhere to emission norms. I cannot see how the premier padmini taxi's could ever pass an emission test without greasing few fingers.

Originally Posted by aerohit

Does that also mean that if for example, a Suzuki Swift manufactured in 2005 will be off the road by 2025?

According to the current rules, yes it will not be allowed on mumbai roads in 2025.

Originally Posted by Mpower

I guess it had to happen someday.

I wish the so called 'Garden City' will follow suit & get rid of the smoke-belching 2-stroke autorickshaws

Garden city ? That city died almost a decade ago. Its nothing but a concrete jungle now.

[anjan_c2007]

Have some pleasant memories of being driven in the Premier Padmini taxis. The end of the road for Mumbai's once most liked and most easily identifiable car is indeed sad!
Earlier, till the 1960's, the Mumbai taxis were categorised small and large.They had different fares for the same distance. The smaller ones included the Ford Prefect,Hillman Minx, Austin A 40 Devon, Opel Olympia, Fiat Elegant/Millecento/ SS and later 1100 D and a host of other British imports.
The larger ones included the Chevrolet Fleetmaster, Ford Deluxe, Dodge D 24, Mercury Eight and so on.
The streets used to have a great assortment of cars and pictures of these plying were a treat.
Come the Premiers, there was a monopoly and no other make could be seen on the roads apart from the single brand.And they soon got identified with and became a part of the landscape and rather a signature of Mumbai. Mumbai streets without Padmini taxis were unthinkable.
But all good things have to come to an end, some day! And thats always a sad day!
The plasticky Cheap Ugly Boxes (CUBs as they are known to be) from Korea and Japan,will rule the taxi market from now on! But all said and done, most of the Premiers taxis had deteriorated over the years with very little maintenance.

[silverado]

9211 was a good movie.

FIAT was a affordable taxi to maintain for taxiwallas
Below is the price of few things that i remember as they were on 2008.
These are the cheapest that you got offshelf.

Headlight : Rs80 per piece, even a simple bike headlamp costed Rs230 back then.
Mudflaps : Rs 36 for a set of 4.
Rear headlamp set : Rs 190
Mahindra Sona clutch plate : Rs 900
Timing chain : Rs 750
Rear bumper black guard : Rs 50 each ( This guard once took entire impact of a 407 hit on my car and saved the rear bumper and the body )

Combination switch : Rs 450

Every time i board a taxi other than padmini, i ask the driver how it feels to drive the new gen car
Not a single time have i heard anyone say anything against padmini, they surely miss padmini and feel ( very rightly ) that new gen taxis are toy like, while padmini was the real car

The Santro, wagon R, omni all are eyesore as a taxi, Mumbai will lose its charm when padmini and double deckers will be off the road.

Padmini was below 4m mark and premier could have got this again on road with a better engine rather than launching rio

[MaxTorque]

For Mumbaikar, it will be very difficult to accept. But considering their age and their environmental impact, Govt's move is very valid. Many of them are poorly maintained. I hope Govt will come with a suitable back up so that both those who are earning from them and using their service won't suffer.

[akshay380]

This reminds me to buy one for me just to preserve a small piece of heritage.

[SAS]

All I can say is good riddance. While they were great in their time, they are a menace today... Slow moving, polluting, extremely hazardous with extremely poor safety in a crash, poor interiors space and horrible ergonomics are some of the many reasons this should retire. This car became a hit thanks to our stupid government policies where this and the amby existed... had the market been more liberal the padmini would have faded even earlier.. For those who remember, when Maruti came in '84, it literally commenced decimating these permit raj relics. Fiat can never compete in today's market, look at how they are doing today says more about the company than anything else...

[PlatzdaTurbo]

The double-deckers, yellow-black taxis and the british era locals, as any mumbaikar would refer to them almost form the backdrop of Mumbai. Any picture, video, documentary of Mumbai is bound of have all 3 or atleast one of them in it.
All 3 are well on their way out , infact Western Railway hardly has any of the old locals left IIRC. While all of them were becoming a liability and had to leave sooner than later, iv grown up seeing them around doing their duties relentlessly and they will surely be missed.
Just like my generation never got to see trams in Mumbai, there will be generations which wont even know the Italian Fiat , British EMU & a double decked bus ever served this city. Hope they are immortalized in the media.

[saket77]

Despite being such a successful candidate for the taxi fleet, what amazes me that still the Padmini can be recalled as a great family car. It had to fade at last, but it had its own hay-days.

I had a Fiat 1100D for about 12 years & I feel dearly for this car. Hated the way Premier Automobiles carried the same shape & design for 3 decades without a single proper facelift.

It was a car which deserved a better farewell, if only the makers respected it.

[ad3952n]

hi all, it marks the end of an era. Mumbai's one of the trademark transportation shall end. Any other fleet may be taken as an alternative but nothing shall be matching to the charm and grace of these fiats.

AD

[JayPrashanth]

Just came across some nice imagery on WSJ->

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2...ctive/#slide/5

Cheers,

Jay

[rajeev k]

Had been to Mumbai last week and could see very few Padmini taxi cabs. Saw this one outside the prepaid taxi booth of Lokmanya Tilak Railway terminus at Kurla. Waited for one to get into and traveled to Andheri. Perhaps these cabs may not be around during my nest visit.
While on a study tour from college very long ago, the main attraction in Mumbai roads was the herd of Fiat/Premier taxis, Especially for one from Kerala, where there were only a couple of Premier cabs.

[chittybang]

I hope the replacements are easy to maintain because the kind of rough use these taxis undergo is not normal. Often I have wondered if the new breed of Maruti and Hyundai cabs will last as long as these FIATs. Also why dont we have a rule that cabs must have a boot. Sadly even the ones with boot have LPG fittings inside and most often luggage is on the top. Its high time cabs had a minimum space requirement.

[Cooltronics]

Originally Posted by chittybang

I hope the replacements are easy to maintain because the kind of rough use these taxis undergo is not normal. Often I have wondered if the new breed of Maruti and Hyundai cabs will last as long as these FIATs. Also why dont we have a rule that cabs must have a boot. Sadly even the ones with boot have LPG fittings inside and most often luggage is on the top. Its high time cabs had a minimum space requirement.

Cost of maintenance might be higher or the Indian way of Jugaad might bring it down but the occurrence of maintenance cost will drastically reduce with Japanese and Korean cars. Their build quality is way superior than what Padmini's offered and long lasting. Back in 1987 when Padmini's were ruling the road and their advertisements mocked Maruti as "Match Box" as opposed to their "Car" offered by them, we bought Maruti 800 and my uncles bought Padminis.. Our car still is in excellent condition and driven quite frequently, no rusting and no door alignment required till date and their car might have been scrapped a decade back at least and the only reason for selling being repeated issues, bad quality & workmanship, no refinement.