Why New York City taxi drivers once chose French diesels over the American V8

Having once been lined with American V8 engines, New York City taxi models once stopped being quite so patriotic, as yellow cabs transitioned to French diesels.

The yellow cab is a staple of New York City. Nearly every picture of the skyscraper-dense skyline of the Big Apple is littered with hundreds of yellow dots on the roads.

But as one of the beating arteries of the US, New York City didn’t always have an all-American fleet.

In fact, thanks to a mass gas and oil outage in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Peugeot 504 and 505 took pole position in laybys and ranks throughout NYC.

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Peugeot 504 once conquered the New York City taxi game

As the metropolitan heart of America scaled upwards, Times Square was dominated by yellow American V8 cars throughout the ’60s and ’70s.

Checker Marathon and Plymouth Gran Fury were icons of the era, but they were soon threatened by an oil crisis.

In the midst of these legends falling, it was the New York City taxi drivers who turned to French diesels for alternative rides, as they were so much more efficient with gas.

The Peugeot 504 and its successor, the 505, became one of the biggest import fleets to occupy NYC, and even featured in popular 80s films like Cannibal Ferox.

By 1981, Dust & Diesel claimed that there were 850 French diesels on the Big Apple roads, with Peugeot hoping to make it 1,200 the following year.

However, patriotism soon came into play as US passengers began turning down the 504s. Instead, they favored American V8 cars like the Chevrolet Caprice Classic and Ford LTD Crown Victoria.

Despite being more efficient, the Peugeot 504 and 505 were smaller in size, less comfortable, and had a smaller luggage allowance, which proved tricky.

Nowadays, many American V8 cars still work tirelessly throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, with some of the yellow cabs racking up wild mileage figures.

American V8s are a taxi of yesteryear

While the Ford Crown Victoria might be one of the most notable yellow cabs in Big Apple history, recent years have also seen the arrival of overseas cars like the Nissan NV200, Toyota Prius, and Toyota Camry.

Tomorrow might be completely different too, and the American V8 engine is being left well behind, and electric motors are on the rise.

Tesla Model Ys are now quite a popular choice of taxi, thanks to apps like Uber, as yellow cabs are becoming an endangered species.

Still, the robotaxi hasn’t proved to be the perfect alternative, with some rough mistakes proving that sometimes, a human touch can’t be beaten.

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