I found these while surfing the 'net. Enjoy! I see a lot of PT Loser Yellow Cabs around, and that got me curious as to whether HHR cabs exist. I guess they do! BTW, I didn't take these pictures, and these aren't local. I've been thinking about trying to get into one of the local cab companies, I have a couple friends who are taxi drivers. I love driving so...

 

I've seen the HHR cabs too, but having driven cabs in college I'd recommend laying the idea of driving a cab aside if I were you. It was a dangerous way to make money 20+ years ago and its probably even more dangerous today. There are lots of nuts out there who will cut your throat or shoot you for $5. I'm still here, because one night in Charlotte a criminal decided that my .44 Mag trumped his Saturday night special and he had other places to be right then.

 

Looks like I'll be driving a cab pretty soon now, and insofar as risk goes, it's still statistically safer than driving a truck, which has been my main bread-n-butter for just about all my adult life.
The way Yellow here is set up, after about a year, they'll consider allowing me to lease my own vehicle on with them, and I've been poking around and considering cost effective options to the Crown Vics they now have. I've wondered whether there'll be any used '11 Caprices available by then, but also, my wife tells me that even with my big, tall self in the driver's seat, there's still enough legroom in the HHR to be comfortable.

Hmm.... with better fuel economy than the CV, especially in town, and with the cargo space, I'm thinking it looks better and better. Herman won't ever wear a yellow paint job, though. A 2LT version of a style car with a limited run, in Herman's condition, needs to stay stock. If I decide to use an HHR, I'll be looking for a base model, and I understand the manual driver's seat uses less space and allows for better headroom anyway.

 

Don't plan on seeing any decommissioned Caprice PPV's as taxi cabs any time soon, if at all. Right now there are quite a few police departments cancelling their orders because GM is having issues getting the PPV's produced and loaded onto the ships headed for the U.S.

The last I heard, there was a group of about 500 sitting at the dock in Baltimore waiting for customs clearance and then installation of the proper parts to make them drive-able.

Of course GM's problem is Chrysler's gain, sales of Police Package Chargers and Ram trucks are setting records.

 

Yeah, I can see that. Wouldn't be a real option for me anyway, for a few years. If they're any good, demand can easily exceed supply. That's ok, though... I kinda like the idea of a highly polished, bright yellow HHR making a living for itself.

 

Just make sure you install a safety partition/barrier. Like I said in my post last April, people will shoot you or cut your throat for $5, or they'll just do it for the hell of it.

Also consider personal protection, be it a taser, pepper spray, or a properly licensed firearm.

Not to try and scare you or discourage you, but give this site a look.....

http://www.taxi-library.org/safety.htm

I'm just a former cabbie trying to look out for you man.

 

Fortunately, the crime rate in my area involving cabs is nearly zero, but I have taken the risk into account. Unfortunately, I won't be using my own vehicle for at least the first year, so I'll have whatever they've equipped.
While I was surprised by the rear seat legroom as described by my wife, there won't really be room for a partition in an HHR, with me driving anyway.

I'd probably be better served using an Uplander, but the final decision is still about a year off.

I plan on a multiple-tier defense, pretty much the same one I had when I was trucking OTR, starting with pepper spray and a sap, and moving up from there. The biggest risk, from what I've heard from other cab drivers, is being stabbed through the driver's seat. Again, I'd have to look to see how these cabs are equipped, but if/when I set up my own, it'll probably get some advertising panels on the back of the front seats... some good and stout plexi covering the ads, and maybe even a thin metal plate beneath.

 

When I drove we had a fleet of Nova's, Caprices, Diplomats, Fury's, and a handful of Dodge St. Regis's. We had a plexiglass partition, and the back of the front seat was covered with a sheet of 1/4" steel or aluminum.

Its important to ask single passengers to remain on the "curbside" of the vehicle, I still to this day get anxious having anyone sitting directly behind me. Its dang near impossible to respond to a threat you don't see coming, and having someone directly behind you can be a bad deal.

In the smaller environment of a car, I'd prefer a taser over pepper spray, unless you've had training with pepper spray including intentional exposure...it can disable you just as quickly as your assailant...if he recovers first....bad news.

 

Yeah, pepper spray as well as a short walk through the U.S.S. Recruit's gas room. I will agree on the taser, though. I believe there are a few combination spray/taser units out there, and I've been planning on checking them out.
In the last few minutes, I've been poking around some more, and I think the Uplander would likely be a better candidate for me, the extra room allowing for better protection as well as passenger comfort. I've put some pretty extensive (and hard) miles on one, and it took it all quite well, with no mechanical breakdowns at all. Fuel economy was still better than I should expect from a Crown Vic, too... with third row seats, no less!
Folks who enter the back seat of my car tend to sit on the curb side, even though there may really be enough legroom for 'em. I keep the driver's seat all the way back most of the time.

How about the cabbie in the first Heavy Metal movie?

"What passenger? Dunno... never saw him!"

 

Only place I've seen an HHR taxi was in Cozumel, Mexico of all places...