Taxi Owners: Minivans Fail to Do the Job in Big Apple

Send them back to the soccer moms.

The minivan, symbol of suburbia, can’t cut it on the mean streets of New York, say a number of taxi fleet owners who are phasing out the vehicles. The minivan, they say, breaks down too often under pothole-pounding, round-the-clock cab driving.

“They just flat-out haven’t worked out,” said Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxi Cab Board of Trade, which represents 18 fleet owners. “Minivans can’t hold up on city streets.”

Allen Kaplan, vice president of Team Systems, with more than 300 cabs, said the minivans’ frames “are not made for this type of work. We also have a lot of trouble with the doors and the hinges.”

“The transmissions give us a lot of problems, and we see a lot of overheating engines,” he added.

Kaplan, whose company bought 20 minivans in 1998 and has already retired six, said the remainder will be off the street in a few months.

Diane McGrath-McKechnie, head of the city Taxi and Limousine Commission, said the minivan-cab should not be put on the extinct list just yet. Independent taxi operators, who own many of the city’s 800 minivan-cabs, do not put them through as heavy use as fleet owners.

“You have two different standards,” she said. “Cars that run eight or nine hours a day will react differently than cars that are on the road 22 hours a day.”

Chevrolet spokeswoman Carolyn Norman agreed. “Minivans are not generally designed or engineered to be used as taxicabs,” she said. “It’s a family van.”

The minivan cabs have been well-received by some customers since their introduction in 1996.