spwolf

interesting thing is that this car will be priced starting at $30k, and except for the height, it is Corolla sized.

Blackraven

This is a neat thing for Nissan

<VENOM>

what is corolla size

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Corolla-sized? what do you base that on? the first pic makes it look much bigger.

Sulu

Below are the specifications I found on the Nissan UK website for the NV200 (http://www.nissan.co.uk/GB/en/vehicles/lcv/NV200.html).

The figures for the Corolla are from Toyota Canada's brochure for the 2010 Corolla.

Length:
NV200: 4400mm / 173.23"
Corolla: 4540mm / 178.74"

Width (not including mirrors):
NV200: 1695mm / 66.73"
Corolla: 1760mm / 69.29"

Wheelbase:
NV200: 2725mm / 107.28"
Corolla: 2600mm / 102.36"

Height:
NV200: 1860mm / 73.23"
Corolla: 1465mm / 57.68"

As you can see, the (North American) Corolla is actually longer and wider.

Make the NV200 a bit longer (to increase interior cargo room) and smooth out the styling and it would make a nice family wagon. With the flat floor of a minivan, it would be easier to get in and out than a similarly-sized CUV (especially if it had a 3rd-row of seats), and with the narrower width than a North American minivan, it would be easier to manoeuvre in urban parking lots.

Lil4X

It's a taxi. Drivers are going to rip that horn out and replace it with something extra-annoying.

Ditto. It's a taxi. Maybe they can hose it out every day like the monkey cage at the zoo.

Suggestion: same goes for the drivers.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

Can't wait for these things to start rolling out in the streets of NYC. There is no reason for Crown Vics to be used as taxis here. They get 12mpg and their old, big V8 engines cause a lot of pollution. These 4-bangers (the NV200s are made to be able to be retrofitted with electric motors once they become available) make much more sense. More room inside, less room outside, cleaner, more efficient, its a good move for NYC. Although I too really liked the RX450h taxis. I spoke to the driver when I got in one and his answer was since he has to drive around all day might as well do it in style and comfortably. LOL.

DustinV

I'm going to miss the Crown Victoria, though. This is purely because of nostalgic reasons. To me it has become a sort of daily symbol of New York - those big yellow taxis (sort of like the Checker cabs of the 1950s-19b0s).

Then again, the Crown Victoria was inefficient from the start. Come to think of it, we never had efficient taxis in the US.

Anyone remember the '70s?

SLegacy99

I don't know who thought that a taxi in stop and go traffic for its entire life should have a big V8. And it's amazing that was the case for so long.

DustinV

Gasoline has generally been cheap for so long which meant that fuel efficiency was never an issue.

But times change. Now, fuel economy and emissions are probably the two most talked-about criteria in the automotive business today.

<VENOM>

Burning less then half the gas doing the same job and not leaking oil, the city streets are coated in oil

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

These new taxis look nice. It's way better than those Crown Vics they use.

mmarshall

No, it's not necessarily better, IMO. They used Crown Vics in NYC for a reason. The large, full-frame and stoutly-built steering/suspension components that these cars have are quite resistant to the pounding they take every day on NYC's awful beat-up roads, full of potholes. That's also one of the reasons, among many, why cops liked the Crown Vic....it could take the punishment of rough conditions and high-speed pursuit. Many smaller, unibody vehicles can't.

spwolf

not really... they were cheap and bountiful... they use Prius's now as taxi's in many cities with beaten roads and they work just fine despite aluminium suspensions....

mmarshall

Crown Vics weren't what I would call cheap, though, for cars that big, they are indeed reasonably-priced.....and taxi-companies, like police/law enforcement and rental-car-firms, usually buy Crown-Vics in fleet-orders, getting an additional discount on each car.

Yes, I've seen Prius taxicabs too (we have some here in the D.C. suburbs), but I haven't seen many downtown, where the roads in D.C. are torn up like they are in NYC. And, though I don't live in Europe like you do, from what I understand, roads in Europe's cities are in considerably better shape than those here in the Northeast U.S. and the Snow Belt. In Michigan, for example, roads can be like the cratered surface of the moon.