You kidding? V6 models were not desirable in the real world. Most Checker Marathons, and the ones that survived up until the late 90s, would have been V8 examples.

I actually detailed one. A beautiful Maroon, with black vinyl roof, black Leather interior. What a gorgeous car. 🚗🙂

@@casmatori Only Americans and Australians are obsessed with V8s, everyone else doesn't care much so long as they get the performance they want they don't care how many cylinders the powerplant has.

A tough, dependable, and durable car. 1983 was its final year.

The earlier ones with the old inline 6 or the small v8 were more durable

Thank you for the tour of a time and place I'd have never known about.

Fascinating! Thanks for your firsthand account of the industry. 🙂👍

Thanks for sharing your story.

Hey great story, thanks for sharing. Never realised there was a Hyde Park and Pimlico in Chicago, there are areas in London with these names too.

@@yakacm LOL. Hyde Park is the location of the University of Chicago: the place where Enrico Fermi harnessed the atom. The Pimlico I was referring to is in Baltimore, Maryland, where they run the Preakness stakes. Chicago doesn't have a Pimlico, but it has another racetrack called Balmoral, which used to be owned by George Steinbrenner. Cheers.it

How true. I grew up in the South Bronx during the '60s. Spent a lot of time in Times Square as a teen. I left in 1972.

Is there any of "old newyork " left ?

@@johnscroogle6484 Ugh. Tell me about it. I was there in 2014. Wanted to go to a “coffee shop” Ended up walking from Battery Park all the way to 23rd Street. Found lots of Starbucks along the way. Finally went to Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop. Last time I went home, I didn’t even go into Manhattan.

Cab 804 ?

I remember that show on "Nick at Nite" !

Well, when was the last time Porsche made something different? If it's working and people recognize and like what they see, leave it alone lol. I'm only 40 and can spot a Checker from a few blocks no problem. Only ever got the chance to work on one when I was turning wrenches in my early working career. Beut of a car.

Drove one as a cabbie...crap for brakes and acceleration, but I loved how high up you sat. You could actually see over cars in front of cars 3 or 4 ahead of me. Able to get on the brakes and avoid an accident several times. Standard Chevy running gear for ease of repair

Not moveable because it was broken. All Checkers had adjustable seats.

@@OsbornTramain No, it couldn't move. Behind the front seat was a partition between the cabbie and the passengers. That was a fixed partition and the seat was as far back as possible. Mostly it was trying to protect the driver in case a passenger tried to attack you physically. Did that all right as I never felt threatened, no matter where I drove. But it was heck on my legs and back...

​@@rponiarski Interesting I had a chance to drive for yellow here in Houston a few years back, realizing the cab industry as a whole was on its last leg, and wanting to try before its too late. Had lots of fun picking daylease cars, some fast ex cop cars, some comfy air ride grand marquee's, and some neat Crown Vic LX's, all good drivers. What i learned was you could make most money by driving air ride grand marquee's, due to the ability to drive much faster without startling the passengers, for quick pickup/dropoffs. Those full framed cars are way better on pothole city streets, where a regular car would slow down massively, just a light touch on the brake and you could gas again with the panther cars . Yellow in Houston have since gone bankrupt, uber has taken over.

I naturally thought of America lol

I was born and grew up there. The reputation is inaccurate...it's far worse and more pervasive than is usually represented.

I plumbed for TONBRIDGE WELLS myself..

Lucky for you this clip like so many Rory made will still be on his channel when you eventually do get time and plenty of sleep afterwards to watch.

I must admit that I quite enjoy my self-imposed wee small hours comment slot and its innately international slant. At that time here in good old Blighty, I'm privileged to learn afresh all sorts of interesting facts about Pennsylvania's public transport or Toronto's trams for example. Both of which I might decide I can't commit the time to at other more civilised hours of the day. Then when I come to my senses, the comment count has rocketed to the thousands and I lose myself in the reverie of 'how do these authors find the time to compose, film, voice, edit and polish these wonderful productions, ensure that they've paid their audience the compliment of reading all their (well-meant) guff, let alone have time for a family, say and of course, a job?'

@@astafford8865 Are you expecting to be complimented on your ability to fit that much arrogance in to such a short reply?

I need to sleep too, but it's hard to stop watching and listening to this stunning video.

excuse me WHAT this is one of the largest companies I never heard of

@@johnw1954 Geez, Classic Trains had a 4 page article about them just 5 or 6 years ago.

I vaguely remember that. Of course the Chicago and Northwestern and Union stations are only a block apart, but there were Dearborn, LaSalle and Water Street stations as well as the Illinois Central Station on Roosevelt Road. But,, I can't get to 11 stations as mentioned in the film. Hey, do you remember the indoor taxi-cab roundabout in Union Station? Very convenient for passengers, but it was very tight for drivers. Wonder if they still use it.

Checker operated Parmelee, which dated back to the 1860's

Interesting story. What were you doing in Honduras and what was that much Burlap for?

@@chickenfishhybrid44 I was raising chickens on my dad's retirement place on Roatan Island. The burlap was to make curtains for the chicken run to keep heavy breezes from chilling them. It could get to 120 degrees in the shade, so humid clothes would not dry on the line. It could also be 55 degrees with lots of wind and rain.

I had a 1974 A-12, had silver-gray paint that I added red pin stripes to. Engine was a Chevrolet 250 cu in inline 6 cylinder.Transmission was a Borg-Warner (T35 I think) which in drive started in 2nd instead of 1st which made unaware mechanics think there was serious slipping in need of a rebuild. All my visitors from overseas, mostly East Asia, were amazed by how much room there was in back. Lots of people used to try to flag me down thinking it was a taxi. I still miss that car. It was built to last which it did 'til I got a Dodge around 1986. Thanks for the post and lots of memories.

Driven to death. Rebuilt four more times. The Five Lifetime Checker! I owned 3 of them.

You're economy has to be pretty unregulated for those kind of niche markets to work. The world's energy rich economies are not so much like that today. Mainly because extra requirements (laws) are made every year, but never expire. I think if congress had to at least re-read and re-vote on a law every 10 years, it would help as they'd naturally skip the outdated ones, and those could then expire for once.

Isn’t this the same for like Hong Kong Red and Green taxis with Toyota Crown Comforts, which are keep getting updated

@@SuperPhunThyme9 It's impressive how your distaste for regulation allows you to completely ignore the concept of economies of scale.

You’re sort of wrong, at least when it comes to privately owned carmakers. ​Japan, the UK and Hong Kong are the probably the only remaining places on earth where cars built specifically to serve as Taxicabs are still in widespread service. London currently has the LTI TX4 and LEVC TX serving as the traditional hackney carriage taxi role inherited from the Austin FX4. In Japan and Hong Kong, the long serving 1995-2017 Toyota Crown Comfort is so ubiquitous it may as well be a cultural institution. Whilst the crown comfort is essentially a heavily modified Toyota Crown (S150 generation) chassis, it’s headroom, LPG engine, and huge rear legroom meant it earned a level of respect that its longtime rival, the 1991-2015 Nissan Cedric Y31 has struggled to match. The Cedric had less headroom and a much weaker LPG engine and by the time of the early 2010s they were nearly gone in HK. A last ditch facelift to the Cedric that gave it an improved engine and black bumpers among other upgrades wasn’t enough. In Hong Kong Cedric taxis are basically extinct but in Japan they are still pretty common. It should be noted that Hong Kong crown comforts in 1995 originally had Diesel engines, a column shift automatic transmission, a front bench seat to allow for 5 passengers, and a heat shield on the roof. You can spot these early crown comforts in Photos and videos of Kai Tak Airport in its final days of operation. They did not have the LPG sticker on the trunk and front fenders and did not yet have alloy wheels. In the mid-2000s the HK government launched a scheme to experiment with LPG as a replacement for diesel to improve emissions, with the city’s taxis and public light buses (pretty much almost all Toyota Coasters) being the testbeds. In this time, the crown comfort got a more powerful air conditioning unit, which meant they could get rid of the roof heat shield. In 2006, the HK government outlawed diesel taxis meaning if you do see an “old” non-LPG taxi in Hong Kong today, it’s almost certainly owned by a private collector. In 2011, Toyota facelifted the crown comfort, giving it modern LED rear taillights that extended onto the trunk, a conventional automatic transmission which meant it no longer had a front bench seat, and higher quality bumpers and door side moldings. In Japan this car spread like wildfire but you wouldn’t see the improved crown comfort en masse in HK until like 2014-2016 or so. By the time of the 2019 protests the face lifted crown was on par with or outnumbered the older LPG crown comforts. Toyota has replaced the crown comfort with the Toyota JPN taxi, a taxi model that more resembles a London cab compared to the mid-size Japanese sedan that the Crown Comfort inherited from the 1980s Toyota Crown models. Toyota respects the crown and crown comfort’s heritage in their roles as taxis, and will likely continue that as long as a market for dedicated taxis (in right hand drive) still exists.

It definitely is. Taxi culture and its problems became so ingrained in the fabric of life that laws were enacted that later, say in 2015 made no sense. In Houston for example, one were not allowed to park any taxi on a city street, immediate tow away. The reason? In the 30's taxi wars had companies cut costs to the bone to stay afloat, so had no land or lots to park them on, and would just clog up many city blocks with taxi's not in service. Other weird rules; taxi lamp on roof needed to have a small orange bulb in addition to the main light, or else $250 fine if it wasnt working. Reason was that in the past, city had a fee, or got a cut, based on miles on the meter. orange bulb goes on if meter is on. So it was basically a way to check drivers didnt drive without the meter. But the lease/meter system had been changed long ago, so city was paid per daylease instead, rendering the orange bulb pointless. Cops would still fine you if it wasn't working though, while Uber had no orange bulb requirement... If one asked anyone why, no one really had any answers, nor cared. Took alot of investigation to find out those two, but there were many many more. There was also a peculiar "Im being robbed" secret button on floor and camera system, with required callback where they pretended to call about something else.... was also an old requirement/union agreement...

Fuel mileage alone would doom it

Agree! This is a lost punpportunity to call it "The Checkered History of Checker Cab" LOL

@@phloodpants oh I think ol' Ruairidh subverted expectations on purpose!

Also missed by not having intro music by Cab Calloway.

@@emilyadams3228 Or the enchanting Vanessa Paradis ' "Joe le Taxi."

Alas that is only a trailer.

@@calmeilles Here is the link to full movie. Strong stuff, includes the infamous spray booth scene. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/i9Njn5l_ttCbimw.html

Brilliant and funny movie. Having worked in a car factory in the seventies and eighties the feel of the production line scenes ring very true, especially how tiny gripes get blown up into big freak outs due to the repetitive nature of the job.

The deep hatred these 3 actors had for each other drove Paul Schrader into a complete mental breakdown after Pryor attempting to kill him and beating Keitel to a pulp after a set disagreemnt.thus shelving the production until 1978. However, the shooting of the movie was mostly complete in the fall of 1975. The hatred of Pryor really added realism to the movie's end. Lots of shots inside the Checker factory, Ford's River Rouge Plant, and Detroit all enhance this excellent movie. Detroit wasn't a paradise 50 years ago either... Wiki has a decent article about this movie, and all the fighting.

There is a lot historically wrong with this video, you are correct, that was a major factor, that forced the developement of the A8

Hollywood used to use Checker cabs as Russian limousines in spy movies. Painted them grey or flat black.

Thats true, the crap movies do. The good films hire auto consultants, that make selection for proper year models if say its set in tbe past, with minor tweaks if needed, such as a different bumper, if thats easier than getting ahold of an actual -68 model or so.

Yes I remember, the 80s Rocked !

way too late fo that, they all went out 30 years ago. Crown vics where around until 2021 though, so you only missed them by a year, but now all gone, as last year model was 2011 and there a 6 or 10 year cutoff, depending on location.

That’s a now entrenched myth mouthed by know-nothings; as a teen, it was my first car…. w/ manual shift, & I figured out quick it didn’t handle like more typical cars of the time. It handled like other cars of the time with similar rear-engine/swing-axel rear suspension…. VW & Porsche, while front-engine cars like the Triumph Herald & MB sports car had the same type of rear suspension, so there was nothing inherently lethal mechanically with Corvairs. And the mechanical layout so condemned in the initial Corvair was vastly upgraded in the new model with rear suspension redesign.

Surveillance and algorithms,..