I’m pretty sure this taxi has somehow been reading the comments made about it in every one of the stories we’ve run about it so far. I can’t prove this, at least not in any manner acceptable to any actual scientific rigor, but it remains my best theory for why this 375,000+ mile heap just refuses to quit. I think it’s because some of you had said things like this:
“That interior looks gross. The intercom pic – blegh. Nasty. Kudos to you for tackling it. This taxi seems like a bit of a basketcase…”
and this
“I’m not sure where this saga is headed…. so far, I see: Replaced crap parts with crap parts on crap car. Trying to figure out if I should give a crap.”
and this
“Just let it die!!!! It truly longs for the sweet release of death.”
and one more:
“At this point, maybe just light the goddamn thing on fire and invite the whole town over for an epic s’mores party.”
These were all actual comments on articles about this little Nissan NV200 taxi, and I think it read every one of them, and I think it’s pissed. I don’t think it wants to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing it fail, so it’s going to keep going and going out of spite, fueled by 110 octane vitriol, and it won’t stop until it makes every sorry bastard that doubted it eat their words.
That’s how I found myself driving this thing past the St.Louis Arch (fun fact! It’s actually a full oval, but the other half is buried underground!) yesterday, as this incredible machine keeps going and going.
It still has the occasional misfire, but it still keeps holding 65-70 mph no problem and that A/C still works (though it’s definitely better in the rear compartment where Otto sits than where I am up front, with just my lone little working cut-water-bottle vent) so I remain incredibly impressed.
The heat, though, is definitely taking a toll, just not exactly where I would have predicted. It’s melting the rear window off:
Well, more specifically, it’s melting the adhesive out from behind the incredible replacement plexiglass rear window my friend Andy made for us, so I applied some carefully-considered structural support tape to keep the window from slowly slithering down the back of a car like a cream cheese’d bagel flung at a wall.
We started our day yesterday at a genuinely crappy hotel, which featured some very backrooms looking areas like this:
…as well as what may be the creepiest imagery I’ve ever seen on a soda machine:
What the hell is that? Was someone trying to make a…sexy baby? This whole thing makes me feel dirty.
Happily, I was able to put that out of my mind because we immediately headed to the Mid-America Air-Cooled VW Funfest, which was full of some amazing stuff.
Oh, but on the way I did see some unusual things, like this pair of three-car trains hauling down the road:
Flat-towing two cars at once has to take some very specific skills, and I’d love to know the story behind this.
Back to the VW event, though; we’ll have a bunch of reels and videos from the event soon, like this one:
View this post on Instagram
…but for the moment I’ll just share some highlights. Like this immaculate VW Thing:
This may be one of the nicest Type 181s I’ve ever seen. The owner even wanted to give it that mil-spec Type 181 look, so he re-did the rear to include the smaller, flat VW Bus taillights early Things and military 181s used, all so he could include the huge mil-spec antenna mount:
I like that kind of obsession. There were other fantastic and gleefully non-pristine cars around, too:
I also really liked this very stock early ’70s Beetle because I think the placement of that box fan in the spare tire well was supposed to suggest a radiator and fan that, of course, don’t exist on these cars:
This unusual modified Manx dune buggy I thought was especially attractive with its pre-’67 double-glass sloping headlights and a very carefully-curved Volkswagen badge:
This car was also sporting early ’80s Chevy Cavalier taillights:
Look at the incredible upholstery work on this old ’50s bus:
That bus was part of an amazing convoy from a Chicago-area VW group, and we’ll have some reels showing their Type 2s soon.
Also, have you seen how a Bradley GT kit car’s headlights work?
They’re drop-down-cover lights instead of actual pop-up lights. It’s pretty cool, and this is by far one of the nicer Bradley GTs I’ve ever seen which are usually on blocks surrounded by weeds in someone’s backyard.
The trend of making VW-based cars that look nothing like old VWs is a fun one, especially when they have cheeky nods like this, where the absolute void where an engine would be expected is highlighted:
It wasn’t all air-cooled VWs there, just like 98%. There was also this fantastic rat rod that used a pressure cooker as a carburetor housing:
Oh, and there was some interesting non-car-related stuff there, too. Look at this old copy of the famous VW-starring 1969 movie, The Love Bug:
It’s the format that’s incredible here; that’s an RCA SelectaVision disc, which was a short-lived format that used, essentially, phonograph-style records to record video! With grooves and a stylus and everything! Technically called a Capacitance Electronic Disc, this is not a laser disc, it’s a completely electromechanical/analog way of storing video! A very dead form of media, but an absolutely fascinating one.
From the VW show we made a beeline to Lawrence, Kansas, where we had a reader meetup! As always, it was incredible to meet our readers, who are – and we hired an independent laboratory to confirm these findings – the kindest, smartest, best-informed, funniest, and yes, sexiest readers of any automotive or trade publication in the known universe (not counting the Andromeda Galaxy or the Greater Fresno Metropolitan Area).
One reader brought this fantastic Mini Moke for us to ogle over, and ogle we did.
It’s always surprising to remember just how low these things are. They’re fantastic.
There were readers there who were former Citroën mechanics, families that chose to buy convertible Lexuses instead of minivans, and even one couple who were the proud parents of eleven children. And they rolled up in a Brabus Smart Fortwo.
Amazing people, all of them. I’m so thankful they all came out.
The taximeter is well over $7,000 or so, I think? And we’re barely at the halfway point. Here’s our plan for today:
Sunday, June 22nd: 7:00ish
We’ll be rolling into Denver, at the Lowry Beer Garden next to the Wings Over The Rockies Museum (we will update via Insta/Discord if we hit snags, which, let’s be honest, isn’t unlikely)
Monday, June 23rd: 7:00ish
Hopefully we’ll be barreling into Las Vegas, that is if we make it over the Rockies somehow. I bet we will? I hope? When we get there, we’ll be meeting at the Harbor Freight, Rainbow Boulevard and probably getting some Persian food at the place nearby, which we heard was good.
Tuesday, June 24th, 5:00ish
If the desert madness doesn’t consume our souls, we’ll be having dinner at the Horseless Carriage at Galpin Ford, celebrating a wildly improbably victory. I suspect then the taxi will drive itself into the Pacific.
Top photo: Griffin Riley
I hope the back window is still secure enough that it doesn’t blow out the next time the a/c stops working and you open some windows.
Or slam a door too quickly.
The adhesive is melting off the van windows, yet Otto is still rocking a winter hat and long sleeves.. oh to be a teenager again..
I hate that soda machine picture. “Coca-Cola, it’s not just for breakfast anymore!”
St. Louis summers are unkind.
It was such an honor to meet Torch and Matt and Otto in person. They are truly wonderful people who are helping cultivate car culture in an open and accepting way. I love being an Autopian and this little meetup made for a great evening!
Does the induction loop still work, and if so, what does it do?
Based on the prior schedule, I’m assuming you intend to be at the HF on Rainbow at 7 PM. Do you need me to bring tools or supplies or anything?
Yes, 7 PM. Sorry about that. So far so good, but some extra tools won’t hurt!
I’m rooting for complete success here, but I’m also grabbing the popcorn for the Denver-Vegas leg of the trip. If this taxi makes it out unscathed, I’ll be amazed. And if it’s on time, I’ll be floored.
Honestly, the I-70 & I-15 route isn’t bad. May be a little slow outside of Denver if they are still doing construction, but the tunnels are awesome to drive through. If they were jumping off and trying to take the taxi over the Silverton-Durango pass/MIllion Dollar Highway (over 11000 ft at the top) then I would worry about the van having issues with that climb.
Once past the the main spine of the Rockies in western Colorado, then it will be slightly down hill all the way to Vegas, with some small ranges to go over between the 70-15 junction and Cedar City. Since the Virgin River Gorge construction finished, they won’t be held up there now at the UT- AZ-NV junction.
See you in Vegas. My i3 and I will be there. I have used that HF a few times since moving to here.
“…I applied some carefully-considered structural support tape to keep the window from slowly slithering down the back of a car like a cream cheese’d bagel flung at a wall.”
As one well-versed in such things, this sounds like an entry from the annual Bulwer Lytton Fiction Contest!
It totally does! I was thinking that as well.
I’m surprised there isn’t Fanta in that vending machine. I’m also extremely curious as to what was so urgent that it necessitated tearing off a corner of paper from the sign taped on the front…
If that picture doesn’t embrace the idea of, “You are on the dangerous precipice of dicey America”, I’m not sure what does, lol
“ fun fact! It’s actually a full oval, but the other half is buried underground!”
That may be fun… but it is absolutely not a fact. The arch.. is an arch. Specifically a weighted catenary arch.
Ingenious creeper derricks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI77W2PjyKI
Damn arch truthers…
Oops. Replied to the wrong comment. See below.
No, it’s a full oval. I checked!
The parks service only rotates it twice a year! You were really lucky to see it!
Great, Torch. I was trying to save you. You just couldn’t take a hint. You’ll never be safe from the Arch Illuminati now.
I never asked the guide to show us what happens when we press “Down” on that weird elevator.
The People Under the Arch?
The Upside Down.
…A year later ominous tones as a pair of Nissan NV200 headlights, or maybe like 1 headlight, and a once again broken flailing windshield wiper emerges on the beach near Yokosuka Japan, a look of terror appears on the faces of the corporate executives….
Dear NV200,
Stop it, just quit. I don’t know what you have to prove. Leave some miles for
the rest ofusother cars. Every car should drift away as it gently turns to rust in a shack with a nice view. Instead, theymake uscars run until their wheels fall off at 80 mph. You’re making it hard on all cars because people will start thinking that they can disturb the sacred rest of any old car and wrench it back on the road. If you care about your car brethren resting in peace, stop now, don’t give these nuts any more ideas.In rust,
– a
2008 Nissan AltimaConcerned EnthusiastIt’s the corporate dream. Work elderly employees till they drop so their retirement packages become drops in the bucket of an executive’s monthly bonus.
And the Moke promptly broke the inner u-joint on the left axle when he went to leave! Ah…. the wonder of 50+ year old britcars…..
Did you get it back home this morning? Great to see it, sorry for the incident it had.
Yes, parts on order, and we’ll fix a few of the other niggles while it’s in my shop. Problem is my shop is full right now, I have no idea when I can get to it!
The big question: what is the number of CVTs this NV200 used in the past ?
Raise a glass if/when you make it to Galpin.
Don’t get high in Denver. Don’t roll the dice in Vegas. Just keep heading for peace (Pacific)!
Those flat-towing rigs are not uncommon on certain rural interstates, and they’re never NOT scary. But I’ve never seen one involved in an accident, so I guess that’s encouraging.
Based on Otto’s outfit, the rear A/C must be blowing about 58 🙂
To date, all my years with middle schoolers has showing a willingness to underdress for cold weather, but never the other way around. He’s a trendsetter. And there’s no amount of Axe that will cover that trend.
He might see more in Denver. It’s a fairly common sight here. They have a not necessarily PC name that refers to locomotives and one of our neighboring countries.
Saw those all the time dawdling along on I-10 in SE Texas taking likely hurricane flooded cars from Louisiana to used car auction lots. Down there, they always had “In Tow” written in white shoe polish or something on the back window of the tail car. Unfortunately, there were long stretches where I-10 is only two lanes in each direction. Which is not great for traffic flow into Houston. They’ve been spending a lot of money to add a third lane in each direction. I moved back to Washington state before they were done. And now I deal with long stretches of I-5 that are only two lanes. Sigh.
Far more unsettling for me is seeing trucks pulling triple sets of full-sized trailers on the interstates in Oregon. I can’t imagine how wide drivers have to swing to get the third trailer around corners, once they’re in town. Maybe they just get off the freeway, drop the trailers off somewhere and switch things around to shorter rigs.
Typically they are auction cars purchased for resale south of the border (the actual one, not the crumbling tourist trap in South Carolina).
Sometimes you will see even more creative arrangements. I once passed a flatbed that had a daycab tractor on the back, with a 2 door Toyota Yaris on the back of the tractor…. flat towing a box truck holding a Honda Accord in the box.
Drive on! Sounds like you’re having a blast. Is Otto old enough to drive?
There may very well be life forms evolving in remote crevasses, but I assure you, that taxi is Not sentient. It is Torch’s indomitable spirit that makes impossible- possible. Right out of high school, I purchased a pack of the highest grade paper I could find to make my resume stand out. Opening the packet revealed a cover sheet with; “Attitude determines altitude, it’s easier to fly over the trees, than through them”
That is one of the most 90’s things I’ve heard of, putting a trite motivational poster saying into a pack of paper.
Once when a wall poster showed up in my workplace with “THERE IS NO ‘I’ IN TEAM”, I was sorely tempted to add a post-it note with “THERE IS A ‘ME’ IN TEAM”.
Early 80’s
Every TEAM has at least one Meathead.
Since Nissan is the Chrysler of Japan, I expect it to do its best impersonation of a certain shit-box Dodge and simultaneously disassemble itself when it gets to the final destination.
The text in the topshot is wonderful – a mix of literature and mathematics, and something Chaucer himself might have appreciated. 🙂
My thoughts exactly.
I’m not sure people complaining about the crap car fixed with crap parts really understand the ethos of this site.
why anyone has chosen to be upset by this is past my comprehension, even if it’s a few psi below normal! it’s a fun, entertaining adventure that doesn’t make anyone else sit in that van (otto, do what your father says. because he’s your father, dammit!)…that heat must be getting to folks.
I’m pretty sure Griffin and Matt are in there with them, if they have a chase car they’re keeping pretty mum about it.
they have a chase passport
We do have a camera car, we’re going to write it up at the end of the story.
https://fordauthority.com/2019/07/this-1914-model-t-looks-like-a-kodak-camera/
Some readers won’t be happy until David spends 4 weeks without sleep covered in the worlds finest rust surviving on shower pasta assembling scrap into jeep whilst becoming hostage to his base wrenching desires / starting a cult slowly waiting for local government to decide it should terminate his command with extreme prejudice / ask him to remove the wrecking yard from his tundra / swamp of a backyard.
you had me at cult!
The story behind the 3 car train is easy – those are headed to Mexico. People will buy three rollers that are considered totaled in the US but are salvageable, haul them to Mexico, and either fix and sell them or part them out. Apparently the law allows flat towing two things – it’s why dual container semi trucks are a thing, and why you’ll occasionally see a truck pulling an RV and a boat (I knew a guy who regularly did this).
It does depend on the state laws on whether or not that is legal.
They are going through Texas, so……
This is what I came to say. Usually pretty rough cars from auction. I once was almost hit by a ranger at the back of one of these trains when its started to weave and the door flew open. Super sketch but nobody will address it
Yes, depends on the state, but as you get further south, you see more of it. It’s not legal in my home state, but I see quite a few of these in Alabama heading SW.
And it always looks super sketchy.
I see this fairly regularly when I’m on I65 south in Kentucky, usually just two cars connected but same deal. A lot of times they travel in groups so you’ll pass like five of those in as many minutes. Seems to be more of a recent thing, I don’t remember seeing it prior to 2020 or so.
Pre-2020 it used to be mostly Toyota pickups and 4 runners, Nissan frontiers, and compact hatchbacks. There seem to be a lot more full size trucks and SUV’s since then, at least through Texas.
I see these on I-80 in Iowa a fair bit. We have some truly massive auto auction lots here.
I’m curious as to how these are flat-towed without destroying the trans? Everything I’ve read is that it’s absolutely not possible with an automatic.
Most manuals can be flat towed, but obviously not many of them in the mix.
On 4wd you can put the t-case in neutral (maybe).
On rwd pull the driveshaft or run the engine idling all the time with the trans in neutral so there’s lube to the back of the trans
On fwd they’re all over the place as to what is acceptable.
They either don’t care or they disconnect the drive shafts/remove the cv shafts.
I see them in Alabama and Georgia pretty regularly. And yes, it’s pretty much a beeline from a rural salvage yard to Mexico, based on the direction of travel and the clientele.
I agree with others it varies by state, like towing a boat behind a travel trailer. There are places that’s a no-no, and other places where it’s ok if the total length is within a certain range.
This also reminds me why Cash for Clunkers was so stupid. There’s always a market for clunkers. I almost wonder what today’s used car market would look like if we still had some of those cars around.
Rustier, smokier and smellier. But not by much. Most of those clunkers would have self destructed, gone south or ended up with a tree growing through them by now.
See you tonight in Denver. I’d like to drive my Alfa Romeo GTV, but with the forecast, I think the 911 Turbo gets the nod because it is the only fun car with A/C.
I’m still debating which car to bring. I’m picking between my ’20 440i convertible, or my wife’s ’24 Equinox EV. It’ll probably be the Bimmer.
I have 2 Alfa Romeo Spiders and the weather this evening is probably still too hot for a convertible. For me at least. That’s why I’m choosing between the two cars with roofs.
Top down, windows up, windscreen in place and A/C on does the trick for me.
I don’t have A/C in my convertibles. I do the similar trick with heat for driving in the cold.
I don’t have any cool cars like you guys, but I just had my Polestar 2 washed, so at least it’ll be shiny.
I’m driving in from Longmont – a whole HOUR on the road! I hope you appreciate the trouble I’m going to, Torch. We can’t all just hop in a taxi and enjoy a sumptuous, luxurious ride to The Queen City of the West (note: I may have missed some of the details about your taxi ride :-D)
I’m coming from Evergreen. If I drive the 911, I’ll take highways and it’ll take about an hour. If I drive the GTV, I try to avoid highways to preserve the windshield….so, it’ll be over an hour.
That’s a nice drive, either way (well, parts of it are nice). I’m a former Evergreener myself. We lived in El Pinal for about 12 years but moved down to Longmont 2 years ago.
It’s also the one more likely to reach its destination.
I hope I don’t jinx myself by writing this…but, my 3 old Alfa Romeos have actually been reliable. Granted, I drive each of them less than 1000 miles per year, but they always start and have never left me stranded. :fingerscrossed:
Good luck!
I have to say I like the “void” in the truck-shaped Volksrod’s front to display at shows but would want side panels for traveling to and from them since that would be a pretty good size frunk if it offered any protection whatsoever from road splash.