If there’s been a vehicle that’s gone from zero to hero faster than our Nissan NV200 Taxi I’m not sure what it is. This little yellow gem was destined to be parted out or recycled before we rescued it. After a little bit of work, we were able to drive the cab from New York City to Los Angeles on an epic journey. It’s up for sale on Copart if you’d like to be a part of its next chapter.
It’s exciting to see this vehicle in the Van Nuys Copart lot because there were a lot of moments when it seemed like this project might be doomed. When we initially agreed to do a project car with Copart, I’m sure they didn’t have an NYC Taxi in mind. The goal was to prove that Copart has a lot of fun options for project cars, and we were talking about old Rolls-Royces and the like (to the eternal credit of Copart, they didn’t bat an eye when we said we were going to get a taxi instead).
There’s something about the taxi that just called out to us. It was truly imperfect, which gave us a lot of license to have fun with it. And fun we had. Sure, the thing got dropped into a tree, but it eventually brought joy to readers across the country.
Buy This Taxi!
Again, you can buy this famous taxi (the most famous NV200 taxi in the world?) on Copart right now. Note that the auction is at 3:00 PM ET, although there are two other ways you can buy the vehicle.
The first one listed is that you can buy the car outright for $4,000. You are more than welcome to do that, but first, a couple of issues with the vehicle you should notice:
- One of the front wheel bearings is probably toast.
- The driver’s door doesn’t unlock from the inside.
- The paint is… there.
- Please note that the wire controlling the A/C clutch fan is still on the outside of the van.
On the plus side, I either drove or followed this thing all the way from New York to Los Angeles, and the motor and transmission barely missed a beat. It is “rough but reliable.”
I mentioned you could buy it for $4,000. You can also “Make an Offer.” We initially paid $800 for it and put, uh, more than that into getting cross-country-worthy. My guess is that we’ll take less than $4,000 for it.
Finally, I should mention that this is a car being sold in California with a Montana title. As always, your eligibility to bid on a car might be an issue depending on where you live. One way Copart can help with this is that you can use a third-party broker. I used AutoBidMaster to buy this, and it wasn’t an issue. Just know that if you want to buy something from Copart, the platform provides ways to do it without needing a dealer license.
I’m Going To Miss This Silly Cab
When we crossed our first bridge on the way out of town, I started doing a math equation every few hours in my head. How long would it take to drive this thing back to New York or North Carolina? I was concerned that it wouldn’t make it.
By the time we made it to Kansas, I stopped doing that math (also, it would be easier to just tow it to Los Angeles at that point). It was clear that this little van had a lot of magic in it and that my worries were all for nothing.
I’ve already heard from a couple of different people interested in this van, so I’m feeling good about the prospects of it living a better life and not being scrapped. After spending almost 400,000 miles in New York City and then crossing the country, it’s clearly up for an adventure.
Though I’m going to miss the NV200, I’m excited to see where it goes next.
Wait, did Copart install a new tree-free right rear door?
If/when this partnership comes to an end, I’d like a deep dive on all the fees involved in buying from Copart. When I think I need another project I check Copart, then talk myself right out of it when I tally up the final costs.
Galpin has a free parking space? Back up the Comanche (on a trailer)!
If you really want to make the sale:
“Renowned automotive writer Jason Torchinsky may or may not have farted in this taxi.”
“ Body style: SPORTS V ”
Sports what??
Is that like athletic underwear?
Excuse me Matt but you are selling it in California does it meet California standards? Otherwise salvage value
From the add:
Vehicle type:Automobile
That’s gotta be Torch?
I must have this beautiful example of the benefits of the Jatco Xtronic CVT. It is rightfully mine.
This belongs in a museum! Peterson??
Bitterly disappointed that Jason appears to have uninstalled frogger and taken that back to NC with him.
Copart, you keep using that word “possible”. I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Exterior condition
Front left
Possible Front Left Fender Damage
Possible Front Left Door Damage
Possible Front Left Headlight Damage
Possible Front Left Bumper Damage
Possible Front Left Hood Damage
Possible Front Left Windshield Damage
Rear left
Possible Back Left Door Damage
Possible Back Left Trunk Damage
Possible Back Left Windshield Damage
Possible Back Left Quarter Panel Damage
Rear right
Possible Back Right Trunk Damage
Possible Back Right Door Damage
Possible Back Right Windshield Damage
Possible Back Right Quarter Panel Damage
I’m just super excited about the pristine front right corner, personally.
(If anyone hasn’t looked, there is visible tape holding that beat-to-hell corner together, so it feels like Copart just gave up.)
My thought is they ran out of “possibles” and had to stop
Did somebody sneeze on the instrument cluster and not wipe it off? Or is that schmutz somehow on the inside of the lens. I mean obviously that won’t be the dealbreaker on this thing, but yuck.
$50 with 10 minutes to go. Will we see $75? Three figures even??
We will not.
LOL
$4k is an optimistic number.
I’ll take the opposite tack to some others, and celebrate you for not being hoarders.
Adrian needs a little sunshine in his life. Who needs a Capri when you can have… this?
COTD
“Um, I’ll try dumb ass car purchases for 1,200 Alex.”
$4,000 for a 375,000 mile car?
That’s about a penny per mile – what an excellent bargain!
You see how slyly they listed it for auction on the same day as TMD’s headline was that the average cost of a car is $50k? $4 is a bargain!
But is $4 a bargain, really?
I realize you can’t keep every car you have for your different series, but it would be cool if you kept them, like Top Gear did for a lot of their cars.
It’s not economically feasible so we try to get them good homes. I’d like to keep the Murano for a bit, though.
This is a good way to do it. Sell it and move on.
There are plenty of great car sites/channels out there which do amazing things with old cars. But then those cars again just sit and continue to rust away outside once the “views” are used up.
Sell them for any price/means necessary and move on!
Someone out there will love it as their own project car.
I had thought that it would go into the Galpin studio rental fleet but I guess there’s not much demand for recreating present day New York on an LA set.
What did Jeff Goldblum say about something like this?
Life finds a way? 😉
Well there’s enough genetic material and organic matter in the cab to kickstart an ecosystem.
Sell the cab to Tesla and let them strap it to one of their test rockets. If the payload crashes into some exoplanet it will be our own Noah’s Ark.
That is one big pile of shit?
Brundlecab?
Why wasn’t this featured on Shitbox Showdown?
I couldn’t find anything bad enough to go up against it.
I’d seriously consider buying this, but I’m nowhere near Van Nuys.
We know a shipper!
Will the shipper “fix” the glaring omission of damage from the front right corner with the tree this time?
Fly into LAX, then make your own adventure by driving your awesome NV200 score home!
I’m seeing the auction as closing in 45mins, i.e. noon Pacific, not 6:30 In any US timezone?
You are correct!
So is the article correct, or is copart?
I see the article has been edited. Wow, that’s a fast auction
Copart or no car…I think, in this case, no car is fine.
I think this should go to England. I have a great person in mind, that bright yellow matches their personality perfectly.
Yellow is his favorite color!
It would be a fun replacment for the pub truck, I am sure that someone would love the old pub truck, there are acres of copy to do. I signed up to this daft websiite to be a grown up and teach. and two rhoddii have turned up in a year!
It would be funny though, an NYC taxi that crossed America ends up ferrying folk about in a teeny corner of rural Northumberland.
Didn’t read this far down before suggesting the exact same thing. Certainly less expensive than that Capri he wanted to purchase.