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| Talkin to me? |
The hyperactive administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg has seen fit to replace the sixteen different models currently allowed to operate in the Five Burroughs as NYC cabs -including ubiquitous American sedans like the Crown Victoria (soon discontinued by Ford)- with just one centrally-planned choice (this guy used to call himself a Republican?): a Japanese minivan built in Spain that looks like it was styled over the telephone- and the designer's dog helped.
It was bad enough when we lost Checker... who needs to see Times Square packed with 200 of these butt-ugly grocery-getters?
It was bad enough when we lost Checker... who needs to see Times Square packed with 200 of these butt-ugly grocery-getters?
And although it's hard to deny they make a decent car, Nissan knows this is the Hollywood product placement of all time... one they get to make a profit on instead of paying millions in fees to the studios. Can you imagine if Trump was mayor? He'd be charging them to have the brand featured in movies for coming decades. Bloomberg knows that he's making Manhattan look less American, too- and forever.... just like that mosque he is so inexplicably fond of.
You could understand the innovative-yet-odd purpose built Turkish design scaring them a little (although it won a passenger's poll), but what would have been wrong with the
FORD Transit Connect NYC taxi proposal- from the Last Real American Car Company? Yeah- Obama doesn't much care for those headstrong capitalist robber-barons either.
The Union of the Unemployed's demand that the cabs be built in the United States fell on deaf ears at City Hall. Lobbying group Americans United Against a Nuclear Iran pushed hard for FoMoCo, as both the Turkish Karsan and Nissan have been doing business with Tehran, counter to US security interests.
FORD Transit Connect NYC taxi proposal- from the Last Real American Car Company? Yeah- Obama doesn't much care for those headstrong capitalist robber-barons either.
The Union of the Unemployed's demand that the cabs be built in the United States fell on deaf ears at City Hall. Lobbying group Americans United Against a Nuclear Iran pushed hard for FoMoCo, as both the Turkish Karsan and Nissan have been doing business with Tehran, counter to US security interests.
One of greenfreak Bloomie's primary motives for going with the Japanese car was purported to be a modular drivetrain design with hard points that allow for an "upgrade" to full electric power in the future... surely the good folks living in the shadow of coal-fired electric plants over in NJ are thrilled to hear that Manhattan's auto emission problems will eventually be outsourced to them, as will be mountains of highly-toxic spent batteries then making their way to Jersey scrapyards.
