Neons/Calibers becoming the new Crown Vic?

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I live between two high schools. Ones a 2 min drive, ones a 5 minute drive.
10-15 years ago High Schools seemed packed with Crown Vic's, Buick Century's, and Ford Rangers
Now it seems like those cars have been taken over by Dodge Neons, Dodge Calibers, and Ford Focus'

I've noticed more cab companies between Dallas and Austin have started phasing their Crown Vic's out for Calibers as well. Guess a Caliber probably gets more MPG than a V8 Crown Vic.

Anyone else notice this? Any other random cars that are 2000+ model years becoming more prominate ?
 
Originally Posted By: GumbyJarvis
I've noticed more cab companies between Dallas and Austin have started phasing their Crown Vic's out for Calibers as well. Guess a Caliber probably gets more MPG than a V8 Crown Vic.


That's awful! Would not want to ride in a Caliber.

I don't think I've seen any Caliber cabs in Canada. Camrys, Altimas, and Fords look pretty popular for cabs here.
 
Does a Caliber even have any trunk space? I've always been a fan of the Crown Vic platform since it's one of the very last "true cars". Yeah the mileage may not be up to 2016 standards but how well does a modern car get once it is loaded up with passengers and luggage?
 
Caliber is junk in my opinion.

Around here all the taxi companies have transitioned from Crown Vic's to the Toyota Prius.
 
I'm seeing a lot more cabs that are Priuses, as was noted above.

I'm also seeing a lot of cabs that are minivans. As a minivan owner, just let me say that there aren't too many things uglier than a minivan on the road today---but a bright yellow one takes the cake.

I absolutely agree with the decline of large cars. When I was young,I recall seeing many large sedans in parking lots of grocery stores. Now, they've been replaced with SUVs.
 
Weird.
I've seen Interceptors replaced with both Impalas and Chargers, weird I've also seen in a small town north Texas using Wranglers as their sheriffs office cruiser.
 
Neon's seem to rust out too quick around here, the ones hanging on have makeshift patch panels to squeeze by inspection. The Panther platform seems to still be popular here, but not in winter time. There is no such thing as Taxi service around here, so I can't say what they're using.
 
Cab companies are still using Crown Vics in my area.

At my sons high school you see lots of small cars from several different companies. Lot of boys have older 90's model Ford and Chevy 4wd trucks.
 
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Never seen a Caliber, Neon, or Focus taxi. Our city (small) has a very mixed fleet: plenty of old Crown Vics, some Prius, a minivan or two, and some oddball ones. Our city police force is also a mix of Chargers, Crown Vics, and Explorers. Obviously, the Crown Vics won't be around too much longer. The State Police are switching to mostly the new Taurus and the Explorer. Personally, when I want a taxi I am usually traveling with lots of luggage so a bigger vehicle like a Crown Vic or a minivan is what I like to see pull up. I was recently in another country on a business trip and us two travelers and our bags just barely fit into the little taxi that showed up, and the backseat passenger had to share the space with the roll-ons that wouldn't fit in the tiny trunk.
 
Its whatever is cheap.Saabs will be showing up as they are orphans now,Saturns have been popular because GM dropped them and they aren't the "flavor of the week" anymore.Seemingly there aren't any Oldsmobiles or Pontiacs left because they were once in vogue amongst the debt ridden too.
 
Can't see how/why a neon would be good car for this use. They all must be getting long in the tooth, and they don't have a ton of space to start. Caliber is s mini station wagon and has more utility.

CV are popular because they are big with a deep trunk, and can be had used for cheap with a known history when kept up by a police or other fleet.

The cars I've ever been in, anywhere in the country, are nasty. There's a reason why the masses have spoken so strongly via uber.
 
There's a huge difference between a Neon and a Crown Vic. Only thing they have in common is they are no longer made.

I don't see how a Neon would hold up in taxi service. They are (were?) really horrible cars. I can't imagine a taxi company wanting to be replacing transmissions and head gaskets that often - along with constantly replacing the many engine mounts.

Neons and Focuses are dirt cheap to buy on CL now. "Classics" like Crown Victorias, Cherokees, Rangers are going up in value a lot.
 
IMHO having owned both Crown Vics and Impalas the Crown Vic would make a much better taxi--more durable in severe use, easier to fix, parts are cheap, less likely to rust out here in the north, huge trunk (though the Impala's is bigger than many). Not sure what happened to them, but ex-police Impalas just disappeared but ex-police Crown Vivs are everywhere.
 
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A present day Neon sighting in the N.East is extremely rare. Like said, rust took them out. You don't see many Dodge Calibers, but the Jeep Compass and Patriot version of this chassis abound. Those are everywhere.
 
Funny you mention this Gumby. Just this morning I noticed a Caliber driving in the mall parking lot very aggressively. The guy throws in in reverse to get in the spot. It was a high school kid returning a tux. Then he starts telling his buddy how he got it at auction as a former repo, put new brakes, wheel bearings etc on it. All told had $1600 into it. Appearance wise it looked pretty good.
 
Originally Posted By: JTK
A present day Neon sighting in the N.East is extremely rare. Like said, rust took them out. You don't see many Dodge Calibers, but the Jeep Compass and Patriot version of this chassis abound. Those are everywhere.


Only place I see them is in the junkyard. They are either super rusted out or suffered engine/transmission failure.
 
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