Uber Drivers

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 30, 2004
Messages
31,869
Location
CA



The driver uses this car for Uber. Between his day job and Uber, he puts on about 8k/month. Supposedly it only started making noise “a few days ago” and the car still stopped fine under most conditions.

Point is, be careful out there. Some of these Uber guys are not taking care of their cars. They are not professional drivers.
 
Do cab drivers do more frequent maintenance on their cars?

I see it as a bit of a toss up between using Uber or a cab. Most cabs/shuttles I ride tend to be run professionally and are somewhat clean. This comes at a price, though.

Uber can be dirt cheap during off peak hours, but on my last Uber ride, the driver had his WIFE with him and they had literally just picked up some burgers and fries from a Whataburger. The entire car smelled of onions.
 
If it was an Uber driver, I'd throw on Wagner QuickStop semi-metallics or anything from O'Reilly/AutoZone and white box rotors and call it a day.

Still, Uber drivers do somewhat care for their cars. You have no idea how many clapped out Prii and Camry Hybrids I see on the streets of SF in the FiDi. While I do call the Prius the new Crown Vic, it's not as invincible as those old Ford Panthers were - https://lusciousgarage.com/blog/prius_taxi_repair/
 
Last edited:
8k miles a month is 266 miles a day. A few days of grinding could have been 800 miles!
crazy2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
8k miles a month is 266 miles a day. A few days of grinding could have been 800 miles!
crazy2.gif



Just imagine crossing the street with that heap barreling toward the intersection!
 
Originally Posted By: dishdude
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
8k miles a month is 266 miles a day. A few days of grinding could have been 800 miles!
crazy2.gif



Just imagine crossing the street with that heap barreling toward the intersection!
Who needs brakes when you've got other cars to stop you? In a collision...
 
its not only uber drivers. When I was still an appraiser I had to go look at an airport taxi that one of our insureds hit. I went to the taxi "yard" and what I saw astounded me. Most of the van are rebuilt salvage that are just cut and welded together with absolutely zero adherence to factory guidelines, then repainted. I saw what ever pad where laying around and fit used on sketchy rotors,I wish i still had the old pictures I took it was really something. Next time you grab a cab at DFW airport check the door frame odds are that it is a different color than the vehicle and check the floor I bet you can feel the weld even with shoes on. I will never take a cab if I can avoid it.
 
i once walked into an oreilly's right after a guy had left that had purchased some brake parts and the parts guys were laughing at something and the one parts guy is like, well you might as show him as well......and i was like what?

they had what was left of a brake pad which was just the metal plate and it had gotten so hot that the piston from the caliper was welded to the backside of it and they couldn't get the pad off without pulling the piston out of the caliper.......they asked him if he needed a rotor and the guy said the rotor was fine, bought a caliper and pads and left.......ha
 
Originally Posted By: Reddy45
Do cab drivers do more frequent maintenance on their cars?

At least when it comes to a cab, there's a reasonable chance that it might be part of a small fleet (i.e. someone operating four or five cabs under a larger banner), with someone who has some idea that things have to be checked, or, as indicated in the original post, that a "professional driver" might be more likely to pay attention to these things. Besides, at least in some jurisdiction, taxis are subject to regular inspections. Back in the day, the best comparison I could come up with would be taxi drivers to pizza delivery drivers, since there was no Uber then. The pizza drivers weren't subject to inspections, and you'd be more likely to find a younger person, or a part timer, with less resources to keep maintenance up.
 
Yikes, that was a bad accident waiting to happen.

How dumb can a person be to ignore the sounds and immediately take it in for service.
 
Blanket statement about Uber drivers based on one car. Sort of like saying asians can't drive......

The local uber drivers here have decent cars. Some of our local private owned taxi's creak, rattle and clunk down the road. Recent inspection that was essentially retaliation complaint by Uber drivers/lawyers ended up with a few local taxi's being pulled from road due to poor condition. I think it was to make a counter point.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Blanket statement about Uber drivers based on one car. Sort of like saying asians can't drive......


Is that directed at me ?

If so... I never mentioned anything about the person being an Uber driver. Common sense is that if you hear noises coming from your brakes (which are extremely important) the owner of vehicle needs to have it checked ASAP.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Blanket statement about Uber drivers based on one car. Sort of like saying asians can't drive......


Is that directed at me ?


Directed at no one as it is a false unfounded statement likely based on observation of one driver long ago. Uber drivers are getting grouped in a similar way not doing maintenance, dangerous etc.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
I edited while you posted and didn't capture my edit.

See my additional comment.


No again not directed at anyone specific just the vibe of the thread. Life happens and parts fail sometimes quickly I find Uber to be a decent service and if the driver showed up in a car like that with grinding brakes you can refuse service. I have refused service from local taxi as they sent a junk pile and smelled. The driver was very bent out of shape but they filled the request.
 
Originally Posted By: madRiver
Blanket statement about Uber drivers based on one car. Sort of like saying asians can't drive......



From the OP:
Quote:
Some of these Uber guys are not taking care of their cars.


Doesn't sound like a blanket statement, you can substitute "Uber guys" with anything and be just as correct.

I have a hard time letting anyone drive me anywhere much less an Uber guy...
 
A friend was a car guy working in a machine shop.

They'd cut old rotors down so you could see the location of the inside "fins" as wavy lines on the contact surface.

This was commonly done for the used car dealers "on Rt.46" (meaning the sleaziest of the sleazy).
If you're either side of Teterboro Airport you can see these magnificent examples of the automotive economic engine.
 
I closed a brake job too quickly and did not clean and lube the pins/sliders.

I finished the pad on that side in about 3,100 miles.

I heard the noise (metal on metal scratch) in a Saturday night while entering the highway in a bad part of town and a crazy "wall" of snow dump.

Monday morning I was in front of my trusty mechanic's shop....
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top