If You Are In The Taxi Business, You Should Have Heard of the Vios Killer called. . . the Hyundai Accent Diesel!!!!

  Toyota has for many years cornered the Taxi business starting with the Corona long before, then the Corolla Big Body and at present, the Vios, the original model and the latest called the Batman model.  (Don't ask me why the taxi drivers call the latest Vios incarnate as the Batman model).

Almost all the gasoline-powered Vios are converted to LPG as the Taxi operator can charge a higher boundary (up to P1,800 plus for MGE Taxi, the highest) and earn maybe at least a Peso/liter of LPG by requiring their drivers to only fill-up at company garages.

Of course, the concern of taxi operators is that LPG-powered Vios are prone to overheating as evidenced by cases of warped cylinder heads and other overheating-related problems. This is especially of HIGH CONCERN as the Vios does not have a temperature gauge!!!

For the taxi driver, LPG-powered Vios suffer from poor acceleration especially struggling going over flyovers and hills, Toyota Aircon is very weak and nobody is really sure how safe is inhaling LPG fumes while driving these LPG-powered taxis 24-hours a day!

  After ousting Honda from Third place, Hyundai has set its sights on the Numero Uno, Toyota by offering a better (and maybe healthier) alternative. . .  the diesel-powered Hyundai Accent CRDi

  Diesel is P9.00/liter cheaper than Regular gasoline and therefore the price difference with the cheaper LPG may not be so great if you factor higher maintenance cost due to overheating. 

Likewise, initial reports say that the Hyundai Accent has very good acceleration (good for running Formula 1 races in traffic-infested EDSA as they ran after every taxi rider), has really good cold aircon and appears solid (though time will tell).

Hyundai Accent CRDi Diesel

Drawback is the initial lack of surplus parts in the market and nobody knows how is the reliability in the long-term but if we follow JD Powers, Hyundai Quality is up there with the very best of the cars.  (Would you believe an R & E Taxi driver told me that their company bought some brand-new Hyundai Accents for the purpose of cannibalizing them for parts in the event of accidents etc??)

Oh yeah!!! Toyota does not sell a diesel-powered car in the Philippines.  

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