C5ALIVE Forum

C5Alive General Category => C5 Socialising => Topic started by: danny7147 on 22, August, 2014 - 02:15:21

Title: Sinclair C5s have gone... but eco still lives on :)
Post by: danny7147 on 22, August, 2014 - 02:15:21
Hi all! It's been a long time since my last post here, and even longer since I managed to do anything C5 related, so I thought I'd fill you in on what's been happening down in deepest Dorset.

Back in May we sold one of our pair of C5s to partially fund a new business. As a couple of the C5alive guys know, as we bought the first one down in Margate, we set up a taxi company with a black LPG Vectra. Well, the company's doing well, the Vectra's been on almost non-stop airport trips for the last couple of months, so we've just had to sell the other C5 to pay for taxi number 2! Sure, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense as if the company was doing "that" well we wouldn't have needed to sell the C5, but we faced a predicament where we've been saving all of the money earned and needed an extra few hundred pounds to plough into the new vehicle.

Anyway, the company, Castle Cabs, has certainly made a few people in the area nervous and for good reason. I know exactly where the 'big firms' are going wrong, and I'm exploiting it to our advantage. Firstly, people love "eco"... and with both cars running on LPG we can call ourselves Dorset's only environmentally friendly taxi company. This automatically makes the big companies look bad for being nasty polluters intent on killing the Earth  8)

Secondly, running LPG has another advantage of reducing our fuel costs to the point that we can undercut every other operator in the area and STILL make a profit when they're making a loss!

There are a few other reasons too, but I'm keeping those under my hat for now  ::)

So, the Margate car is our pride and joy still... a 2004 Vauxhall Vectra, factory fitted lpg system:-

(http://www.castle-cabs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Castle-Cabs-Vectra-2.jpg)

There's not really much I can say about it... it runs perfectly, it's been an absolute diamond for us, and it's our "star car"!

The second one has been a nightmare, but it's slowly getting sorted... it's a 2002 Astra, factory fitted lpg, which came from a trader in Peterborough. He bought it at an auction, didn't have a clue about it, and it's taken more money than it's worth to bring it up to standard... it's a cute little taxi though so it's slowly being forgiven...

(http://www.castle-cabs.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Castle-Cabs-Astra-3.jpg)

On the way back from Peterborough the front n/s caliper seized on resulting in two new calipers, new pads and discs... it's had a misfire that only got cured today after a variety of compression tests and electric diagnosises failed to spot it was actually just a dodgy spark plug(!)... but it's getting there now...

Anyway, so that's where we're at! We will be getting another C5 at some point, we just needed to break the cycle and start a business in the meantime ;)

Look forward to seeing you all at some shows though and keep in touch :)
Title: Re: Sinclair C5s have gone... but eco still lives on :)
Post by: Jb1kenoby on 25, August, 2014 - 20:47:28
Cars are looking good Danny and glad it's doing well for you :)

Thanks for the c5 it's doing great and getting lots and lots of attention when it's outside my shop :)
Title: Re: Sinclair C5s have gone... but eco still lives on :)
Post by: Zelandeth on 02, December, 2014 - 16:43:15
Deleted post...wrong topic!  Ah, the joys of touchscreens...