If there’s been a vehicle that’s gone from zero to hero faster than our Nissan NV200 Taxi I’m not sure what it is. This little yellow gem was destined to be parted out or recycled before we rescued it. After a little bit of work, we were able to drive the cab from New York City to Los Angeles on an epic journey. It’s up for sale on Copart if you’d like to be a part of its next chapter.
It’s exciting to see this vehicle in the Van Nuys Copart lot because there were a lot of moments when it seemed like this project might be doomed. When we initially agreed to do a project car with Copart, I’m sure they didn’t have an NYC Taxi in mind. The goal was to prove that Copart has a lot of fun options for project cars, and we were talking about old Rolls-Royces and the like (to the eternal credit of Copart, they didn’t bat an eye when we said we were going to get a taxi instead).
There’s something about the taxi that just called out to us. It was truly imperfect, which gave us a lot of license to have fun with it. And fun we had. Sure, the thing got dropped into a tree, but it eventually brought joy to readers across the country.
Buy This Taxi!
Again, you can buy this famous taxi (the most famous NV200 taxi in the world?) on Copart right now. Note that the auction is at 3:00 PM ET, although there are two other ways you can buy the vehicle.
The first one listed is that you can buy the car outright for $4,000. You are more than welcome to do that, but first, a couple of issues with the vehicle you should notice:
- One of the front wheel bearings is probably toast.
- The driver’s door doesn’t unlock from the inside.
- The paint is… there.
- Please note that the wire controlling the A/C clutch fan is still on the outside of the van.
On the plus side, I either drove or followed this thing all the way from New York to Los Angeles, and the motor and transmission barely missed a beat. It is “rough but reliable.”
I mentioned you could buy it for $4,000. You can also “Make an Offer.” We initially paid $800 for it and put, uh, more than that into getting cross-country-worthy. My guess is that we’ll take less than $4,000 for it.
Finally, I should mention that this is a car being sold in California with a Montana title. As always, your eligibility to bid on a car might be an issue depending on where you live. One way Copart can help with this is that you can use a third-party broker. I used AutoBidMaster to buy this, and it wasn’t an issue. Just know that if you want to buy something from Copart, the platform provides ways to do it without needing a dealer license.
I’m Going To Miss This Silly Cab
When we crossed our first bridge on the way out of town, I started doing a math equation every few hours in my head. How long would it take to drive this thing back to New York or North Carolina? I was concerned that it wouldn’t make it.
By the time we made it to Kansas, I stopped doing that math (also, it would be easier to just tow it to Los Angeles at that point). It was clear that this little van had a lot of magic in it and that my worries were all for nothing.
I’ve already heard from a couple of different people interested in this van, so I’m feeling good about the prospects of it living a better life and not being scrapped. After spending almost 400,000 miles in New York City and then crossing the country, it’s clearly up for an adventure.
Though I’m going to miss the NV200, I’m excited to see where it goes next.
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