City government officials are now calling for the lovable little love bug taxis to “get out” of Mexico City.
It is true that there is a lot of VW Beetles traversing the roads of Mexico. One million seven hundred thousand VW Beetles have been sold in Mexico during the last 40 or so years making Mexico the third best market for the Beetle behind only Germany and Brazil.
The Mexico City government doesn’t like the older Beetle taxis any more because they say the vehicles contribute to air pollution and get only 19 miles per gallon in fuel efficiency compared to 34 mpg achieved by newer model vehicles.
The City wants to get rid of cars that are older than 10 years by 2012 and that would make a big impact on taxi companies. It is said that there are 100,000 taxis in Mexico City and 75,000 of them are older than 10 years. And 80 percent of that number are -- “El Vochos.”
Mexico City is already initiating a program to get taxi drivers to retire their Beetles for a cash payment of 15,000 pesos or $1,500.