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I can understand wanting to improve the quality of taxi cabs on the roads of NYC. It’s always a good thing to help conserve gas and reduce emissions and such. I’m mostly in favor of the way NYC is doing it even, requiring cab companies to upgrade their vehicles. But when they demand a specific car from a specific company - Nissan in this case - it seems like maybe someone is sliding some hidden money under the table somewhere out there.

The ruling is being called into question, but so far the requirement to buy the Nissan NV-200 still stands. Yes, your NYC taxis will now look almost completely identical. And Nissan will be making out big-time with all the models they’ll sell. Off goes another boatload of cash to Japan, I suppose. And there goes any sort of competition among car manufacturers to create a better vehicle, since cab drivers can’t legally buy them anyways.

Photo courtesy of Norbert Aepli via Wikicommons