may 4, 2002 - 2002 EAGLE Motor Company Taxicar City Edition

Description:

Eagle Motor Company pulled a bit of a out-of-character move in 2002. They released an ecobox. The Taxicar, as the name implies, was designed and produced to take over as the go-to vehicle for city taxi services. It was only released in one trim, called the "City Edition". The name implied that other trims might release later, but they never did, and apperantly there were never plans on doing so.

The Taxicar featured on of Eagle's smallest ever engines, a humble little 1.0L inline 3, with a small turbo, making around 81 horsepower. It's front wheel drive and comes with a 5 gear manual gearbox. All mention of performance numbers are irrelevant for the Taxicar, as it was only made to be fuel efficient and safe, in which it succeeded. It's fuel economy is one of the best ever recorded and it performed admirably in crash testing.

The Taxicar quickly spread through North America and soon into Europe as well, and sold in masses, becoming the standard in city taxi services in most major cities.

Price at launch in 2002:
$20.300