Checker Marathon. Purchased new in January 1982. The name pretty much says it. Most people remember the Checker cab from all those New York City taxicabs in TV classics like, “Taxi” or the movie “Taxi Driver” among others. But this cab is iconic for many reasons, and having a seat in the back of ours will tell you how special this car was. When people speak of “roomy” this cab is what they were talking about. Super spacious, made for even the largest passengers. So frankly, this is not a showroom quality vehicle, and this one’s not gonna get you on the cover of HotRod, either. It has some pretty rough paint bubbles here and there, and some rust issues here and there, etc. But it’s as solid as a tank, which is exactly why these were used as taxicabs in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere. The last one rolled off the production line in July 1982. The final NYC Checker Yellow Cab was retired in December 1999. Ours is Checker is red – you can even see where we pulled the number of the cab “340” off the trunk. In fact, we still have the original odometer statement (10 miles) AND purchasing invoice. Seriously. You can see the open square in the dash where the former mechanical flag-style meter sat. This cab will take some work in various rusted or paint-bubble areas of the body. We started on it but there’s just no time… We can’t restore and run a business in the same shop and do both well. Someone needs to take this baby on as a project.Know what? Buy this cab and we’ll GIVE you a vintage mechanical meter for that dash. In fact, let’s do even better: We have a full set of hubcabs – originals for the Checker Marathon, logos and all, not those “pie pan” Marathon caps. We ARE a cab company after all and Checkers were our cab of choice back then. Buy this Checker, we’ll slap those hubcaps on it for you absolutely free if they haven’t already sold (they’re listed on ebay separately).
Link to EBAY ad and buy it now feature.
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