Hyundai i800 Taxi Clocks £4,600 Fare During Volcanic Ash Flight Ban

A group of stranded British tourists was collected from Spain in a Hyundai i800 and brought back to the UK last week, during the volcanic ash flights ban. After the 2,500 mile trip cab’s meter read £4,600.05. The owner, however, charged the passengers just £1,850.

Garry Smith, a cab driver in Northampton, originally picked the i800 because he specializes in executive transport and longer journeys, europeanmotornews.com reported. He narrowly missed out on a job to Geneva just before the Barcelona trip came up. However he added this journey was his biggest trip ever.

“We got the call at 9.30am on Tuesday and were on the road within an hour to collect four people,” said i800 owner Garry Smith. “I took my son Ben so we could share the driving and booked the Eurotunnel crossing on route. When the passengers heard what car we were in they asked if we could take six people which because of the car, we were happy to do.”

“It wouldn’t really be fair to charge them the meter rate,” continued Smith. “It’s been perfect and it’s now got 65,000 miles on the clock. I’ll definitely be buying the van version [Hyundai iLoad] for my Clever Cogs carpet and upholstery cleaning business when my current van needs replacing.”

The eight-seat Hyundai i800 MPV is powered by a 2.5 CRDI engine that provides 168 horsepower at 3800 rpm and a maximum torque of 289 lb-ft at 2000-2500 rpm. The starting price for the Hyundai i800 is around £16,000.