1974 Austin FX4 London Taxi

We are delighted to offer you a genuine, wonderfully presented Austin FX4. Fitted with the 2.5-litre diesel engine and the automatic gearbox. This great example is finished, of course, in black.

A rare early Austin taxi, it was first registered on the 11th of October 1974 and did sterling service in London before being retired in the late eighties. With just the one owner until 2013, it passed to a London FX4 Taxi enthusiast, who embarked on a full restoration.

Always dry stored, it has featured in numerous TV shows and films including ‘The Conjuring 2’ and a Rimmel advertisement. It is with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon, so if you’d like to go and see it in-person please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button to arrange that.

Being offered with no reserve, this iconic slice of metropolitan life is going to sell from the very first bid, so why not pop a cheeky bid in and see what happens?

The coachwork is in excellent condition. As a genuine working vehicle, you could be forgiven for thinking it might be a bit frayed around the edges, but nothing could be further from the truth.

It has previously been stored in a specialised temperature-controlled environment within a professional classic vehicle storage unit in Hertfordshire – the seller contributed a further £5,000-worth of work to the car including:

· removing both sill cover panels before shot-blasting and repainting them,

· repairing a corrosion hole in the offside front inner sill and strengthening the jacking point,

· repairing corrosion and letting in new metal to the bonnet edges, filling in the old washer-jet holes, and repainting,

· and repairing corrosion in the offside rear door lower edge and rear corner, letting-in new metal where required, and repainting.

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He also fitted the correct, earlier headlamps. The work has left the taxi looking fabulous.

The rest of the badging is there too, and the light lenses and glazing are all good. It’s even still got the traditional sticker on the rear side windows showing passengers how to raise and lower them.

The chrome is a little pitted and patinated in places but it all still looks very good, and it’s even got an amber taxi light above the windscreen.

The black steel wheels are embellished by a set of classic chrome hubcaps and fitted with a full set of 175R16 Valiant Taxi tyres. Experience shows that matching high-quality tyres like this are an infallible sign of a caring and mechanically sympathetic owner who is prepared to spend the appropriate amount in maintaining their car properly. Their presence does not, of course, preclude the need for a thorough inspection - something we would welcome, by the way – but it does perhaps give you a shortcut into their attitude towards maintenance.

There are the usual minor marks that every car collects over the years, plus a couple of areas where the seal between panels doesn’t sit as neatly as it could. Most obviously, the rubber seal on the rear screen could do with replacing due to cracking.

Mind you, if that’s all we’ve got to point out then that’s quite an endorsement, isn’t it?

The black vinyl upholstery is very good indeed, remaining plump and comfortable. It’s undamaged too, which is incredibly rare.

Replacement tip-seat back rests were fitted by the current owner, along with the wonderful period advertising posters. The interior light was sorted out, too.

The headlining is good too, as are the door cards and interior chromed handles; everything in here was designed with durability and reliability in mind and it shows, even after almost half-a-century.

The interior features its original badging including a wonderfully retro British Leyland badge, under which sits a sign exhorting its passengers to ‘Please Sit Well Back In Your Seat For Safety & Comfort’.

There’s a period fire extinguisher too, plus its original taxi meter.

Work to do depends on your attitude to patination. Some of the chrome bezels are a bit pitted and there’s the odd wear mark here and there. None of it is unduly noticeable and could easily be chalked up as signs of an honest, hard-working commercial vehicle.

The engine bay is pretty clean. The fuel injectors are rusty, as are some of the fasteners, but that’s about all that jumps out at us.

The taxi starts and drives as it should: the car has been driven near to our Headquarters and the taxi drove very well, paying credit to the significant expenditure that this example has been treated to.

The FX4 has a brilliant MOT history until May 2022, with mostly ‘no advisories’. The significant history file detailing the car’s history and expenditure is available to view in our gallery.

The recent restorative work included:

· fitting a new gearbox inhibitor switch,

· removing the engine sump to weld-repair a crack near the sump plug and then renewing the engine oil and filter

· draining the transmission fluid to remove the gearbox sump before replacing the gasket and reassembling with new transmission fluid,

· removing the steering box for repair/overhaul by specialists before refitting it and checking and adjusting the wheel alignment,

· attending to kinked fuel pipe,

· cleaning up corrosion on the brake reservoir mounting.

The was work was carried out to the highest standard by Quinn Lyons (formerly R.A. Creamer), the people who service and maintain the Royal Family’s fleet of cars: This Taxi deserves nothing but the best!

The term legendary is bandied about too much. But, this is a genuine legend and probably one of the most recognisable cars in the world. Wonderfully reliable and ridiculously agile, there is no better way to cross a city.

And yet, for all its no-nonsense engineering and design, it would make a brilliant promotional vehicle, a quirky wedding or funeral car, or even the coolest micro-camper the overlanding world has ever seen. Or, you could just to continue to show it and enjoy it for the icon it is.

Said to be “probably one of the best to have been offered on the market in the UK” by its enthusiast owner and “certainly the best-known within its circle”, all this could be yours for just £12,000 to £18,000.

Remarkable, isn’t it? Plus, it’s being offered with no reserve, so will sell from the very first bid, no matter how derisory.

What are you waiting for?

Viewing is always encouraged, and this particular car is located with us at The Market HQ near Abingdon; we are open weekdays 9am-5pm, to arrange an appointment please use the Contact Seller button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.