I mentioned the new N.Y. Yellow cab in another thread but I think this classic deserves a thread on its own.



The Checker Marathon is known all over the world as THE taxi from New York. In almost every movie or TV-series from the 70's and 80's, this cab is featured, sometimes even in a leading role, like "Taxi Driver" (1976) or the classic series "Taxi".



The truth is that the Checker could also be purchased as a normal car. Created by Russian immigrant Morris Markin who arrived in the US in 1913 with only 2 Dollars in his pocket. Ten years later he owned the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. Checker soon became the biggest cab company of the country after purchasing Chicago's Yellow Cab firm, previously owned by John Hertz.

In the fifties this was the well known cab:



The Marathon



was released in 1961 when the company resided in Kalamazoo/Michigan. It will be made till 1982, almost changing nothing on the outside which had the aerodynamics of a brick wall. But the enormous space inside and high roof, easy to get on board, together with an almost indestructible engine kept it going for all those years.



What killed this oldie? Oil prices, they swallowed fuel, 3 times more than another American car of that period.



In 1999, it was used as a taxi in New York for the last time. That one was sold afterwards for $ 134.500.