{"id":6848,"date":"2014-11-18T17:08:52","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T17:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=6848"},"modified":"2014-11-18T17:08:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T17:08:52","slug":"worried-about-driving-a-minibus-dont-be-they-drive-like-a-luxury-car-says-one-taxi-firm-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/6848","title":{"rendered":"Worried about driving a minibus? Don’t be: they drive “like a luxury car” says one taxi firm boss"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cresta

One of Cresta Cars’ new Mercedes-Benz Vito 8-seater taxis<\/p><\/div>\n

If you’re thinking about hiring a minibus<\/a> but are worried about\u00a0having to drive one, then the comments of Manchester taxi firm boss Julian Barnes, who runs\u00a0350-vehicle firm Cresta Taxis, suggest you\u00a0needn’t be.<\/p>\n

Mr Barnes recently added five new\u00a08-seater Mercedes-Benz Vito minibuses to\u00a0Cresta’s fleet, and says that\u00a0they drive “more like a luxury car than a van”<\/em>, with good handling and manoeuvrability.<\/p>\n

Mr Barnes also commented that fuel economy was impressive for a large vehicle — Cresta’s Vitos are bigger than usual, as the firm chose the extra-long body\u00a0option in order to allow for plenty of luggage room as well as flexible seating space.<\/p>\n

Merc’s legendary brand\u00a0image is also having an effect: according to Mr Barnes, the new Vitos have already generated\u00a0new business and are\u00a0“so smart they’re effectively acting as mobile advertisements for themselves”.\u00a0<\/em>I’ve commented on the\u00a0power of the Mercedes brand before<\/a>:\u00a0the Stuttgart firm’s commercial vehicles inspire incredible loyalty in some operators.<\/p>\n

What about larger minibuses?<\/h3>\n

\"NewOf course, an 8-seater is a relatively\u00a0small minibus, as a\u00a0minibus is defined as a vehicle with between 8 and 16 passenger seats. At the larger end of the scale, 12, 15 and 17-seater minibuses (including<\/strong> the driver in this\u00a0seat count) are definitely more van-like, but are still far\u00a0easier to drive than many hire customers\u00a0expect.<\/p>\n

This is because over the last few years,\u00a0van and minibus manufacturers have gone to a\u00a0lot of effort to\u00a0make their vehicles more\u00a0like cars:\u00a0all\u00a0current models have modern, dash-mounted gear sticks, smaller steering wheels with power steering, excellent mirrors and comfortable driving positions.<\/p>\n

When driving, you’ll also notice\u00a0that\u00a0modern\u00a0minibus brakes are very effective, while the current generation of diesel engines are very powerful\u00a0and easy to drive, with plenty of power for any situation and reasonable fuel economy.<\/p>\n

The only thing that hasn’t changed is the size — these are still fairly large vehicles, but\u00a0to help you adjust to this we’ve produced a simple guide to driving a\u00a0van for the first time that’s also completely relevant for minibuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you do need to hire a minibus before Christmas, I’d recommend booking soon: the hectic Christmas and New Year party season can mean that availability\u00a0becomes limited once we hit December. To get started, click here<\/a>\u00a0to compare\u00a0self-drive minibus hire prices in your area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New minibus drivers need not worry: one taxi firm boss recently described his new 8-seater minibuses as being “more like a luxury car than a van” to drive. I provide hints and tips for first-time minibus drivers in this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[1887],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6851,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6848\/revisions\/6851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}