On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 04:16:38PM +0100, tim... wrote:

The simple solution to that is not to insist on such a ridiculously high
spec car (as I have read that they do)

it is cheap and cheerful taxi service FFS, not a limousine service

What's wrong with a 5 year old Mondeo?

From the driver's point of view - running costs.

I assume that Uber also want a certain amount of consistency in the cars
as it helps their brand.

I used Uber on Saturday. I've noticed that in the last few months I've
not had a single Prius from Uber, but that previously it was almost all
Priuses. I asked the driver about it. He said that the Prius's fuel
economy is no longer a unique selling point as other cars have caught
up, but the Prius is still expensive. He claimed that the comfortable
efficient Honda we were in had cost him 6 grand second hand. He chose it
because the purchase price was reasonable, it was cheap to run, it was
reliable, and it didn't hurt his arse to sit in it all day.

--
David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

Fashion label: n: a liferaft for personalities
which lack intrinsic buoyancy