I'm not sure, but I think it's a fault with business as a whole, aka "the race to the bottom". When you buy a car, do you look for the cheapest model, or do you spec it up a bit and choose a manufacturer you trust?
Interestingly TPE didn't do that last time - the 185s are not a cheap design at all - 170s would have been the cheap option.
it depends on your needs and your budget.
the bean counters in business always focus on initial outlay!
it's not always the best deployment of capital.
nice,new and shiny also looks good from a marketing perspective, but for a transportation company the primary focus MUST be reliability.
capacity 2nd
running costs 3rd
comfort 4th
presentation 5th
you might pay a bit extra to start with, but you'll save on maintainance costs, and also save on bad PR for touting a service that doesn't do what it says on the tin.
People are also quite tolerant of a not-too-suave taxi coming to pick them up as long as it gets them to where they want to go on time.......they would take it in preference to a chauffeur driven merc that's an hour late.
Equally they would not particularly like to be dropped off to a business meeting/sales job in a skoda!, so there is a happy medium of car "ownership" that is deemed socially "normal".....somewhere between vauxhall and audi is the acceptable range for mainstream salesmen!
in my neck of the woods we've got CL700's
not keen on them at all comfort-wise.Horrid seats and very drab interiors,but they are in general very punctual.
Much prefer the 377/378's, but the CL700 extra 4 cars per set is a godsend in rush hour.