Junkyard Find: 2015 AM General MV-1

This publication began covering the development of what became the MV-1 taxi/livery vehicle back in 2009, and that tale had plenty of interesting plot twists well into the following decade. About 2,000 MV-1s were built, so I figured I’d find one in a junkyard at some point. That day has come, with this 2015 model in a Denver self-service boneyard.

What made the MV-1 interesting was that it was the first mass-produced vehicle designed from the outset to be accessible to passengers with wheelchairs.

I routinely check all the online inventory lists at the Front Range Colorado junkyards that provide them, for anything interesting. The Denver U-Pull-&-Pay had this photo in the “Misc” make section, and it looked intriguing enough to make me look up the VIN. Naturally, I had to see a genuine MV-1 for myself.

Ed. note — These were pretty plentiful in the Chicago area, mostly used as taxis. I think some may still be in use but I can’t recall seeing one recently.

I have some personal experience in the matter of wheelchair-friendly vehicle designs. During the mid-to-late 1990s, I worked as the technical writer creating the service and driver manuals for Gillig, a transit bus manufacturer in Northern California.

This was the period during which Gillig was making the transition from making the sturdy old Phantom high-floor bus to the new Low Floor design (here’s a shot I took on the assembly line of one of the first Low Floors, circa 1997).

The main reason high-floor buses got phased out for urban transit use was the extreme danger of their wheelchair lifts. Even when a bus has a “kneeling” airbag suspension to reduce the distance to the pavement, a lift must have the power to deal with heavy passengers in heavy wheelchairs, which can lead to mishaps that even hardened EMTs tend to discuss in hushed tones. Low-floor buses can use flip-out or slide-out ramps, which are much safer (but still must be operated correctly).

With lifts or ramps, the bulk of my time spent writing bus driver manuals involved crafting hair-raising warnings on the pages devoted to their use (usually after yet another lawsuit over a passenger being mangled and/or crushed under circumstances no engineer could have anticipated). So, I get how a vehicle designed from the beginning to handle a built-in wheelchair ramp would be a godsend to both passengers and transit agencies. If you can save lives and avoid getting sued into oblivion at the same time, that’s well worth doing.

The MV-1 body was built around a wheelchair ramp, so it’s about as safe as you could get with such a setup.

This one was operated by Denver’s Regional Transportation District, which was a big Gillig Low Floor customer while I was writing bus manuals.

Apparently, Davey Coach took care of maintenance for RTD’s fleet of MV-1s.

You can get the whole MV-1 story in Corey’s excellent Abandoned History piece on the subject, so there’s no need for me to explain the VPG/AM General plot here.

The original plan for the Standard Taxi involved a GMT900 pickup chassis, but its MV-1 descendant ended up being built on a Roush-modified Crown Victoria Panther platform.

The MV-1 was built from 2011 through 2016 (with a break midway through), making this one of the later ones.

This promotional video shows how easy it is for a wheelchair passenger to get inside and situated with an MV-1.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

2015 AM General MV-1 in Colorado wrecking yard.

[Images: The Author]

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Source: The Truth About Cars