This Weird PT Cruiser Body Kit Was Officially Endorsed by the London Taxi Company

The retro-flavored Chrysler PT Cruiser lends itself surprisingly well to modifications. Hurtan, a Spanish coachbuilder, adds old-school flair to the hatchback, while DIYers have V8-swapped it and made it rear-wheel-drive. Auction site Cars & Bids is listing one that was converted into a clone of the emblematic London Black Cab, and it’s got a cool backstory because it was officially licensed by the taxi manufacturer.

Parachute, a San Francisco-based delivery company that’s no longer around, wanted to use vehicles that were “associated with elegance and professionalism,” according to a 24-year-old SF Gate article. There’s apparently nothing more elegant or more professional than a Black Cab, but the problem was that the taxi wasn’t officially sold in the United States. Founder Robert Smelick told the publication that he initially looked into importing Black Cabs, but he gave up when he realized that federalizing them would have cost way too much money. Besides, driving a big, right-hand-drive taxi in downtown San Francisco sounds like its own circle of hell. Plan B was a pretty creative one.

Smelick struck a deal with Manganese Bronze Holdings, which owned London Taxis International in the early 2000s, to turn the then-new PT Cruiser into a replica of the Hackney Carriage. Parachute purchased 20 examples of the PT Cruiser and modified them with a redesigned front end that includes the same grille and headlights fitted to the Black Cab, an illuminated taxi sign on the roof, and a bulge on the hatch.

The end result is pretty damn convincing. It’s also pretty damn expensive. Each PT Cruiser cost about $16,000 to buy new, the Black Cab look added between $3,000 and $4,000 to that figure, and Parachute also installed features such as a GPS and a wireless modem system. All told, the taxi-lookalike cost about $30,000 a piece, which represents nearly $54,000 in 2025. That’s not all: Parachute paid Manganese Bronze Holdings $2 million (about $3.6 million today) over a two-and-a-half-year period for the right to turn a Chrysler into a Black Cab.

Whether the 20 PT Cruisers that Parachute purchased were all converted into taxi replicas is lost to history. There’s not a ton of information about these out there. Cars & Bids hasn’t listed another one; Bring a Trailer has never listed one. But, the one that’s currently up for auction is surprisingly clean. Its odometer shows about 76,700 miles, which is relatively low, and it’s never been in an accident according to Carfax. It’s standard PT Cruiser fare inside, so there’s cloth upholstery, a flat-folding passenger-side front seat, and a four-spoke steering wheel.

There are no mechanical modifications, either, so popping the hood reveals a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that sends 150 horsepower and 162 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels via a four-speed automatic transmission. The turbocharged GT model wasn’t introduced until 2003.

Bidding currently stands at $1,600 with a few hours left in the auction. It’s a no-reserve auction, so the highest bidder will take this PT Cruiser home and either become the star of the school drop-off line or become the star of the Uber pick-up line at the airport. It will be interesting to see where this one lands. The PT Cruiser isn’t exactly a sought-after classic; Can a licensed Black Cab body kit change that?

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