Eyes rolled at the cabbies' layover lot next to Burbank's Bob Hope Airport when drivers learned about the hybrid taxi rollout.
A taxicab company applying for permission to work in Burbank was promising city officials that all new cabs added to its fleet would have low-emission hybrid engines or use alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas.
Drivers who for years have appreciated the roominess and ruggedness of retired Ford Crown Victoria police and CHP cars that have been converted into cabs wondered what was in store for them.
What came next was $4.60-a-gallon gasoline.
All of a sudden the small but efficient Toyota Prius started looking good to those who drive as much as 300 miles a day carrying around strangers in their back seats.
To their surprise, their fares appreciated the hybrids too.
"Most of my passengers really like it. Some think it's small, but I'd say 97% of them like this car," said cab driver Karen Malkhasyan.
"It's comfortable. It's roomy, even for me."
To demonstrate, Malkhasyan, 35, of Glendale, slipped his 6-foot frame into the driver's seat of City Cab No. 688, which was parked in a row of larger taxis at the airport layover lot on Cohasset Street.
The 2004 Prius is one of three that his company uses. Malkhasyan shares it with another driver. It has about 250,000 miles on its odometer.
"No major problems with it. I get around 40 miles per gallon. I think new ones get even more," he said.
Malkhasyan said some cabbies were skeptical when the hybrids began surfacing in local taxi companies' fleets. That's because distances in Los Angeles are great and the combination of fast freeway traffic and brake-riding, stop-and-go surface street congestion is tough on cabs.
"The first time they saw these they said it's like a toy, there's no room for luggage, you can't drive passengers because they won't like it," he said of other drivers' reaction to the Prius.
But they don't say that anymore.
With travelers carrying fewer bags because of increased airline charges, there's plenty of luggage space in the back of the Prius, above its hybrid battery compartment. "It's as much space as that Crown Victoria has," Malkhasyan said, pointing to a rival company's cab parked in front of his Prius.
The big Ford had high-occupancy-lane access stickers and a "CNG" decal. Malkhasyan popped open the trunk to show that the compressed natural gas cylinder takes up part of the luggage space. The remaining space for bags was about the same as in a Prius.
