were yellow with white roof, until they were changed in mid-90s (allegedly because of yellow color being the official color of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática who at the time was competing for the newly created position of Head of Government of the Federal District with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional which is mostly identified with the green. Officially it was to identify green taxicabs as environmentally-friendly 'ecológicos', but they are exactly the same polluting Volkswagen Beetles. As in most of the world a special license must be obtained in order to run a taxicab. However, due to the increasing demand for public taxicabs, and the difficulties and cost of obtaining such license, there are many illegal 'pirata' taxis. These look like common taxis, but lack the legal and regulatory requirements to carry fare-paying passengers. Pirata taxis pose a higher security risk for passengers due to the lack of background checks for drivers, and can be distinguished because they carry a regular private vehicle licence plate (which is brown in the format XXX-YYY where X a number and Y a letter) or have a number drawn or printed in place of a licence plate instead of a taxicab licence plate (which is in the format LXXXXXX where X is a number). These pirate taxis are common throughout the city due to government's failure to enforce the regulations. Indeed, sanctions have been threatened by the trade unions, and others, should there be any clampdown on the illegal taxis. Cars which commonly serve as taxis in Mexico Common service (with some exceptions) Chevrolet Chevy (Opel Corsa MkII) Chevrolet C2 (Facelifted Corsa MkII) Hyundai Atos Nissan Platina Nissan Tsuru(Sentra B13) Pontiac G2 Volkswagen Gol Electric taxis Nissan Leaf (Mexico City and Aguascalientes) Radio taxi service (some taxi stands,VIP service and airport taxis) Nissan Sentra Chevrolet Suburban Dodge Neon Dodge Stratus Ford Contour Mercury Grand Marquis Volkswagen Jetta Retired from service Volkswagen Sedán Trivia Matchbox launched in 2004 a 1:64 scale model of the Volkswagen sedan taxi, released as "Beetle taxi". See also Volkswagen Beetle in Mexico References Road transportation in Mexico Mexico