1981 Caprice Taxi…in South Africa?

The cool thing (well, one of the cool things) about surfing the Interwebs is the unprecedented opportunity we have to peek in on far-flung locales that we’d have known nothing about pre cyber-age. Working my Google-fu (if you’ll excuse my millennial jargon) while searching for the images I used in today’s Encyclopedia Hoonatica post, I found this Caprice taxi that somehow ended up Far Far Away in Edgemead, South Africa. The seller claims that it was a New York City taxi in a past life, and that it’s “The only New York Chev Caprice in the country“. OR IS IT? Our own Kamil Kaluski thinks otherwise, pointing out,

“I’m not sure that it’s a NYC cab. NYC cabs never came with those checker stickers, that I know of, at least none that I have ever seen, not in the 80s. No roof light, no medallion stencil,… it might be a cab, but I don’t think it was a NYC cab.”

Excellent points, but the seller does say that it “comes with the original taxi number and indicator on roof”…although the roof looks unaltered and the  indicator is nowhere to be seen in the two very basic photos provided. What say you, is this the real NYC deal, or an imposter? In any case, it would still be a rare and most excellent way to drive around on the wrong side of the road at the opposite tip of another continent.
Source: www.gumtree.co.za