Driving with the hood open

This is one of the most bizarre driving habits I have seen anywhere.  And not just bizarre but plain dumb, if the reasoning behind it is what I suspect it is.

All of these taxis are driving with the hood open. 

Why?  What possible reason could there be to drive with the hood ajar? I can only think of one: to cool the engine!

Seriously can there be any other explanation? They have the hood just slightly ajar. Just popped open so air can breeze through the engine and cool it. 

Are they having that much trouble overheating?  Then there is a radiator problem that needs to be fixed immediately. Do they think it's preventative? Well that's what the radiator is for, to prevent overheating. 

Of course it could be that the hood is just broken. If so that's a problem which needs to be repaired. But it's also highly unlikely because I have seen so many taxis driving like this. The odds that all of them are afflicted with the same hood problem are not very high.

So we have jeepnies driving with Christmas lights rather than using their headlights and taxis driving with the hood open to keep the engine cool.

What's next? Stay tuned!

P.S.  I wrote the above post on March 16th.  Today, March 20th, I was riding in a taxi and I asked the driver if he ever drove with the hood just slightly open.  He said yes he did to prevent the engine from overheating.