Regent Street was evacuated by police bringing disruption to shoppers at the height of the Christmas rush.
Officers sealed off a 200 metre area which included iconic toy store Hamleys during the peak lunchtime shopping hour.
Scotland Yard said police responded to reports of a suspect vehicle which came in at about 1pm.
After clearing the crowds, bomb squad officers appeared to examine a black cab in the middle of the street.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Regent street in london closed due to suspected something... <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/HAHyd2BHrE" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3143016-https://t.co/HAHyd2BHrE" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/HAHyd2BHrE</a> — Tazeen Ahmad (@Tazeenahmad) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Tazeenahmad/status/679301624712568832" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3143016-https://twitter.com/Tazeenahmad/status/679301624712568832" data-vars-event-id="c23">December 22, 2015</a>
The vehicle, which was parked at a taxi rank, was pictured with broken windows which one tweeter claimed had been "shot out" by police.
Meanwhile, customers were told to stay inside shops and move away from the windows.
The cordon remained in place until shortly after 2pm when the bomb unit was "stood down".
A Met Police spokesman said the vehicle had been examined and proved to be non-suspicious.
The car was not thought to be a licensed black cab as it reportedly did not carry a TfL badge and had tinted windows, which are not allowed on working taxis.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Taxi with Windows shot out <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/regentstreet?src=hash" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3143016-https://twitter.com/hashtag/regentstreet?src=hash" data-vars-event-id="c23">#regentstreet</a> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://t.co/IzA2iOZgtx" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3143016-https://t.co/IzA2iOZgtx" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/IzA2iOZgtx</a> — Phoenix Cronin (@phoenixcronin97) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/phoenixcronin97/status/679303028520968193" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-3143016-https://twitter.com/phoenixcronin97/status/679303028520968193" data-vars-event-id="c23">December 22, 2015</a>
It happened as the West End enjoys a Christmas spending surge which is expected to total £300 million in the four days before Christmas - with the peak time for shoppers being between 1pm and 2pm.
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