The words “limousine” and “chauffeur” have been in use since before the early stages of the 20th century, when horse-drawn carriages and trains required professional uniformed drivers to handle the horses and steam engines.
The word “limousine” originated from the Limousine region of France, where shepherds wear an oversized hooded garment to protect themselves from cold weather. Car drivers later wore such garments when they sat in the open and exposed front seats, while their bosses or the owner of the vehicle rode luxuriously in the back seats.
There’s a clear style to the limousine and an air of mystery surrounding the people behind the tinted windows. Since the golden age of automobiles in the early 1900s, people have been mesmerized by the sleek and sometimes daring designs of the limousines and town cars driven by royalty, movie stars, and celebrities. industry bigwigs.
Early Beginnings of the Stretch Limousine
After World War I, most of the world was filled with sedan chairs and hose-pulled carriages, then the limousine came on the scene. The first “Stretch Limousine” was created in Forth Smith, Arkansas in the United States in 1928 by a coachbuilder named Armbruster. Limousines were commonly used to transport famous “big band” leaders such as Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman and orchestras, as well as their musical instruments and other equipment, across the country. As a result, the first section cars were called “big band buses”.
In 1962, Armbruster merged with Stageway Coaches of Cincinnati in Ohio, USA, becoming Armbruster-Stageway Coachbuilders, and in 1974 the first six-door funeral limousines were built on Cadillac chassis. Eventually, the Lincoln Stretch Limousines product line was included due to Lincoln’s growing popularity within the limousine and funeral service arena; however, the primary mission statement of the cars and the company was simply “to move people from place to place, only in bigger cars.”
The advent of the 1960s and 1970s made limousines more popular as American presidents and movie stars increasingly used them for general use, and due to their growing popularity, more custom coachbuilders began to be marketed. In the late 1980s, Armbruster-Stageway was purchased by Federal Coach, although the tradition that began almost eighty years ago still lives on.
The wisdom behind the stretch limousine
The wisdom behind the creation of the limousine boils down to creating a unique design. In general, limousines are used to transport more than three passengers, not including the driver. These types of limousines may contain additional amenities such as expensive audio players, flat screen televisions, VCRs, and bars, often with refrigerators.
There are times when a coach builder or car designer would develop the “ultimate” long limousine, adding more amenities that are somehow impractical, but would definitely make a significant design statement. A unique design includes the use of dual rear axles to support the weight of a hot tub in operation. Most coach manufacturers are able to do aftermarket upgrades on luxury sedans and SUVs.
These extensive, and often expensive, limousine conversions have been done on a number of luxury vehicles, namely Audi, Bentley, BMW, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, Holden, Hummer, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, and Rolls-Royce. . In the United States and Canada, the most popular and commonly used vehicles for long limo conversions are the Lincoln Town Car, Cadillac DTS, Hummer H2, and Lincoln Navigator. Sometimes even the common Corvette and VW Bug could be stretched to accommodate up to 10 passengers.
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