Let’s say that you have a lot of kids and need to buy a reasonably priced family car. Your options probably boil down to a minivan, which is arguably the optimal choice, or a three-row crossover utility vehicle. Crossovers can be great for people who don’t want to be seen in a minivan, but crossovers compromise room for the sake of style.
What if you could have a car that offers the cabin space of a minivan, but doesn’t look like a minivan, and is dirt cheap? You could use an old limo as a family car, right? Sure, but that’s probably a bad idea.
On paper, limousines and minivans share several similarities. A minivan seats seven; a good limo seats seven. A minivan is available with rear seat entertainment; limos are available with rear seat entertainment. Minivans have room for people and things; limousines have room for people and things. This isn’t as far-fetched of a comparison as you might think.
Stretch Out
When you see a limousine roll by, your brain might conjure up images of bachelorette party (I think that’s what they’re called in America), debauchery, and prom night promises. I see a great vehicle for a road trip. Think about it: Not only does a limousine afford you all the space and comfort you and the people you like enough to spend hours in a car with could possibly need, it does everything with a sense of style. Lowbrow style, but style nonetheless. A minivan can seat seven, but a limo might seat even more, and each passenger essentially gets a first-class seat.
Alright, so let’s say it’s been a long day, and any semblance of peace and tranquility is lost. If you buy a limousine with one of those privacy screens, you can just put the partition up if the rear compartment’s going to be a PvP-enabled zone anyway. Let the passengers work it out amongst themselves, or what have you.
If you’re lucky, you might even be able to buy a limousine with a cathode ray TV and a fridge in the back. Think of how many Capri Suns you can fit in a limo’s fridge! The TV won’t interface with a PS5, but retro games are still in, and hooking up a SEGA Genesis or an original PlayStation would provide hours of entertainment.
How Cheap Are We Talking?
When I mentioned limousines don’t hold their value, I really meant that they depreciate like Trojans. Here’s a 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Limousine with 32,000 miles on the clock that sold on Bring A Trailer this Monday for $5,000. It doesn’t have a minibar or a partition, but we’re talking about a massive amount of leather-lined Cadillac for $5,000.
Too old? Here’s a 2009 Lincoln Town Car limousine with 56,000 miles on the clock that sold on Bring A Trailer last month for $9,000. Again, no minibar or partition, but it does have a funky middle seat that can face either forward or rearward, enabling conversation-style rear seating or stopping fights, depending on the vibe of the day.
I know what you’re thinking: This is brilliant/stupid, but where are the limos with minibars? Well, here you go. This 1990 Cadillac Brougham limousine features a proper minibar and a rear-compartment VHS player, along with a partition and a sunroof. Best of all, it only has 41,000 miles on the clock and sold on Bring A Trailer for just $11,350. Think of the luxury! Cheesy soap-opera-villain luxury, but still luxury.
Oh, and if you’re not looking at cream-of-the-crop low-mileage examples, you can hop on Craigslist and find a used limo for much cheaper than that. Here’s a 2000 Lincoln Town Car that’s done 159,000 miles up for sale in Palmdale, Calif. for $4,000. It has a minibar, it has a partition, and it’s pretty much ready for your next road trip.
If you truly need a lot of seats, don’t panic. Just get an even longer limo. The Craigslist ad for this 1999 Lincoln Town Car claims it’ll seat eight in the back, which makes it an alternative to a full-sized passenger van. Probably not a good alternative, but an alternative nonetheless. It’s on Long Island for an asking price of just $3,500, and while it may have 175,000 miles on the clock, it’s substantially more stylish than a full-sized passenger van.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong With A Used Limo?
Let’s preface this by saying that modern minivans are quite good, even if the Pentastar V6 in the Dodge Grand Caravan is known for valvetrain issues, and getting the water pump, timing belt, valve adjustment, and transaxle fluid done in a Honda Odyssey can be costly. We’re talking about a genre of vehicle that’s generally reliable and able to provide family transportation day-in and day-out.
As for limousines, they’re generally based on robust full-size body-on-frame sedans, so they’re fairly reliable and cheap to fix – but they will need fixing more often. The biggest day-to-day problems with a limo will likely be revealed under a blacklight, and a lingering smell of Prosecco may make have you stocking up on tree-shaped air fresheners. Oh, and limousine fuel economy, to use a technical term, sucks. At least all the gas station stops will give you ample opportunities to buy more air fresheners.
Now for the big elephant in the room: Limousines are all effectively cut-and-shut builds: You cut a car in half, weld in a new middle section, install whatever interior accouterments are required to achieve the luxury objectives at hand, and presto: you’ve got a limo. Easy – but very tricky from a crash-safety perspective. This wasn’t as much of an issue 20 years ago, but only because most other cars on the road had all the structural integrity of a jellyfish. It’s not that limousines were built better, it’s that everything else was a whole lot worse. Is a $10,000 used Toyota Sienna safer? Almost certainly. That’s the real tradeoff we’re looking at here.
Should You Buy A Used Limo As A Family Car?
Probably not. And to be fair, you probably weren’t even considering it – but since you’ve read this far, there was a kernel of sensibility there, at least. It may have even been worth considering in the “hold my beer” parenting era when it was socially acceptable to transport an entire birthday party in a single car, seatbelts optional, assuming each passenger even had a seat of their own. But in today’s safety-concerned, judgement-heavy, now-we-know-better world, having a used limousine as a family car just isn’t a brilliant idea. Pretty much any comparably-priced minivan will be safer, more economical and reliable, and far, far easier to park.
What could you actually use an old limousine for in 2024? Well, outside of a mid-’20s eight-roommate-situation road-trip party car, or perhaps some sort of shenanigans involving a reciprocating saw and the volume of Lake Michigan in Pabst Blue Ribbon, or starting your very own one-man limo service on a budget, I can’t see many opportunities for these things. They’re weird cast-offs of the automotive kingdom, sentenced to rot in backyards and behind industrial units until they return to the earth from which they came. Shame, that.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer, Craigslist Sellers)
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Today, like an hour ago, I was driving my daughter home from school and she suggested that we get a limo as a next family car. I said no.
I did know a guy in elementary school who rolled up in his bought-used family limo each day. I never rode in it, but apparently it wasn’t great…. looked cool though, from an elementary school point of view at least.
When my kids were little, I spent YEARS trying to convince my wife that a limo was the PERFECT kid transporter!!!
But nooOOOOOoooo!!! No hearses either!! And she was being COMPLETELY unreasonable for not letting me buy the Chicago coroner’s station wagon I found on ebay! It was even visible in the background of the documentary on Jeffrey Dahmer!
I never get to have any fun…
Correction: it was the Milwaukee coroner’s office.
I don’t know if I’ve lived in the Midwest too long or I’m just going insane or what, but I’ve noticed myself looking at hearses now and just thinking “Hmmm.”. I feel like horrible limos aren’t far behind.
My wife WANTS a hearse so I have already gotten paste the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). We’ve pretty much aligned on a 60s Cadillac.
If our 100+ year old house did not need work we would be cruising!
Between a 100+ year old house and possible hearse ownership you will most definitely be haunted.
These are part of my financial bailout plan if something goes wrong. Sell the Mega Van for a profit and find a 12 passenger van / bus / limo (9 passenger) / etc for under $5k.
6 door limo only. Fleetwood or Brougham only. I couldn’t stand the town cars, even the new ones.
None of the Fleetwood Limos are Broughams though, which kind of stinks because that means most have no passenger lumbar. Minor quibble when looking for affordable transport.
What is the Mega Van?
Finding van/bus/SUV vehicles under 5k that aren’t totally jalopies is much harder than I expected.
2019 Nissan NV3500 SL. I bought it a couple weeks before COVID and the prices haven’t descended since. It’s crazy.
As a parent I never thought about a limo for a family car. If it weren’t for the safety aspect I’d be working on convincing my wife right now that it’s a great idea.
Uh, 20 years ago was 2004. While I acknowledge that safety is an ever-improving goal at most mfgs, crash standards were still pretty high in 2004. Side-curtain airbags and anti-lock brakes were pretty standard and outside of the small offset front crash, I believe most of the testing was the same. Rollover protection was already being emphasized thanks to the Explorer/Firestone debacle of the 90’s. We’re not talking about lap-belt only and pencil-thin pillars of the 60’s.
Common mistake. “20 years ago” is perpetually the early-to-mid 90s.
You kids, my 20 years ago clock got stuck on 1982. Well, actually I think of 1970s cars as newish.
Crash standards were somewhat higher, but there was an awful lot of junk from the 80’s and 90’s still toodling around at that time, too.
Also, lest we forget you could still buy a new Chevy Venture in 2004.
The thumbnail at top is correct.
A limo is worthless. And the majority are just death traps. I vote CP.
Research the Schoharie Limo Wreck. Horrible, horrible tragedy. So many terrible things went wrong, and so many innocent people died. Ill never ride in a limo again. Bought a short wheelbase schoolbus for family vacations, moving across country and for living in when working away from home in the woods. Much better option for only $3k.
Thanks for sharing that story.
Thanks for sharing the story, that was interesting to read about.
But why won’t you ride in a limousine again? It sounds like a sketchy foreign business operated some majorly sketchy limousines, driven by questionable drivers. Some combination of those caused a crash, which was fatal for all passengers because nobody wore a seatbelt. Nothing about that tells me to steer clear of limos in general, just to steer clear of sketchy vehicles and to wear a seatbelt.
Well I just looked it up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoharie_limousine_crash
And the biggest issues seem to boil down to an unqualified driver and a vehicle owner cheaping out on repairs and maintenance.
However if you buy something like a 6 door limo with 8 or 9 passenger seating where every seat has a seat belt (as opposed to the stupid-long ones that accomodate 15+ passengers… and a lack of seatbelts) for your own use, I don’t see them as being inherently dangerous.
Just make sure it has a heavy duty suspension, heavy duty brakes and that it is properly maintained. If that’s done, it should be fine.
Yeah… spend a couple more dollars and get a used hearse instead. Typically lower miles, much more structurally sound, and the occupants in the back complain a lot less.
Limos are super dangerous in a crash. Generally newer = better for crash safety, but you can’t assume that the work to extend a limo was done in any kind of a safe way. It’s unregulated enough that it’s really just about what you can do for the money.
Back when I was looking for a vehicle to replace my crappy conversion Econoline for DJ work, I was briefly looking at used limousines before quickly abandoning that idea.
Part of the problem with looking them up is the difference between “limo” and “stretch limo”. I find plenty of the latter and few of the former.
That top one would probably be serviceable in a lot of real-life situations, and easy enough to get into. That one, indeed, would probably be an okay family car (except in terms of safety, as discussed).
On the other hand, stretch limos suck (unless they’re based on really large vehicles, maybe). I was in a Town Car or similar type limo twice for “take your [kids] to work day” at my dad’s old workplace, and even back then I remember thinking “this is way too much of a hassle to hunch over and waltz into the middle space behind the drivers from the back doors.” Couldn’t imagine doing that as an adult, and woe unto the bridal party trying not to rip or drag anything while getting to their seats on their way to the hall after the wedding ceremony. No wonder party buses are the thing now.
I don’t mourn any unloved, cheap stretch limos. Those ones can rot. The shorter ones that are just like “add an extra row to a Town Car or Cadillac” though…those can stay.
I’ve always been disappointed in how much these still cost. $4K for a used limo that literally no one wants and serves no purpose? I’ll give you $1200 at best.
However, I was far too broke to get a limo on prom night, so I have always thought it would be fun to buy one and use it take my kids to prom when they are of age. I live in a little rural town, no one is getting a limo service out here.
Then when the kids are in the dance, I can get down with their mom in the back of the limo, proper prom style, while also ensuring my presence as the driver is preventing them from making the very poor decisions that prom is famous for.
I think Limos should be built out of compact hatchbacks. You can take a good deal of length out of the limo by subtracting the giant butt all the big American land yacht-based limos have, and to a lesser degree the front overhang.
Something like a six-door Mazda 3* wouldn’t be much longer than a full-size pickup truck, and people park those just fine, at least here in ‘Murica.
*I was gonna say a six-door AMC Gremlin and then realized that no woman on Earth would consider that an appropriate family vehicle, whereas a six-door modern hatchback is slightly easier to make an argument for. If it were my choice I’d build a Gremlin limo tho.
I’ve seen pictures of a limo made from a VW Tiguan.
Coleman Milne did make a limo using the Granada Coupé’s fastback rear end – but it just looked like a hatchback; didn’t actually have a hatch. They also raised the roof, which must have made it much nicer to be in. In Slovenia they made six-door Citroën XMs, though!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/redsimonuk/28675198763/
https://www.carsandracingstuff.com/library/x/xm01.jpg
Well… If you don’t give a shit and just want a vehicle to haul lots of either things or people maybe this is your ticket. Maybe remove all of the seats and you can haul things like lumber, bags of cement etc. Or you could gut it out and make it into a camper. Yeah- a Limocamper.
I imagine a cut-and-shut limo would collapse from any weight of more than twelve sorority girls.
Our youngest child is at an age she hates being strapped in her car seat, we joked the other day about having an old limo so they’d be physically further away while screaming but also, divider glass!
One caveat is that limousines are really badly built, like modern camping trailer bad, really sketchy work, whatever was done by the coach builder is going to rust, fall apart, or generally crap out faster than the parts that came from the automake. The welds are a weak point at risk of structural failure in a crash, but even worse, the inserted center sections tend to be stronger and more heavily reinforced than the original parts of the car, which alters how the crumple zones function in a crash. In a front impact, you could have the driver seat area basically crushed between the engine and the center passenger section
If I were inclined, I would go with a Cadillac Series 75 limousine. They were built by Cadillac, or maybe Fisher.
Yeah, a more mild factory stretch – you could also look for a FWD Deville-based Fleetwood Limited from the late ’90s, they were outsourced, but to GM’s specs for sale through the normal dealer network.
Or a Checker Aerobus
As a kid I would have loved this, but as an adult aren’t limos some of the sketchiest, least crash-worthy vehicles on the road? Being T-boned in a Town Car is one thing, but in one of these you’re saying goodbye to your rear half. That said, one of the shorter six-door models like the Cadillac (or even better, a Volvo S90 by Nilsson) might be a marginally safer bet. And definitely cooler for the school run (everybody gets their own door!)
Probably with a lift and some saw/soldering skills would make a great RV.
If you have a large enough family, you can buy a used school bus or even a new one. Some of the “reality TV” shows that follow larger families sometimes show the procession of vehicles required for a family outing. Anyone can buy a used school bus or a new bus (without the yellow paint and decals). Fuel economy sucks, but the chassis are rated for 500k+ miles.
I know a guy who grew up with an old short school bus as a family road trip vehicle, and he apparently remembers it quite fondly. So I’d consider that a pretty decent idea.
I’ve also seen it said that wheelchair lift buses are way cheaper than wheelchair vans or minivans, which makes sense. Plus, if the bus doesn’t seat more than 15 people, you don’t need a CDL.
And if it does seat more than 15 people, rip out a couple benches and put a mattress there. Register as an RV and drive it without a CDL!
With recent fluctuations in the price of lumber and/or not having any knack for carpentry, this could also be a playhouse for the kids. Or you could convert it to a workspace if you can work from home. Park near a Starbucks or something.
I’m also thinking the right limo could make for a space for tabletop gaming that wouldn’t bother spouses/roommates/etc.
Guy in the neighborhood bought a town car limo to do gimmicky stuff for his restaurant/catering business.
It’s mostly used to transport half the community to elementary school in the morning. The kids call it the boujee bus. Luckily we dont live close enough to him as care about my kids safety a little more than most parents.
The best use for a 90s limo like that Caddy is to have someone drive you to a public park so you can step out with your popped collar and slicked-back hair, admiring the site of your new luxury condo development. Then you curl your lip in disgust at the kids playing in the park. “Oh do I have a surprise for you” you mutter as you get back in the limo.
You can do this solo. It would be awkward parking the car and wiggling through the partition so you can step out of the back, but worth the effort IMO.
Only if I can get a proper “attached to the car” phone operational inside, so I can be on a business call as I roll up to the park.
Of course, you need the built in phone to tell your goons to do goon stuff to drive those plucky kids away. It’s also helpful for screaming at them after the bees that were supposed to ruin the playground ruin your fancy party with the ice sculptures instead.
I think one of these would make the ideal road-trip machine. If you could fit a bed into the back, add storage for clothes/food/stuff, you could just overnight at a travel center and skip the expensive 6-hour hotel stay. I’d want a Town Car, though, certainly wouldn’t trust a Northstar Cadillac.
#LimoLife
Zero trust for a Northstar. This is the correct cautionary call.
I don’t think any of the highlighted were North*. Just say no to FWD limos.
That red-leather lined Cadillac is clearly a funeral car.
Seems to be the most appropriate for the soccer-mom run, that one.
The black town car is one too.
If I’m going to buy an old limo it is going to be Vinnie Pauls. https://www.gofundme.com/f/pantera-limousine-restoration
Thomas asking the real questions
Haha!