Why don't more families drive these? Why do I want one so much? Limousine content

Serious question. Seating for many, assuming the little ones can buckle themselves in, luxury, usually maintained by a company that absolutely will not chance a breakdown, awesome, inexpensive compared to a similarly equipped van etc. I don't have enough friends to drive around to justify owning one, nor the room to park it, but I think it would just be awesome to have. What does it cost to hire a driver for the night?

http://bend.craigslist.org/cto/4874053952.html

Even one of these with super rear seat legroom would be awesome.

It's because I picture this isn't it?

Why don't more families buy dirt cheap used limos?

Now think about what has been done in and spilled on those seats and carpets (many, MANY times).

Because there isn't enough soap in the world to get the rear compartment clean enough for a parent to let their kids ride back there. That's why.

I think that you're right in the fact that many people will feel that way. I on the other hand believe anything can be steam cleaned well enough to make me feel comfortable. Ever been in an operating room inside a hospital?

Another $3,000 case in point
http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/4845616866.html

First off, children are horrifically dirty, at least on par with 'back of limo'
Secondly, cleaning products are effective and inexpensive.
Finally, worst case, yank the seats from the back, replace with van/SUV/whatever seats, right as rain.

Certainly makes for a unique way to get the kids to school.

In reply to SnowMongoose:

I agree with you entirely. Junkyard Dog brings the perspective I was looking for, so both opinions are great.

Parking, and tight turns in general. It also doesn't seat more than a minivan with two benches and gets half the gas mileage.

There's a family in my town with eight kids. They used to get around in an older limo, but recently bought one of those large Nissan van things.

Well, considering how many times I've explained the need to overshoot the start of her turn when towing something with her rather long Ford Supercrew vs. How many times she actually manages to run over the curb with it...

I wouldn't want my wife driving anything longer than that truck.

BTW, if you ever want to start a fight really fast, try to teach your wife to tow and back up a trailer.

Never mind that I do it a few times a month, for a living, with a Freightliner Sportchassis and 35' enclosed car hauler, I'm suddenly a complete idiot and know nothing about towing a trailer.

Those things aren't crash tested. No way I'm putting my kids in a car with unknown and potentially dubious safety.

Once a month or grm staff should give out a spirit of grm award, this guy gets it first

Petrolburner, where do you live? I'm in bend,OR.

Besides being scared of cleaning up party stains, they aren't your typical family vehicle, so boring people would never look at buying one. Weird, um,... I mean interesting people that would consider buying one would also look at how long they are and not want to have to deal with parking it and driving it on small streets, especially right hand turns. You couldn't do a U-turn on a two lane road. A full sized van is more practical if you had to move that many people, plus you could tow a good sized load. Plus, people would probably give you weird looks.

A lot of the stretches are somewhat shoddily built. After a few years the interiors are generally cobbled together with whatever could be found cheaply and anything specialized can be tough to find and expensive.

A neighbor of mine in high school (early 90s) had one. They had four kids, and for some reason didn't want a minivan/van and estate wagons didn't have the space (non-sequitur, their other car was a late 80s Chevy Nova).

After a couple years with it, they eventually bought a minivan. I think the novelty wore off, plus it took up their whole driveway, couldn't fit in the garage, and was always a PITA to park in a crowded supermarket lot, so they always had to hike in from far away wherever they went.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Another one for you!

BTW, if you ever want to start a fight really fast, try to teach your wife to drive a manual transmission.

NGTD wrote: In reply to Trans_Maro: Another one for you! BTW, if you ever want to start a fight really fast, try to teach your wife to drive a manual transmission.

If you want to start a fight really fast, try teaching your partner anything driving related. Oh and how dare I tell her the clutch isn't there to use as a brake on hills... I'm only the poor bastard who knows how to fix it when she burns the clutch out, what could I possibly know about clutch function and operation.

Maybe those backwards Arabs are in to something in not letting women drive.... Just joking.

And YES, I've always wanted my own limo.

In reply to Trackmouse:

I'm in Redmond.

I'd only be interested in a minor stretch, a six passenger limo. A full-size van makes sense too, have you seen my Motovan build thread? A limo has it beat in luxury though.

Wally wrote: A lot of the stretches are somewhat shoddily built. After a few years the interiors are generally cobbled together with whatever could be found cheaply and anything specialized can be tough to find and expensive.

This. I'd rather have a hearse for my kids to ride in. At least they expect mostly sober people to see it in the daylight vs. a limo - not to mention it's built to haul a load - so the build quality on hearses seems better to me.

daeman wrote: Maybe those backwards Arabs are in to something in not letting women drive.... Just joking.

Hate to drag us off topic but I've seen a few posts like this lately and how is this acceptable? Saying "just joking" is no better than saying "not to sound racist but (insert racist comment here)". Not to mention it sounds more like you're joking about not letting women drive, not those "backwards arabs".

I'm not defending the two countries that don't let women drive but sweeping generalizations are bad m'kay.

On topic: I can't imagine a limo being anything less than hugely annoying to navigate as a daily.

I'd love to have one for the kids, and have looked into it many times...still haven't totally abandon the idea). It would be a E36 M3 load of fun. I'm thinking get an older one and doing some crazy stuff with it.

because they can't park their Honda Accord inside the lines in the first place.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: Those things aren't crash tested. No way I'm putting my kids in a car with unknown and potentially dubious safety.

No rv trips for you! What else isn't crash tested? Has to be a bunch of stuff. Motorcycles, atvs, utvs, boats.... All the fun stuff. Hmm are ambulances crash tested?

There was a 6-door caddy listed locally a short while back. I was extremely tempted to trade my suburban for it. I just wasn't sure how it would do towing my car hauler.