On the 401 today I saw a six-door Cadillac sedan. It was just like any other early-nineties Cadillac sedan, except that there were three doors on each side. I could see two back seats inside.
The car had Ontario plates, a Jesus-fish on the rear, and the words “Chariot of Fire” on the rear-most side windows and across the rear window, in that nasty “Olde English” font.
I suspect that this particular car was stretched and modified by a limousine-builder. My question: have there been any manufacturers that offered a six-door sedan as standard straight from the factory?
Way, way back, at least 50 years, Cadillac, Lincoln, Packard and other manufacturers of high-end cars did build actual limousines based on the regular car platforms. I don’t know whether those models were actually stretched, or simply had amenities like jump seats and glass partitions.
Since the market for limousines was as limited then as it is now, the manufacturers eventually dropped those lines, and let the aftermarket take over.
But would six-door sedans necessarily have been limousines? That implies a certain level of luxury and exclusivity.
I’m wondering whether someone might have aimed at the large-family-who-needs-a-bit-more-that-a-station-wagon market, in an era before minivans, for example.
Vintage American station wagons, from the sixties and seventies, had similar seating capacities to modern minivans: three in the front (remember bench seats?), three in the middle, and two in a rear-facing seat in the back. Some had side-facing jump seats in the back to seat four so there were models capable of seating as many as ten, given that more than a couple were children. The most capacity I’ve seen in a minivan is seating for seven. A Chevy/GMC Suburban, which was also available through the seventies, can be had in configurations capable of seating nine.
Mercedes-Benz offered the 600 as it’s ultimate machine through the late 70’s and it could be ordered in several configurations, including 6 door model.
Certainly in the Fifties there were plenty of conversions to “airporters” which were lengthened and had a row of doors down each side.
http://myweb.cableone.net/moore/impala/1959.htm about halfway down, on the right.
Wait, here’s an even better page:
http://my.net-link.net/~dcline/l_s_own2.htm