I ask because it is prom season, and hordes of drunken teenagers are about to have one of the mopst expensive nights of their lives…after being ferried around by these monstrous stretch limousines.
I can’t imagine that these things would farevery well in a high-speed crash-they are just welded together…I suspect that they would break in half in a severe crash. Yet, you see them allover-should I entrust my daughter to one of those things? :rolleyes:
Apparently it depends on the coachbuilder, and whether it is certified:
http://www.luxurylimo.com/Safety.htm
I don’t see limousines listed on the NHTSA site.
I’d ask the individual limousine company, if you can find someone to give you a straight answer.
With how heavy they are, in a collision against a car my WAG would be that they’d do pretty well.
But a collision where the limo is broadsided by a heavy enough vehicle (and there are plenty of them) would probably result in the limo being split.
I wonder why they don’t just collapse in the middle. I passed a Navigator the other day that had to be at least four regular car lengths. I couldn’t understand why it didn’t have a double rear axle at the least.
Well, this goes without saying, but the OP ought to insist that his daughter wear a seatbelts. When the Detroit RedWings were in the limo crash (limo hit a tree head on), the passenger with his back to the diver’s compartment wasn’t badly injured. The others were flung forward before hitting the seat that stopped them, with serious injuries.
Id say limos are fairly safe, even getting split open isnt the most dangerous thing in the world.
Id be more worried about her taking an SUV with a tendancy to flip at high speeds 
:rolleyes:
Ford Navigator - 206"
Ford Taurus (a ‘regular car’) -198"
Ford Focus (a ‘small car’) -168"
enipla, Since this thread is about stretch limos, I assume that postcards was talking about a stretch limo Navigator.
As for the OP, as the vehicles are modified by aftermarket companies, I won’t say that they can’t pass government saftey standards but most aren’t actually crash tested. Since there are so many one-off/limited number limos built, it would be almost impossible to crash test evey type.
Peace - DESK
Um, enipla, you do realize he was probably talking about a stretch SUV, right?
(These have to be some of the more ridiculous vehicles I’ve ever seen, but that’s a comment for another forum.)
I take that back. This is one of the most ridiculous limos I’ve ever seen.
Whoops. Sorry Postcards.
When I think of limos, I think of cars. I did not think Postcards was refering to a streach SUV. And the way somepeople exagerate about SUV’s…
That stretch Navigator is something else. I wonder if it has rear wheel stearing.
I was watching a show (Discovery Channel, probably) the other night about one company that make limos…take an ordinary car, cut it in half, stretch it to the desire length, and fill in the gap. Fascinating.
The company owner claimed that his limos are crash tested and meet all safety standards.
This particular company was in the Hollywood area, and did a lot of work for the various stars. This made me wonder: Do high-paid basketball stars have ordinary cars just slightly stretched – not to limo length, just enough to make it comfortable for a 7’5’’ person to drive? It is sometimes difficult to find a car that can accomodate my 6’5’’ length, I can only imagine what a guy a foot taller must go through.
Youv’e barely scratched the surface of limo lunacy 
Peace - DESK
I actually toured a shop that made limos. It was one of the best plant tours I’d ever been on.
Standard practice was to start with a typical factory sedan, remove the brake lines, wires, driveshafts (this in '97) and other fittings that run fore-to-aft, and to cut the car in half just behind the rear door pillar.
On the day I visited, I got to see a brand-new Lincoln cut apart with a Milwaukee Sawzall.
They would buy a new pair of door pillars from the factory and weld them on to the aft of the car. Any new length was added between the door pillars. The cars were fitted with an extra air conditioner, upgraded alternators, and custom interior treatments in the rear. The brakes were, surprisingly, left untouched (aside from lengthening the rear lines). The front passenger seat was removed to reduce weight.
The bulk of the work in these conversions was probably in the interior and paint job. An amazing amount of bondo was used in the body to make sure it was perfectly smooth.
The shop I visited worked mainly on Lincolns and Cadillacs. There were two Mercedes being worked on when I visited, and everyone had to tell me about the stretched Suburban they had done a while back. The most interesting cars, though, belonged to the employees. Apparently this was a job perk; employees could bring in their own vehicles on their off-hours. There were several nice restorations there on the day I visited.
I asked the plant manager about crashworthiness, and he said that their vehicles were crash tested, but very inferequently. My understanding at the time was that the shop wasn’t manufacturing vehicles–it was modifying existing, certified cars. The shop was certified as a “master coach builder” or somesuch by both Lincoln and Cadillac, and I understood this to mean it had complied with some sort of quality control for both manufacturers.
Right – some manufacturers, like Lincoln and Cadillac, will take into consideration the stretch-limo potential of their vehicles and actually do some work on what design elements should go into it and partner with shops in order to do it right. But indeed the custom shop is doing an aftermarket modification, and are not legally mandated to have it NHTSA-tested. Essentially the legal mandate a customizer will have will be the state DMV’s requirement for legal driving on roads (not that impressive in most states) and the non-legal but maybe even more relevant requirements that their insurance carrier may impose.
“Extreme” stretches, however, tend to not be supported by the manufacturers, since there’s only so far you can deviate from the engineerign and still trust it to hold. If you end up adding another ton of total weight between car, equipment and xtra passengers, you’d better uprate the brakes and suspension accordingly.
BTW the rise in stretch SUV limos is to a great extend due, besides the extra load their engines and suspensions can handle, to their being trucks built as body-on-chassis, while most sedans these days are “unibodies” which can be damn tricky to stretch and still maintain structural integrity.
Automotive welding engineer here: you do realize that all cars are “just welded together,” right?
[nitpick] Lincoln Navigator. Yeh, I know it’s basically the same company, but the Ford series of SUVs (Escape, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion) look nothing like the Navigator. [/niptick]
Yes, enipla, I was referring to stretch SUV’s. As I wrote in my original post: “…I passed a Navigator the other day that had to be at least four regular car lengths.” (italics added.)
Anyway, I live on Long Island, and believe me, I see Navigators and Hummers pulled to the breaking point every day. Almost nothing turns my head these days, though there was a stretch PT Crusier on Merrick Road the other day…
Those stretch Hummers are great! A group of my students all chipped in for one to prom last weekend, and brought me pictures. Tres swank.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the crashworthyness of one. They are very big, very heavy, and they aren’t being driven by teenagers. This makes them a very safe place to be driving home from the prom.
My understanding is a limo driver needs a B license with passenger endorsement. Same as a bus driver.
Bus drivers aren’t known for being crazy drivers.