# The President's car gets stuck **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953 "2011-05-23T22:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/41 "2011-05-25T00:00:16Z")
Aeroplanes cost an order of magnitude more than cars, so let’s assume that the repairs to this car will be in six figures rather than seven. That is peanuts, by state visit standards. They have probably spent more than that on the President’s suits. I stand by the assertion that they could have it done tomorrow. This is not “custom tech”, it’s just a car. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/42 "2011-05-25T00:55:57Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Aeroplanes cost an order of magnitude more than cars, so let’s assume that the repairs to this car will be in six figures rather than seven. That is peanuts, by state visit standards. They have probably spent more than that on the President’s suits. I stand by the assertion that they could have it done tomorrow. This is not “custom tech”, it’s just a car. You are way off base on this one. Do you know what the presidential limos are let alone the Air Force One planes and the whole motorcade? They limos aren’t regular cars by any stretch of the imagination. They are airlifted to the destination country ahead of the visit because they are the only vehicles deemed safe enough to carry the POTUS yet this one failed. Here are the basic specs the but rest is classified. They a little military command centers and survival capsules of their own. Those cars cost millions of dollars a piece just like planes do with the custom prices for fixing exotic equipment to go along with it. The raw materials don’t cost that much but any engineering redesigns and replacement parts carry a stiff price in bureaucracy alone. I will give you that it isn’t that much money overall for a presidential visit but still very expensive especially since their will be some level of redesign in order. > **[Barack Obama's Cadillac presidential limo revealed](https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1031587_barack-obamas-cadillac-presidential-limo-revealed)** > > With president-elect Barack Obama soon to be sworn in as the nation’s leader, a new presidential limousine was in call for and once again General Motors was assigned the task of building it. Nicknamed ‘The Beast’, the limo is based on a number of GM... ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/43 "2011-05-25T01:07:35Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Every moving part? It’s a car, not the space shuttle. They’ll have it in the shop for a day, bit of welding, good as new. I meant it’s design to become limo-1, not the repair. Poor wording on my part. It’s not a Cadillac, it’s a custom made car with a shell of a Cadillac. ---
**Author:** ![Taylor03c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/47e85d/32.png) [@Taylor03c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taylor03c)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/44 "2011-05-25T05:00:56Z")
The BMW sedan barely made it without hitting ground. Then the strech limo comes along and doesn’t stand a chance. Just shows were all human and even the best laid schemes of mice and men oft go awry… ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/45 "2011-05-25T10:36:48Z")
In the video in the OP I didn’t think it looked like it just grounded, as the front of the car suddenly dropped and bounced a few times. And looking at the [other angle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0ac8GfQkkY) that **c\_goat** posted, you can see that the front wheels actually retract and _lift right off the ground_ before the nose of the car drops. After several attempts with the pause button I managed to get a [frame grab](http://i51.tinypic.com/71l7gx.jpg). Look at the front right wheel (left as we look at it). I don’t know how car susupension works, but presumably the springs would draw the wheels upwards if the axle or some other component broke? From that second angle you can see that the car took the ramp quite fast, and something appeared to give way as the body of the car was coming back down over the high point and compressing the suspension. No way this was a simple grounding - something snapped. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/46 "2011-05-25T11:03:13Z")
Also see the bottom post on [this page](http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055777066&page=5), with a photo of the car on a recovery truck. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/47 "2011-05-25T13:15:40Z")
I _told_ Barack not to put neon tubes on the bottom of that thing. Neon is _so_ 1990’s anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/48 "2011-05-25T14:40:22Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Not even sure if the question is relevant – they add thousands of pounds of armor and special gear, and a bigger engine, so they have to make major changes to the suspension to handle it all. I don’t think Cadillac does this – I think it is an after-market specialized company. The armoring company used to be [Hess & Eisenhardt](http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/h/hess_eisenhardt/hess_eisenhardt.htm). I think the company exists under a new name now. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/49 "2011-05-25T15:13:32Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Every moving part? It’s a car, not the space shuttle. They’ll have it in the shop for a day, bit of welding, good as new. In a prior job, I worked with people who worked with companies that built discreet armored vehicles. You would be surprised by the amount of engineering that goes into developing new suspensions, engines, etc… I certainly was. While I think your post is a bit of a whoosh, building an armored limousine, even one more pedestrian than “the Beast”, is a lengthy project. I could be way off, but IIRC, it took a one or two months for a generic Cadillac DTS conversion to say, [NIJ Level 4](http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/223054.pdf). (PDF warning. The standard is for body armor, not vehicle armor, but I forget the term of art they used to describe armor that would defeat 7.62 NATO AP) They weren’t my client; I just thought the tech was cool, so I chatted a bit with the consultants who were dealing with them. It certainly took a lot longer than just bolting on some ballistic shielding, swapping out the windows and calling it a day. Much of the cost of the Beast’s construction is probably in the v. low production volume, the R&D time (imagine the threat modelling and testing they had to do!), and especially the uber-tight security requirements for the contractor. I am already shaking my head at what a PITA dealing with the security regs. must be for administrating a project like that. With all that, I can easily see the costs per unit being in the several millions per copy. If it was a suspension malf, it’s probably easier to just fly the broken car back to the manufacturer than to try and deal with it there. Oh well, this is why the Galaxy carries a few spare Beasts. I imagine a new backup was winging its way to Ireland within a few hours of the mishap. ---
**Author:** ![Galwegian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galwegian/32/3426_2.png) [@Galwegian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galwegian)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/50 "2011-05-25T22:37:20Z")
According to the tow-truck guy, there was pretty substantial damage and it took three hours to get it unstuck! > [@](#): > > The suspension collapsed with the smack and the wheel had gone right up into the car. [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking49.html](http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking49.html) That’s a very unhappy looking car! [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking36.html?via=rel](http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking36.html?via=rel) ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/51 "2011-05-26T03:34:41Z")
According to Wiki it is indeed 4 wheel drive: “The 2005 Cadillac DTS limousine is a hand-crafted, custom built, armored version of the stretch Cadillac DTS built on a GM four-wheel drive platform.[24] The vehicle was custom built by Centigon (formerly O’Gara, Hess & Eisenhardt).[24][25] It was first used on January 20, 2005 during the second inauguration parade of George W. Bush. It now serves as an alternative presidential limousine that is frequently used.” That reinforces my guess that the rear drive shaft was tagged and that was violently transmitted to the front drive section which pulled the wheels up and back. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2011, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953/52 "2011-05-26T08:44:46Z")
> [@Galwegian](#): > > According to the tow-truck guy, there was pretty substantial damage and it took three hours to get it unstuck! > [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking49.html](http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0524/breaking49.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > The suspension collapsed with the smack and the wheel had gone right up into the car. How much smack did Obama have in there? :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-presidents-car-gets-stuck/582953.md?page=2)