Growing up as a car-obsessed child, my family knew that all I ever wanted was books about cars, shows about cars, and movies about cars. From books about construction equipment to VHS tapes about supercars, I consumed as much automotive media as possible, but there was one form of vehicle that always reigned supreme: the stretch limo. I’m old enough to remember seeing photos of movie stars and pop princesses emerging from impossibly long limos in my grandpa’s National Enquirer magazines, but spotting limos nowadays is a much less common occurrence than it was way back then. In this video, Business Insider explores the rise and fall of these now-passé means of transportation.
What better time to explore the now-antiquated, ostentatious, and tasteless trends that grew to popularity in the excessive ’80s than when we’re also preparing for the second term of President Donald Trump. Back in 1988 Trump actually collaborated with Cadillac to create the Trump Series of limousines. Unsurprisingly that venture was a spectacular failure that resulted in just two prototype Trump Series Cadillac stretch limos ever being produced.
Nowadays, the uber rich tend to either drive themselves in opulent cars, or they have drivers who ferry them around in the back seat of blacked out Range Rovers and Escalades. The U.S. president may continue to be escorted around in The Beast, the custom and unfathomably fortified Cadillac limousine, but aside from that, limos are just passe. Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. I think the limousine has had its heyday, and now the world has moved on.