From European fin de si¨cle to the advent of the Hummer stretchy
Nowadays the term limo or limousine usually means a long vehicle. Limousines are often luxury cars driven by chauffeurs and until a few decades ago they were strongly associated with the rich and powerful, e.g. businessmen, important politicians and celebrities from the entertainment industry. Today ordinary people often rent limousines for a short time span to celebrate special occasions such as birtdays, wedding and proms or for important parties such as bachelor parties.
In the early 20th century, the word limousine was attributed to any car where the passengers were sheltered inside a closed compartment while the driver was seated outside. A remnant of this distinction can still be seen in limos of today: the separator found between the passenger compartment and the driver.
The first automobile limousine was built in 1902 and modelled after the sedan chairs used in France prior to the revolution. At this time, there was no need to make special luxury cars all cars were luxurious extravagances per se and kept only by the very elite. Henry Ford was however about to change all this by making a car for the masses. the cheap model T Ford increased the number of cars on the United States. roads up from a mere 8,000 at the turn of the century to a whooping nine million by 1920. Although still out of reach for a majority of the population, the Model T prompted car manufacturers like Cadillac and Duesenberg to develop new ways of making their cars stand out and one of the things they came up with was the now iconic stretch limo.
Armbruster,a coach company, built the first stretch limop in Fort Smith, Arkansa in the 1920s. The vig cars became popular among the rich and among big bands that needed space for instruments and people. Some of the realiest limos were used by Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman to take them between gigs, this earned limos the nickname “big Band Buses”.
In the United States limosounies stayes s status symbols until the 70s when company started to offer them to prices that could be afford by regular people in the middle class for special occasions. The large taxi strike in Manhattan also changed this as it showed a lot of regular new yorkers that limos could be used by regular residents, not just the super rich.
The disco era was an era whne a lot was done with limos and just about any and every car imagenable was turned into a limo ranging from pick ups to ladas and VW bugs. During the mid 1990s, the SUV-limo suddenly appeared on the scene and soon the Hummer stretch limo had turned into an iconic as well as much ridiculed party car. If you want to know more about hummer limos, click here.
The popularity of limos have been but to the test many times, by the great depression, by the world wars, by the oil crises in the 70s and now the global warming and the finansial crises is making some people question the limo in the 21st century. There is however despite this no signs that limos are becoming less trendy. The limo that use to be a smbol of high society has made it down to today be associated with hen-nights and is likely to stay around as a party accessory for years to come.
