As it stands, limousines operate in a regulatory gray area. After leaving the factory as a car or SUV, independent manufacturers modify each vehicle to a large extent without complying with strict federal guidelines, eliminating vital support structures before welding new parts and parts into place. And while there are some regulations, they vary from state to state. The hazy standards and mandates surrounding limousines have contributed to a market full of uncertainty.
That is, we may not know if there is a problem until something goes wrong. Basically, limousines have gone out of style, Bouweiri said. But what those two classic limousine scenes have in common, which were released more than 25 years ago, is why Reston Limousine, one of the largest executive transportation companies in the region, already owns only a few of its namesake vehicles. There were limousines everywhere and some limousine builders even became household names.
But lately, with transportation options increasing and social postures in some places, limousines have declined in popularity. Factory luxury sedans and SUVs have improved a lot over the years, which could be considered a factor. For example, a modern Lincoln Navigator L can comfortably accommodate as many people as a stretched 80s Town Cars. Cadillac and Lincoln produced limousine versions of their large cars for decades, but in 1983 they were no longer on the market, they chose to rely on outsourcing.
Aftermarket conversion companies emerged when the custom limousine business began to take off in the late 1970s and exploded in the 1980s. It has become the ritual of prom night. And as the number of stretches increased, the lengths grew with them. Stretch sizes went from 30 to 200 or more.
The limousine dominated the luxury car chauffeur service industry for decades, however, it began to decline in the late 80s, particularly due to the 1987 market crash, when things took a downward spiral. Like the comfort of the modern SUV, it's easier for us to take a luxury car than to search, compare and book a limousine service. The Navigator was one of the first, in addition to the Mercedes M-Class, which changed the face of luxury SUV travel as an alternative to a limousine service or traditional city cars. That scenario is what some limousine tenants face with the lightly regulated stretch limousine industry.
