1970s Limos...
With the popularity of limousines growing by the decade, the luxury car industry not only saw an increase in the number of coachbuilders creating these extravagant vehicles, but also the advent of a new niche for the limousine industry - limousine hire.
An innovative New Yorker, David Klein envisioned a world which had embraced limousines as a regular mode of transport and were therefore a common sight on the city streets.
Klein got his big break into the luxury car hire industry during the taxi strike in New York in 1970. A strike in such a city, even in the �70s, was paralysing for the local business people. Especially affected by the taxi strike were the Upper East Side executives who needed to get down to Wall Street.
So, David Klein took to the streets and began offering rides to these stranded executives and never stopped. Klein had a personality which lead him to make bold, extravagant but popular decisions and he worked hard to ensure his dream of streets filled with stretch limousines became a reality.
Klein went into business with a school friend and they launched their business with one used Cadillac. By the 1980s Klein's business was booming and was approached by another limousine hire operator Solombrino who had also started his empire with one car, run from his parent's garage. Solombrino approached Klein and was taken into the company. He was able to rapidly generate new business and was soon on the board of one of the first limo hire companies.
The limousines of the 1970s were radically in line with the unique business ideas of these early limo hire operators. As you would expect from anything which came out of the �70s, limousines got bigger and more extravagant and the limousine was stretched like never before. These stretch limousines were initially typically made from the stylish Lincoln Town Cars, by inserting an extra 10 feet into the chassis.
Then came the extras like TVs, drinks bars, sound systems, mirrored ceilings, all of which were updated as soon as technology was on the move again. Of course it was only a matter of time before hot tubs were also added and this meant that the limousines were extended by 17 feet and had several axle additions.
There are still many of these original stretch limousines around now and for more information, contact us on 0844 567 7719 or click here to get quotes.
