[HN Gopher] The long demise of the stretch limousine
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       The long demise of the stretch limousine
        
       Author : lxm
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2023-04-29 16:56 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/AQvCW
       | 
       | http://web.archive.org/web/20230429165712/https://www.nytime...
        
       | Multicomp wrote:
       | These will be back at some point... And there will be
       | flabbergasted news articles talking about how Gen z or Gen AA
       | want to see them for their novelty and there will be gray beard
       | Gen x and Gen y talking about how back in their day everyone used
       | to stretch limos.
       | 
       | But it will be a stretch limo cyber truck or a stretch limo SUV,
       | there aren't very many land yacht style sedans left over yet,
       | except for say the Lincoln Continental.
        
         | doubled112 wrote:
         | I wonder how much more difficult it is to extend a unibody
         | chassis vs the old body on frame.
        
       | Avshalom wrote:
       | No hits for "ladder" or "frame" but an important though less
       | direct cause is simply the difficulty of stretching modern cars.
        
       | finnh wrote:
       | Crawling around inside a long, low-ceiling car. Not an experience
       | i equate with luxury.
        
         | bediger4000 wrote:
         | If you're not going to senior prom, you're not the stretch limo
         | demographic. Welcome to adulthood!
        
           | cratermoon wrote:
           | I remember back in the early 2000s I worked for a company
           | that "rewarded" developers with a ride around the city in a
           | stretch limo to end up at a company party at a bowling alley.
           | Seriously, this was the company's high school mindset. I was
           | glad to get out of there after a short time.
        
             | Zigurd wrote:
             | I recall a company "party" early in my career that had us
             | crammed into a super-stretch limo with a hot tub where a
             | trunk would have been. Hot tub didn't work. Smelled like
             | Teen Spirit. Craptastic!
        
         | mjevans wrote:
         | At least American culture, driving used to directly equate to
         | FREEDOM. However as more people tried to grasp that freedom, as
         | the suburbs expanded and the roads bogged down, driving is
         | increasingly associated with gridlock and traffic rule
         | crackdowns.
         | 
         | Gone are the days of fantasizing about driving a supercomputer
         | AI car into a mobile truck base.
         | 
         | Gone are the days of driving to some club or restaurant and the
         | vehicle as a proxy of status.
         | 
         | In today's world luxury comes to the rich. Personal chefs,
         | international air freight anything, parties at their resort
         | sized mansion mini-city. Short of a state level police
         | motorcade for the politically connected, why go to some remote
         | event at all?
         | 
         | No, the limousine is seen as some high school prom or other
         | pedestrian event and a thing for shows on TV.
        
         | smitty1110 wrote:
         | That's what a stretch Hummer is for! All the luxury, twice the
         | headroom.
        
       | this_steve_j wrote:
       | I could see the stretch limo coming back into vogue as
       | influencers on the whatever platform embrace 1990s prom culture
       | as the new currency.
       | 
       | It used to be the vehicle that unequivocally would declare your
       | arrival, but I think that spot unfortunately has been claimed by
       | the private jet.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-29 23:00 UTC)