OLYMPIA – Five years ago, Tyler Lehmann’s limousine fleet was dominated by the oversized luxury sedans that evoked the decadent 1980s rise of the modern limo industry: sleek, classy and low to the ground.
How quickly tastes – and silhouettes – can change.
These days, half of Blackstone Limousine’s revenue comes from gleaming hulks like its twin 30-foot stretch H2 Hummers, which can comfortably seat 14. And state regulators are playing catch-up as they rewrite laws to make room for the new generation of luxury transportation.
“People have been stretching cars bigger and longer,” says Lehmann, owner of Seattle-based Blackstone. “The old definitions didn’t really fit the modern limousine industry.”
Lehmann’s stretch Hummers and his other super-sized offering, the Ford Excursion limo, are part of a growing nationwide trend toward bigger, longer chauffeured vehicles.
It’s a shift that has accelerated quickly in the past several years, echoing the rise of SUVs and other large vehicles in the consumer market.
“If it used to be that a bachelorette party might have been six women, maybe now they want more – they want 10 or 12 women, so you might need a super stretch or a limo bus,” said Jon LeSage, managing editor of Limousine and Chauffeured Transportation Magazine in Torrance, Calif.
The larger vehicles typically have what you’d expect inside a limousine: plush seating, darkened windows, champagne flutes.
But many of the new stretch SUVs also have “party car” accoutrements, such as DVD players, booming sound systems, flashing lights and even videogame consoles.
“Especially in a big city with a lot of young people who want to go clubbing, you’ve got to have all of those latest things with all the flashy interiors,” LeSage said.
The prodigious growth of limousines hasn’t been all fun and games, though. In Washington state, the highway patrolmen who inspect limos for the state Department of Licensing were increasingly finding that the vehicles they encountered weren’t in the rule books.
“These guys would drive in to get an inspection, and our guys would go: ‘God, does this really fit the definition of a limousine?’” said Capt. Jeff DeVere, the state patrol’s top spokesman.
Lehmann, who has lobbied state officials for several years to tweak the licensing definitions, said the industry had quickly outgrown the old regulations.
“There were some stretch SUVs that were in operation here in the state that were operating well beyond the scope of the law,” Lehmann said. “They were putting 20, 22 people into one, whereas state law said the maximum number of people you can get into one was 12.”
As a solution, the state Legislature wiped out most of the statute that laid out the definitions of stretch limousines, chauffeured sedans and executive vans.
Those decisions will instead be handled by the licensing agency and the State Patrol through administrative rule making, which is more easily revised than state law.
State officials say the change will make it easier to impose safety regulations while still allowing businesses to meet changing customer demands.
“It’ll make things a little faster, more flexible the next time there’s a hot new segment of the limousine industry,” said Brad Benfield, a licensing department spokesman.
While larger limos are seen on city streets nationwide, Washington’s legal changes seem to be somewhat unique, said LeSage, the trade magazine editor.
Lawmakers in Colorado are considering a measure that would redefine limousines, but that bill is aimed more at the contents of the limo than its exterior measurements – getting rid of outdated requirements that luxury cars have a television, a telephone and beverages.
“It went back to the ’80s, like you would think of in ‘Dynasty’ and ‘Dallas’ and those shows. You were either in a big luxury limo or nothing,” LeSage said.
Washington state’s changes are good news for guys such as Lehmann, who already have sunk a considerable amount of money into larger fleets.
A traditional stretch sedan costs about $70,000; a stretch SUV, he says, can fetch up to $120,000, and travel less than 10 miles on a gallon of gas.
Despite the upfront costs, Lehmann still thinks the heavy-duty nature of an SUV makes a better limousine: more powerful engines, stronger suspensions, more ground clearance and just more room. And don’t forget, the customer is always right.
“That’s where the demand is, whether it’s kids on proms or even weddings,” Lehmann said. “If you’re going to have 10 or 12 people, you’re definitely going to want to have them in a bigger car.”
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