technologies,and visual enhancements in “The SUV. Consumer sales of this vehicle ciative to the fact that many customers
order to safely and effectively take that are down,except in the limousine market. want to show the office they are driving in
valued customer the best and safest way I am adding more to my fleet on a contin- a hybrid.
to Point B. ual basis,”he says.
Even the town car - for years the mainstay
Other variables abound within this cus- Sturdy terrain vehicles,even ones like this of the limousine industry,is now going the
tomer delivery trade, considerations of (elongated considerably), seem to offer way of that gas guzzling Hummer. Look
economic and environmental realms. the proper mixture of prestige and power for the Lincoln Town Car, the able work-
with a touch of pedestrianism. horse of the biz to be phased out by 2012,
Can you say, “Green,” “Hybrid” and or, so say top industry analysts.
“Recession?” Big SUV cruisers would seem visually and These vehicles will soon be replaced by
ethically oxymoronic in age of conserva- the Fusion,a Hybrid Livery Sedan - a large
The Celebrity’s of this country, those high- tion of precious natural resources,no? and luxurious,yet,fuel efficient product.
end people carriers, are dealing with
these salient buzz words, their meanings,
This is where that H-word,
Except for trunk space (the good old
and the global impact they cause on a Town Car still reigns in this area), the
daily basis - as well as how to adapt to
Hybrid, comes into play. Ten
Fusion offers the same amount of head-
each of them.
years ago, during the heyday
room, legroom and the other creature
comforts as its fossil fuel-ish predecessor,
Let’s face it: those fuel burning, prestige
of the dotcom bubble, most
all while trumping the Lincoln in most
mongering, be-a-big-shot times of yore
passengers traveling by town
other categories:
have gone the way of 12MPG and the mil-
lion dollar CEO bonus.
car or stretch limo would have
showed little concern for envi-
EstimatedCityMiles:
“Look at the stretch limo,” Dennis Adams,
the affable president and CEO of
ronmental factors. No one
TownCar,15MPG-Fusion,41MPG
EstimatedHighwayMiles:
Celebrity Limousine, says with a wave
blinked at the Hummer - that
TownCar,22MPG-Fusion,36MPG
toward his vast, stylized fleet of thirty-four
uber-SUV of yesterday - as it CruisingRange:
(and growing) high-end vehicles. “I still
offer several six- to fourteen-passenger
hulkedonby.
TownCar,342mi.-Fusion,682mi.
limousines, yet the companies that once
AnnualFuelCost:
manufactured them aren’t selling the
stretch anymore. They’ve gone the way of
Back then, “carbon footprint”
TownCar,$10,694-Fusion,$4,936
the pay telephone.”
meantthethingyouleftonthe Soon, the power sedan will have an envi-
Since ‘91, Adams has seen recessionary
carpet while grilling steaks on
ronmentally friendly heart of green.
periods and boom times,yet,he concedes the barbecue by the pool. I relate to Dennis Adams how, years ago
to never having lived through anything
quite like this recent year. Along its wake
Now, individuals and corpora-
(1993), yours truly had a brief foray as a
are the ghosts of long,shiny limousines.
tions are not only environmen-
driver for another (less notable) limou-
sine company.
tally conscious, but many are
With hard economic times, attitudes
toward big and fancy have gone by the
participating in actual house-
“Chauffeur” he quickly corrects me. “To
me, a driver is someone who delivers piz-
wayside. Adams recognizes it daily. “The
hold and workplace energy
zas or oil. We offer chauffeurs,who,in my
CEO who just instituted a 5 percent pay
cut for his employees is not riding in a
and pollution reduction initia-
mind are like a concierge of transporta-
tion.”
limo anymore. It’s about association; tives.
times are tough so a business person may Like I said, I was a driver - it is how that
not want to be seen in a stretch limo Dennis Adams offers illustration to this particular company treated those of us
while heading out to dinner. And it’s change of attitude: “In past times, we who worked for them, and it was even
about perception; believe it or not, we would be asked to provide three different what they called us. Recollections of end-
have clients who request not to have the vehicles, usually limos, to transport three less nights and little appreciation still shiv-
door opened for them, or, they ask to get groups to one destination. Now,they’ll ask er up my brain stem.
their own luggage from the trunk.” for one larger luxury vehicle to do the
same job. The message is efficiency, not Back then, on board communication
What’s replacing the time-honored stretch prestige.” meant dispatchers shouting at their driv-
limo these days? Adams points to an ers via Nextel units,pushing us to pick up
imposing Cadillac Escalade resting regal- As he bolsters the numbers of energy effi- the pace while remarking snidely we were
ly on his lot. cient vehicles in his fleet,Adams is appre- all probably taking siestas.
Mid-Atlantic EVENTS Magazine 77
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