The few times I have ridden in a limo I was petrified. Knowing that it is literally a car sawed in half and then welded together again made me so nervous to ride in it. What happens if you get This boned? No airbags, sharp edges wooden furniture for the mini bar, and whatever ghetto manufacturing that undermines the structure of the original car.
Also the way we we're riding sideways with no available seatbelts meant you would be horribly injured in the event of even a minor crash.
That’s how all Limos are made. The crash testing done by a car does NOT include cutting it apart and extending the wheelbase and cabin. That will severely undermine the crash worthiness of the vehicle and the lack of seat belts to secure passengers plus air backs to cushion impacts means a modern limo has the crash worthiness of a 50 year old car sawed in half and extended.
The actually arranged for a BUS to drive them. The bus they ordered (because they couldn't all fit in a limo) broke down on the way and they sent this POS instead. One of the women that died in the limo actually texted her sister calling it a POS a few minutes before the crash. She also said the engine was so loud they would be deaf by the time they got to the party. There is no reason the engine should have been that loud. It's a horrible, completely avoidable disaster.
That’s how all Limos are made. The crash testing done by a car does NOT include cutting it apart and extending the wheelbase and cabin. That will severely undermine the crash worthiness of the vehicle and the lack of seat belts to secure passengers plus air backs to cushion impacts means a modern limo has the crash worthiness of a 50 year old car sawed in half and extended.
The actually arranged for a BUS to drive them. The bus they ordered (because they couldn't all fit in a limo) broke down on the way and they sent this POS instead. One of the women that died in the limo actually texted her sister calling it a POS a few minutes before the crash. She also said the engine was so loud they would be deaf by the time they got to the party. There is no reason the engine should have been that loud. It's a horrible, completely avoidable disaster.
They are under cover terrorist informants and FBI agents as well. Just to make it even more bizarre.
Edit here’s a source. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/nyregion/prestige-limousine-crash-schoharie.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
After reading the review on 6/12... SMFH.
After hearing numerous conflicting stories as to why our limo arrived over an HOUR LATE, the limo and driver came into our lake community horn and tires a-blazing. The driver that was yelling from the street was extremely hyped up. We originally chalked that up to him trying to make up for the latest but that turned out to be not the case. When we all packed into the limo, the driver sped way over the 10mph speed limit to the point where a father in the community went to the road to stop our driver and yell at him for almost hitting his children on the way in! He even took a photo of the license plate.
At this point, we all were just praying to arrive to our first destination (only 8 minutes away!) safely. The driver continued to talk to the two girls in the front for the entire ride asking about bizarre topics. Once we spotted the entranceway to the distillery the limo accidentally passed it and proceeded to back up on a main road!
After hearing numerous conflicting stories as to why our limo arrived over an HOUR LATE, the limo and driver came into our lake community horn and tires a-blazing. The driver that was yelling from the street was extremely hyped up. We originally chalked that up to him trying to make up for the latest but that turned out to be not the case. When we all packed into the limo, the driver sped way over the 10mph speed limit to the point where a father in the community went to the road to stop our driver and yell at him for almost hitting his children on the way in! He even took a photo of the license plate.
At this point, we all were just praying to arrive to our first destination (only 8 minutes away!) safely. The driver continued to talk to the two girls in the front for the entire ride asking about bizarre topics. Once we spotted the entranceway to the distillery the limo accidentally passed it and proceeded to back up on a main road!
everything below is a quote
DO NOT BOOK A LIMO WITH THIS COMPANY. Apparently terrible and downright dangerous service are the norm with Hasy limousine.
Unfortunately one of my friends booked this company sight unseen for a bachelorette party this past weekend. After hearing numerous conflicting stories as to why our limo arrived over an HOUR LATE, the limo and driver came into our lake community horn and tires a-blazing. The driver that was yelling from the street was extremely hyped up. We originally chalked that up to him trying to make up for the latest but that turned out to be not the case. When we all packed into the limo, the driver sped way over the 10mph speed limit to the point where a father in the community went to the road to stop our driver and yell at him for almost hitting his children on the way in! He even took a photo of the license plate.
At this point, we all were just praying to arrive to our first destination (only 8 minutes away!) safely. The driver continued to talk to the two girls in the front for the entire ride asking about bizarre topics. Once we spotted the entranceway to the distillery the limo accidentally passed it and proceeded to back up on a main road! Once parked we hauled it out with all of our stuff and my friend immediately called the limo company.
The company apologized for the obviously impaired driver and promised to refund and send another drive ASAP. Well.. that never happened and we wound up being stranded at the distillery for 2 more hours that we planned and had to MISS our second destination because of this company.
I will be sending in a formal complaint to the Better Business Bureau since this was absolutely appalling and completely unacceptable.
second review:
I just read the last (and only review) and 3 years later, I can say nothing has changed!!! My son's prom limo was a fiasco. The limo never showed to the original pickup location, and then when told to come to secondary location was a half hour late. In addition, the driver wanted to combine another group of kids as the second limo from the same company never showed at all--Very unsafe as the number of passengers was well over what is acceptable. When we called and complained, we were told by Shawn that we would receive a $250 refund and never received it after NUMEROUS tries....phone calls with promises to mail a check and then the check was sent to the wrong address. When my husband drove a half hour to pick up the check, Shawn was a no show and was going to bring it to him the following day....again a no show, no phone call to explain and no return call when my husband left him a message. This business has been reported to the Better Business Bureau. If you want a reliable company to employ, DO NOT use Hasy Limo, Saratoga Luxury or work with Shawn!
Unlikely an Excursion could handle braking that much weight anywhere near its out of the factory capabilities. 17 people is likely pushing 3000 pounds. And that doesn't even account for the 1000's of pounds they had to have added to stretch the thing. A stock Excursion has a max payload of 1950 pounds, and a max towing capacity of 11,000 pounds.
Even if you upgraded the front brakes considerably, you're still expecting just 4 tires to stop something that's in the class 5-6 range!
There is a reason trailers have brakes!
(although, in an Excursion with towing capacity, you'd think it could handle it).
I drive a Ford Excursion with the highest towing weight capacity Ford offered on the Excursions (2005 4x4 with 6.0 engine and 3.73 gearing).
In my owner's manual, it states verbatim:
The braking system of the tow vehicle is rated for operation at the GVWR not GCWR.
The GVWR on my truck is 9200lbs. I think the curb weight is around 7600lbs. So that means there's only 1,600lbs of passenger/cargo/trailer weight before you need either brakes on your trailer or upgraded brakes on the truck.
Eighteen humans weighing 200lbs each is 3,200lbs, or 1,600 pounds OVER the braking capacity of that truck.
This isn't including all of the steel/metal to stretch the truck, which could probably be conservatively estimated to be at 2,000lbs.
So if the brakes WEREN'T upgraded, the truck could easily have been around 3,600lbs over the braking capacity from Ford.
The stretch limousines are absurdities, and highly dangerous.
A 2001 Ford Excursion is rated for a 2000 lb payload. These companies add a thousand pounds plus in terms of the stretch portion plus all of the interior, easy. By the time they’re done making these excursions into a stretch limo, the vehicle is at maximum weight. Then they add 17 passengers and a driver? You can easily have an average of 200 lb/person, and now you’re 2000 lbs over the vehicle’s rated payload, easily. A vehicle designed to carry 2000 lbs maximum cannot handle a 4000 lb weight load. Even if the brakes had been upgraded, the vehicle is still unsafe going through turns, etc. due to the fact that it’s overweight and the wheel radius has been extended.
It’s not that the states need a more intensive inspection regime, it’s that these vehicles are inherently unsafe. States should institute maximum length standards because these vehicles are way over capacity and unsafe on the road, even when properly maintained. There is no reason people can’t take two limos instead of one giant, unsafe one.
I've been trying to wrap my head around how everyone died. After seeing photos of the limousine after the crash it's not at all what I expected. Knowing the construction of limos, I expected some catastrophic failure of the frame, resulting in a crumpled mess of bodies. -No. The damn side door opened right up on the scene. The only conclusion I can draw is what the old fire safety days used to show when they'd have the car rolling simulator. Everyone must have simply crushed each other, maybe a brake failure as well.
I've been trying to wrap my head around how everyone died. After seeing photos of the limousine after the crash it's not at all what I expected. Knowing the construction of limos, I expected some catastrophic failure of the frame, resulting in a crumpled mess of bodies. -No. The damn side door opened right up on the scene. The only conclusion I can draw is what the old fire safety days used to show when they'd have the car rolling simulator. Everyone must have simply crushed each other, maybe a brake failure as well.
I have a feeling the inside of the passenger compartment was just carnage. I can't imagine the horror the bystanders felt possibly seeing people ejected, and/or running over to help and seeing bodies likely piled up at the front. Worse, for first responders to have to comb through the bodies quickly find survivors, because you would expect some, only to realize there were none.
As an aside, do your friendly first responder a favor and don't ask them to describe their "worst" scene or the one that "haunts" them. If it's bad enough to haunt someone who sees death and destruction during every shift, maybe you really don't want to know. Respect them enough to refrain from asking, even if your questions come from a place of genuine curiosity and admiration for what they do.
When a car company designs a vehicle, they have hundreds of engineers who are experts at their individual parts who are responsible to make sure they are using an appropriate design that will be safe, durable, reliable, and perform up to customer expectations. Then hundreds of test engineers run thousands of tests to confirm everything is meeting strict standards. They test worst-case scenarios such as continuous braking down a long hill on the way down from a mountain pass to confirm no catastrophic failures occur. They strap in crash test dummies and crash vehicles to confirm the airbags, seatbelts, and crumple zones do their jobs to protect the passengers as well as possible.
When a chop shop triples the length and weight of the vehicle, you can throw all that engineering analysis out the window. An auto manufacturer would spend hundreds of man-years redesigning a vehicle to make a change like this and would modify hundreds of parts to make sure they are appropriate for the new design. No body shop could possibly come close to this level of due diligence. More knowledgeable and ethical ones may make critical updates to key components but there is no way it’s ever going to be as safe as a mass produced vehicle.
