The autoTRADER.ca Find of the Week this week is a little more practical than most. This one will let you be King or Queen of the carpool lane. Or maybe you just need to drive around your growing family and dread the idea of a three-row SUV as much as you do the minivan. Of course, if you're a limo driver, then this is probably up your alley too. It's a 2005 Cadillac. With a six-door twist.
Gas prices are up, and they aren't going to get significantly cheaper for a while. But you can help ease your pain at the pump. Check your tire pressures, buy something more fuel efficient, or share a ride. Carpooling lets you split that gas cost with your co-workers. Or drive UberPool and take more than one fare going to the same place for more profit with less fuel. This Cadillac will let you take more people at once and let you rule the rideshare world.
Cadillac chassis have been used to build longer cars since nearly as long as there have been Cadillacs. So the brand has a long history of building commercial versions of its chassis to help hold the extra weight and stress that a limousine body adds. The first were based on the 1930s Series 355 frame, and the commercial chassis continued until the 1996 end of the unibody. But the Cadillac stretch didn't stop there. The company continues to send special kit versions of its cars to qualified coachbuilders.
One of the biggest of the coachbuilders is Superior Coach. Now part of S&S Superior, the company started building bodies based on a bus chassis in 1923. The hearse and ambulance line started in 1925. Limousines followed, and the company has weathered the ups and downs of the professional car world ever since.
You might have noticed that this limo doesn't look like the party limousines you're used to seeing. Instead of passengers crawling on their knees to a long bench seat inside, this one has six doors and two bench seats. That's because this isn't a normal limousine. It's what in the professional car world – the industry name for car-based livery vehicles like this – is called a 24-hour car. Why the name? Because unlike four-door limos, or six-door cars with a fixed rear bench, the middle seat of this car flips. That's right, passengers in the middle row can face forward or backwards.
Why the flip? I'd like to tell you it's because business limo passengers want to face forward and get work done, but that's not the case. Forward facing cars are meant for funeral processions. It's assumed that the mourners don't really feel like talking. Cars with seats facing each other, or the side bench are nighttime cars, meant for proms, parties, and weddings. But it doesn't make sense to limit your passenger business to just the day or the night. So the 24-hour car is a funeral car by day, party wagon by night. You can win the carpool in the nine to five, and then help high schoolers paint the town on the weekend.
This car is a 2005 Superior, based on the same-year Cadillac DeVille chassis. That means it has most of the luxury features available in 2005 like leather everywhere, and it packs a 4.6L Northstar V8. That engine made 290 hp and 285 lb-ft of torque and used a four-speed automatic to drive the front wheels. This car has a 41-inch stretch, which makes room for the extra seat and pair of doors. Oh yeah, and white wall tires. Because a car that looks like this had better have those.
In order to handle the heavier body, Cadillac upgraded the coach-built chassis with a heavier suspension, eight-lug wheels, and a big transmission cooler. This car, for sale in Winnipeg, MB, has just 57,000 km on the odometer. It's all ready for a 24-hour party, people.
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