Last month we showed you a stretched 1959 Suburban that we believed had started life as an airport limo even though we didn't have any documented history on the truck. Although we know exactly who built this eight door 1967 Pontiac Catalina—an airport limo company named Stageway—we still have no idea exactly how to use such a huge vehicle.
According to the seller's website, they discovered this Airporter Limo at a small upstate New York airport while flying small airplanes. Immediately captivated by the massive wagon they made a deal with the owner and returned shortly afterwards to drive the Pontiac back to Alabama. Once they got it back it seems they were faced with the obvious question of what to do with the huge airport limo.
Originally the Pontiacs were built by Stageway to transport passengers at airports. In the days before minibuses these limos offered an easy solution to transporting passengers in a vehicle much smaller than a full-sized bus. The converted Pontiac wagons were optioned with a 428 V8 so they had plenty of power to haul the extra weight. Stageway sold the converted 12 passenger Pontiacs for a base price of around $8,000 dollars which was more than double the price of a brand new top of line Catalina station wagon.
Few survived their years spent transporting passengers so airport limos of any variety are even rarer now than they were when new. It seems an obvious decision to purchase such a nice example of a rare and interesting car like this one when you come across it. Having said that we also completely understand why this seller has decided to try and sell the car.
Although it is advertised as being in daily driver condition we're pretty sure the pleasure of driving such an interesting old car on a daily basis would quickly turn into the unpleasant chore of trying to park and navigate the massive old car. As you can see from the seller's website starting a business renting the car out didn't seem to work so well. It seems then the only thing to do is let the car take up a huge amount of garage space and take it to the occasional car show.
Still we think this well kept old airport limo is one strange and awesome trip back in time. Currently there have been no takers for the $19,000 starting bid or the $30,000 buy-it-now price. It seems someone knows exactly what to do with an old airport limo though, the seller has already sold a stretched 1971 Pontiac for the buy-it-now price that was listed at the same time as this one. Amusingly enough the same seller is also offering a normal length twin of this car for sale—an interesting vintage wagon that is the perfect size for hassle free cruising.