The Power of Dreams…and Smoke Machines: Third Gen Accord Limos

Carriage top AND pop-up headlights? Where do I sign?!

Have you ever been traveling in a limo, be it for prom, a wedding, or a totally XX-rated bachelor party trip to the airport and concluded that your stretched automobile riding experience would be much, much more pleasurable if the vehicle was smaller, less flashy, less luxurious, comically underpowered and Japanese? Well, apparently Jules Kaplan did sometime in the mid ‘80s, and he decided to take action.
Look at all the room for the kids, honey! Honey? Why are you walking away?

You see, Mr. Kaplan was (is?) the proprietor of Marquis Custom Coach, located in the San Fernando Valley hamlet of Canoga Park, California. After stretching a Honda at a customer’s behest in 1981, Kaplan decided to direct a portion of the company’s energy into building some of these embiggened (to the tune of 52-inches) third generation Accord sedans, most of which went to dealers, including Beverly Hills Honda.
Not surprisingly, the idea of a limo based on a sensible, front-drive Japanese family sedan never really caught on over here. Fortunately, a few of Marquis’ extended Accords survive, which is great for cheapskates who want to get into the livery business, since some of the conversions were based on 5-speed models, purportedly returned around 25 mpg, and were just short enough to fit in many standard residential garages (227″ bow to stern). If nothing else, you’d get a metric crapload of business from the ironic hipster set…which would cause your wife to leave you and your friends to speak about you in hushed tones. Perhaps these babies are best suited to being admired from afar.
(Boca Raton News via Rusty But Trusty)

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  1. joshuman Avatar

    Ugh.

  2. BGW Avatar

    And here I thought the Checker Wagon limo I passed the other day was the most WTF-worthy stretch job I'd encounter anytime soon.

    1. Smells_Homeless Avatar

      I'm actually pretty sure those are straight from the Checker factory!

  3. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    I live in Moncton, NB, Canada, and there is a stretch Fiesta that cruises around town all the time in the summer.

  4. P161911 Avatar

    This is for people with large families that just HAD to have a Honda before Honda made the Odessy.

  5. muthalovin Avatar

    Needs a laundry list of things to make it more appealing. Ping-Pong table-sized wing. Ground Effects. 24" Inch Rims OR 13" Gold Daytons. Neon. Fart Can. After all that, then yeah, this car could have a staring role in the next Fast and Furious.

  6. M44Power Avatar

    Man, I feel the need to go get in the shower and get tested from just looking at that thing.

  7. KillerZomBee Avatar

    In Grass Valley CA during the 70's there was a stretched VW bug limo that I used to marvel over as a kid. It had a convertible front welded to a sedan rear creating an open chauffeur cockpit. Kinda like this:
    As a complete vehicle it actually worked and looked pretty good. But then again it was the 70's, and there were a LOT of strange vehicles running around. I also loved the Vette in Corvette Summer, and that Damnation Alley Lanmdmaster so my tastes are pretty suspect. Crazy good times..
    <img src="http://hubgarage.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/935576/100_0632_detail.JPG&quot; width="500"/>

    1. Kogashiwa Avatar

      Somehow I feel that that contraption needs to be a Baja Bug.

    1. BrianTheHoon Avatar

      Is it terribly wrong that I like that? I'm not a big limo fan (in fact I hate stretched versions of anything) but that is quite nice.

        1. BrianTheHoon Avatar

          Nixon huh? Well, I like it anyway.

  8. Tomsk Avatar

    There's actually a part of me (a really, really demented part) that kinda almost digs the factory-stretched FWD Fleetwood.
    <img src="http://images.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/10/87_17.jpg&quot; width="598" height="480" />
    Drop in a Northstar in place of the not-even-boat-anchor-worthy HT4100 and put on the better looking 1989-93 front and rear bodywork and you might actually have something that isn't biblically awful.

    1. Impalamino Avatar
      Impalamino

      If only it were an 80s Lincoln limousine in this ad shoot—I could have made the funniest/most tasteless "deadly brother" joke ever.

  9. salguod Avatar

    227" long? Put that in perspective, it's an inch *shorter* than my Dad's '57 Eldorado Biarritz.