A Limousine in Your Future?

The honeymoon with the compact car is over. The Big Car is back in style. At the current International Auto Show in New York, the biggest news from Detroit was Ford's new LTD limousine.

The thought that the company that fathered the tin lizzie sees a limousine in its future was startling enough. But it was not alone. The land of the Volkswagen turned up with the Mercedes-Benz 600, which may become the flag ship of the world's dry-land luxury liners.

Breasting the tape at 19 ft. 5 in., the LTD limousine is clearly poaching in Cadillac's backyard. For approximately $9,000 or $2,300 less than a Caddy limousine, the poor man's tycoon gets air conditioning, seating room for eight (with two jump seats) and 300 horses that, Ford claims, will run as quietly as the next man's Rolls-Royce. The extras include a tiny Sony TV and a Princess phone. The LTD already has 50 firm orders, will begin rolling off the assembly line by the end of the year.

One foot longer than Ford's entry into the chauffeur field, the Grand Mercedes is twice the car. It ought to be. The price, f.o.b. New York, is $23,500, enough to buy two LTDs with a couple of Volkswagens thrown in. With two rear-facing club chairs in the passenger saloon, "der Grosse" seats seven, sports enough engineering advances and luxury gadgets to make the most jaded automaniac drool.

The 300-h.p. engine can accelerate the behemoth up to 63 m.p.h. in 9.7 seconds, faster than some sports cars, and the four-wheel disk brakes can stop it on a pfennig. A pneumatic suspension system keeps the car on an even keel through the sharpest curve, invisible wires in the rear window banish ice and frost, and a poke of the finger simultaneously locks all four doors, the trunk and the gas tank cap.

To date, 230 people own der Grosse (or its slightly smaller version, priced at only $20,000), and another 600 have placed orders. Among them are King Hussein, Marshal Tito, Archbishop Makarios, Indonesia's Sukarno, Playboy Hugh Hefner and Mao Tse-tung. If LTD customers will not be traveling in such fast company, at least they can ostentatiously watch their TV or chat on the phone as Mercedes 600 sails by. But then, Mercedes passengers may be too exhilarated to notice--their car has a built-in bar.

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