6/21/2006: Stretch SUV limo beached in San Francisco

Undertoad • Jun 21, 2006 12:21 pm
Image

I had seen this one before axlrosen sent it along, but I'd seen it out of context. axl includes the link to The Consumerist, whose snarky take points out that this is a stretch SUV limo, and this is none other than anti-vehicle San Francisco.

"Taken in front of Goat Hill Pizza at 18th and Connecticut, in the Potrero Hill," they point out. "Proof that San Fran actually has structural defenses to debilitate encroachment by machines which don't run on the most efficient fuel of all: Love," they say. Yup, this additional level of irony pushes it over the edge, so to speak, and makes it your Cellar Image of the Day.
AureliusVin • Jun 21, 2006 12:45 pm
It's funny that an Excursion(I think) got stuck there, I guess they don't make 'em like they used to!
glatt • Jun 21, 2006 12:49 pm
Ha Ha!
Emrikol • Jun 21, 2006 1:03 pm
They should have taken a plane!

(Edited for more better grammer)
Rock Steady • Jun 21, 2006 1:07 pm
Nice. I'm surprised I hadn't seen that yet. "Professional Drivers" out here are always inexperienced immigrants. Also, this shows how SF is a delightful mix of people types; here the flakes and nuts get to laugh at the chic and corporate.
Kitsune • Jun 21, 2006 1:18 pm
Good thing that beast never made it down to Lombard St.

"...they plant flowers there where they bury people..."
axlrosen • Jun 21, 2006 1:27 pm
I think it's the understated sign that makes the picture. "Um, dude... hill..."
MaggieL • Jun 21, 2006 1:33 pm
Too bad it wasn't a hybrid. ;-)
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 21, 2006 2:28 pm
From the gouges in the pavement, I'd say it wasn't a first but that wouldn't have stopped Steve McQueen. :D
Elspode • Jun 21, 2006 3:28 pm
Even in an urban SUV, ground clearance is everything. What a bunch of doofuses.
WabUfvot5 • Jun 21, 2006 3:41 pm
Rock Steady wrote:
Nice. I'm surprised I hadn't seen that yet. "Professional Drivers" out here are always inexperienced immigrants.


Ahh, but the wealthy passenger was probably "Do as I say and take that street, knave!" Immigrant driver, not knowing half the words in that sentence would have noted the anger and done as told.

Hmm. Somebody should make a documentary about the beaching, lol.
capnhowdy • Jun 21, 2006 3:55 pm
Looks like an overkill to me anyway. How the hell can they drive that thing through the inner city?
It's funny as hell to me that the dudes at each end of the vehicle look like they actually BELIEVE they can move this monster. "Don't sweat it, Hobson.... We'll just give you a little push...." SHEESH.
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 21, 2006 4:01 pm
If they lift on the front and push down on the back, the drive wheels [SIZE="3"]might [/SIZE]get enough bite to pull it off the hump. :smack:
glatt • Jun 21, 2006 4:07 pm
I assumed it was a front wheel drive. You think they put an extra long driveshaft into it when they do the conversion?
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 21, 2006 4:23 pm
Good point. :redface:
Trilby • Jun 21, 2006 4:29 pm
Oh, rich people! They're so stupidly, stupidly rich!
rkzenrage • Jun 21, 2006 4:31 pm
I live 1/2 between Tampa and O' Town right off of I-4 and can say with conviction that NY and LA have nothing on the crazy limos we have. (lived in LA and spend a great deal of time in NY)
capnhowdy • Jun 21, 2006 4:41 pm
I'm sure it would be harder to corner one of these things than a semi. We'll have to ask brianr.
Kitsune • Jun 21, 2006 4:48 pm
rkzenrage wrote:
I live 1/2 between Tampa and O' Town right off of I-4 and can say with conviction that NY and LA have nothing on the crazy limos we have.


Plant City does have some wild stretch tractors. ;)
BigV • Jun 21, 2006 4:55 pm
xoxoxoBruce wrote:
From the gouges in the pavement, I'd say it wasn't a first but that wouldn't have stopped Steve McQueen. :D
His gouges are at the bottom of the hill.
BigV • Jun 21, 2006 4:56 pm
xoxoxoBruce wrote:
If they lift on the front and push down on the back, the drive wheels [SIZE="3"]might [/SIZE]get enough bite to pull it off the hump. :smack:

Or...siphon the contents of the front hot tub to the one in the back. Water's heavy, y'know.
rkzenrage • Jun 21, 2006 5:03 pm
Kitsune wrote:
Plant City does have some wild stretch tractors. ;)

Was my old sales area, they like the stretch Hummers.
Spexxvet • Jun 21, 2006 6:44 pm
BigV wrote:
His gouges are at the bottom of the hill.

And the skid marks are in his underwear. :D
Griff • Jun 21, 2006 7:12 pm
Kitsune wrote:
Plant City does have some wild stretch tractors. ;)

streeeeeetch
rkzenrage • Jun 21, 2006 8:45 pm
Good night!
Kagen4o4 • Jun 21, 2006 10:32 pm
these poor creatures are beaching themselves and are now on the endangered species list

Image
dar512 • Jun 21, 2006 10:38 pm
Kagen4o4 wrote:
these poor creatures are beaching themselves and are now on the endangered species list

And once they beach themselves, they're practically impossible to get back onto the highway.
capnhowdy • Jun 21, 2006 10:43 pm
fuck a highway.... they need a runway.
Rock Steady • Jun 21, 2006 10:52 pm
Kagen4o4 wrote:
these poor creatures are beaching themselves and are now on the endangered species list


:D Now that's irony. Ra, Kagen.
Rock Steady • Jun 21, 2006 11:05 pm
Brianna wrote:
Oh, rich people! They're so stupidly, stupidly rich!


Well, here in the Silicon Valley (40 miles south of SF), there are many stock-options Jeans-to-Riches stories. So, there isn't a rich-people stereotype here. In the valley, 1 out of 20 of us are millionaires -- we still wear the same clothes, drive pick-up trucks, smoke weed, go to football games, and so on. You can't pick us out in a crowd and we like it that way. We wouldn't be caught dead in a stretch limo, but spend $60 taxi to drink and NOT drive.
miss_chance • Jun 22, 2006 1:46 am
You know, half those folks helping to rock it are standing *directly in front of the vehicle*!
BigV • Jun 22, 2006 12:35 pm
Rock Steady wrote:
Well, here in the Silicon Valley (40 miles south of SF), there are many stock-options Jeans-to-Riches stories. So, there isn't a rich-people stereotype here. In the valley, 1 out of 20 of us are millionaires -- we still wear the same clothes, drive pick-up trucks, smoke weed, go to football games, and so on. You can't pick us out in a crowd and we like it that way. We wouldn't be caught dead in a stretch limo, but spend $60 taxi to drink and NOT drive.

So, if I charter a bus with nineteen homeless people to your neighborhood, can I be the millionaire on the bus? I'd happily foreswear all future limo rides to drive a pickup truck to the ballgame. :)
Rock Steady • Jun 22, 2006 2:29 pm
That's the problem with the Silicon Valley. I'm house poor. I could cash in and move to Idaho, but then I want a life too. So, I stay here.
WabUfvot5 • Jun 22, 2006 3:22 pm
Hehe, all the rich folk make it interesting up in the North Bay. Going down a street near me you can totally tell the white trash who grew up here from the ones who just bought their house for a quarter million.
glatt • Jun 22, 2006 3:45 pm
a quarter million? Where are houses so cheap?
Happy Monkey • Jun 22, 2006 3:50 pm
Down payment, maybe...
Stonan • Jun 22, 2006 10:40 pm
Would have been REAL interesting to see this thing go UP the hill...
Rock Steady • Jun 23, 2006 12:00 am
Yeah, Jebediah is not paying attention.

In my neighborhood, little 3 BR houses sold for over $1MM this month. Where he lives away from jobs and such, $500,000 gets you a little 2-3 BR starter home.

What I did with my stock option money was to pay off my mortgage and start my own company. Well, I sold the company for half my $400,000 investment and my house doubled in value. Whatever. At least I have no debt at all.

And now I have stock options in play with three privately held companies.
mitheral • Jun 23, 2006 1:18 am
glatt wrote:
I assumed it was a front wheel drive. You think they put an extra long driveshaft into it when they do the conversion?


Yep. Actaully probably several shafts supported by hanger bearings.
WabUfvot5 • Jun 23, 2006 2:06 am
$750,000 = rich to me :(
Happy Monkey • Jun 23, 2006 7:25 am
that's $3/4 Million, which is more reasonable. Though where I am that would get you a small single family house in a reasonably nice neighborhood, not a mansion. A quarter million would get an efficiency, or maybe a one bedroom condo!

On the other hand, my area's housing market is insane.
xoxoxoBruce • Jun 23, 2006 8:52 am
mitheral wrote:
Yep. Actaully probably several shafts supported by hanger bearings.
After glatt mentioned it, I remembered reading that some of the stretch makers, start with 4 wheel drives and just use the fronts for the long ones.
It's a tradeoff because they have to get the 4x4 front end low enough for a limo.
The same article said they don't do much with the brakes.:eek6:
glatt • Jun 23, 2006 9:23 am
Heh. I don't actually know anything about limo conversions, other than they need to stiffen up the frame so they don't fold in half. I just assumed that putting in a big long driveshaft would have no advantage for most limos but would be an extra cost.
WabUfvot5 • Jun 23, 2006 4:15 pm
Oh shoot, I see my mistake. I mean $750,000, not $250,000. Stupid 100° temps pickle my brain.
Rock Steady • Jun 23, 2006 9:34 pm
Yea, that's better. "Efficiency Townhouses from just $399,000"
capnhowdy • Jun 23, 2006 10:33 pm
little known fact about pickles: refrigerate after opening.
footfootfoot • Jun 23, 2006 11:06 pm
Not to put a damper on this thread drift by bringing us back to topic, and also well who the f am I kidding? I am a buzzkill. Listen, the correct term would be "running aground", beached is something different.
/nutkin
Kagen4o4 • Jun 24, 2006 1:14 am
youre a beach
Rock Steady • Jun 24, 2006 1:54 am
Bringing back to topic, back in the "Web 1.0" bubble, my good friend, D wanted to buy a certain sports car but wanted to be sure if it would be able to climb his driveway into his home gargage well. So, he got a three day free trial and it worked out well for him.

I did a similar thing this month for a much cheaper used car Camry and they granted us a short term lease free. We drove it, had it inspected by our mechanic and it passed well. Mrs RS loves this car.
Griff • Jun 25, 2006 8:16 pm
footfootfoot wrote:
Not to put a damper on this thread drift by bringing us back to topic, and also well who the f am I kidding? I am a buzzkill. Listen, the correct term would be "running aground", beached is something different.
/nutkin

If the qualities of the vehicle in question were being allegorized as an ocean- going vessel my achene eating friend you would be correct. Unfortunately, the vehicle has been transformed metaphoricly into a semi-sentient ocean dwelling mammal capable of beaching himself for reasons unknown us who bath openly in schadenfreude. /UG
footfootfoot • Jun 25, 2006 8:30 pm
Griff wrote:
If the qualities of the vehicle in question were being allegorized as an ocean- going vessel my achene eating friend you would be correct. Unfortunately, the vehicle has been transformed metaphoricly into a semi-sentient ocean dwelling mammal capable of beaching himself for reasons unknown us who bath openly in schadenfreude. /UG


OK so we've anthropomorphised the landark into a landshark, I'll acceed your point. However the reason the thing beached itself was that the driver was a pussy and choked. Anyone who has seen "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", knows the way to take those hills is with the pedal on the far right mashed all the way to the floor. Momentum would have helped him clear the crest.

Granted, he'd probably not be driving shortly after his landing, but he'd not have made an IotD either probably. And in either case, I doubt he got a tip.
Rock Steady • Jun 25, 2006 9:06 pm
Actually, I met a guy that did just that in SF. He told me that it was not like in the movies where you go up in the air, land and keep going, no, you land, crunch and stop. And get a DUI.
footfootfoot • Jun 25, 2006 10:35 pm
Rock Steady wrote:
Actually, I met a guy that did just that in SF. He told me that it was not like in the movies where you go up in the air, land and keep going, no, you land, crunch and stop. And get a DUI.


Ed Zachary: Granted, he'd probably not be driving shortly after his landing,
MaggieL • Jun 26, 2006 11:23 am
Rock Steady wrote:

In my neighborhood, little 3 BR houses sold for over $1MM this month. Where he lives away from jobs and such, $500,000 gets you a little 2-3 BR starter home.

Which is one reason why Silly Valley is a crappy place to site a tech company. The only people who think "that's where all the talent is" are the ones already stuck living there.
skysidhe • Jun 26, 2006 12:03 pm
Undertoad wrote:


I had seen this one before axlrosen sent it along, but I'd seen it out of context. axl includes the link to The Consumerist, whose snarky take points out that this is a stretch SUV limo, and this is none other than anti-vehicle San Francisco.

"Taken in front of Goat Hill Pizza at 18th and Connecticut, in the Potrero Hill," they point out. "Proof that San Fran actually has structural defenses to debilitate encroachment by machines which don't run on the most efficient fuel of all: Love," they say. Yup, this additional level of irony pushes it over the edge, so to speak, and makes it your Cellar Image of the Day.

ha, I saw that the other day whilst 'stumbling' web pages. I didn't read to the 'love' part. I guess love isn't going to get it unstuck. So much for efficiency.
Rock Steady • Jun 27, 2006 12:09 am
MaggieL wrote:
Which is one reason why Silly Valley is a crappy place to site a tech company. The only people who think "that's where all the talent is" are the ones already stuck living there.


Valley Envy is not attractive. I moved here from Pittsburgh as you know. There is plenty of software engineering talent in that city. There is virtually no high-tech sales, marketing, and mangement.

An early-stage tech company in the Silicon Valley can get a critical mass of people with relevant experience and good track records.