President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Barron Trump exit limo and start walking along the Inaugural parade route https://t.co/KYs92EZ9I0 pic.twitter.com/MKpvaWOjFm
— ABC News (@ABC) January 20, 2017
As Barack Obama took office in 2009, one of the major things people discussed was that he received a vastly remodeled presidential limousine on Inauguration Day — unofficially known as Cadillac One or The Beast.
There has been similar speculation about a possible new presidential limo arriving in time for Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day. However, now that things are well underway and no redesigned limo models have been seen, some may be wondering what happened and why Trump is using Obama’s “old” limos.
Well, it appears that the new models designed for the Trump administration are not quite ready. Government contracts reviewed by Fox News show the new Cadillac One is not scheduled to be completed until March 30, 2017.
General Motors obtained at least $16 million in contracts to design a new presidential car and work is thought to have started back in 2014. However, the completion date still being over 60 days away appears to explain why the new vehicle did not arrive in time for the inauguration.
General Motors generally directed all questions about the vehicle to the Secret Service, given the highly classified nature of the car, but they did tell the news outlet “it is Cadillac’s great honor to design and build the Presidential Limousine, a great American tradition.”
The Secret Service apparently did not respond to requests for comment on the new vehicle.
Spy photos that appear to show a camouflaged version of the new presidential car were published late last summer and show the new car will look a quite a bit like Obama’s sedan/SUV hybrid type limo. However, the front grille and headlights appear to more closely match a combination design of vehicles in Cadillac’s 2017 fleet of commercially available sedans and SUVs.
[image via screen grab]
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