The Cadillac presidential limousine known as The Beast, which was specially developed by General Motors for the federal government, cost nearly $1.6 million USD to build – making it 53 times more expensive than the average car in the United States.
A recent study conducted by British automotive research firm MotorEasy identified the world leaders with the most expensive state limousines and compared the cost to that of the average car in that particular country.
Via MotorEasy
The Beast, an armored Cadillac limousine specially designed to keep the president safe when making major public appearances, costs the equivalent of £1.2 million, according to MotorEasy, or $1.57 million USD at current exchange rates. The Ford F-Series, which is the best-selling vehicle in America, has an average transaction price of £22,424 ($29,516 at current exchange rates), MotorEasy found, making The Beast 53 times more expensive than the most popular vehicle in the country.
That might seem like a ridiculous expense at first, but The Beast is heavily armored and is thus an important tool in the Secret Service’s arsenal as they work to the president safe. Very little is known about the limousine for rather obvious security reasons, but we know it has a diesel engine (likely a Duramax V8) and has styling heavily inspired by the now-defunct Cadillac CT6 sedan.
One of The Beast’s more famous appearances was at the Daytona 500 earlier this year, when Trump lapped the Daytona International Speedway in the limo prior to the start of the Great American Race, which was eventually postponed due to rain.
Via MotorEasy
The Beast isn’t the most expensive state limousine currently in service, somewhat surprisingly. Queen Elizabeth II’s Bentley State Limousine cost £10 million to build, equivalent to over $13 million USD at current exchange rates. That makes her car 610 times more expensive than average UK citizen’s £16,385 ($21,440 USD) Ford Fiesta. At the opposite end of the spectrum sits New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, whose £23,840 ($31,196) Hyundai Ioniq is almost the exact same price as the average Kiwi’s £22,361 ($29,260) Ford Ranger pickup truck.
Comments
The United States Presidential Limousine is a bargain at $1.6M compared to Queen Elizabeth ll $13M Rolls Royce
It is still too expensive. Trump can ride in a Chevy Malibu, since no one will dirty their hands to harm him.
One and a half million, lots of money for a car, but since Trump doesn’t take any pay, it’s like he’s paying for the car himself. Now if we could get Pelosi to pay her own air fare…..that would be some real savings to the Taxpayer.
I thought the president’s salary was 300k
Ok, 300k for eight years is 2.4 million, not enough to pay Pelosi’s air travel but plenty for an armored lemo.
@ Raymond Ramirez bruh now i know nobody said you needed to come on here write an insulting comment toward Trump and thought you were gonna get a positive response bruh shutup and leave man. He probably wouldnt think you are worth it either to even look twice at
The english royal State limousine mentioned in the list is not a Rolls Royce, but a Bentley.
While the US Beast comes in series of 12 (the previous had 12 copies), this Bentley is a one off unique construction offered by Bentley to the english monarchy. One might see this as a publicity stunt to push the Bentley brand, after VW found out that by puchasing the Rolls Royce Motor Company for about one thousand million €, they did get ownership of the Crewe factory, and the Bentley brand, but not of the Rolls Royce brand. That one was property of the Rolls Royce aircraft engine company, and was subsequently sold to BMW ( who originally wanted the whole company).
VW and BMW then agreed on a two (?) year transition period which gave BMW the time to build a new factory for Rolls Royce and design a new car, while VW could still produce and sell Rolls, but used the transition time mainly to build up the Bentley brand which was in the shadow behind Rolls Royce. This State Limousine as a gift to the queen was part of that, another to build a Bentley race car and let it win twice the Le Mans 24 hours race.
VW succeded with this. At least in Germany more Bentleys are being sold than Rolls (I don’t know about other countries).
“stores of the presidents blood type” So blood type M for Mcdonald’s .
The new one is a little more expensive due to the special disinfectant spray now needed, and not for Covid.
If Biden wins.. he’ll get whatever China uses because there’s a reason why his nickname is China Joe.
Really.. is it that big of a deal.. 1.6 million.. I mean they spent $32 million on a Russian collusion investigation that found to be a complete hoax orchestrated by Hilary Clinton..
$1.6 million for an armored car for our President. Not that much
48M but who’s counting….
Another great “article” by an unbiased “journalist”. I forgot spending is only an issue to certain people depending upon the party affiliation of the executive, but only the spending as it directly relates to that executive. Not the spending for countless “free” things all off the backs of normal everyday people. But this “article” rips through all of that and gets right to the nitty gritty comparing the price of the US Presidential transport vs the price of the vehicle for the PM of an island nation that has about the same amount of people as Oregon but with an existence that is only remembered when googling “long ass flights”.
Who is buying all the base model F-150?
The average transaction price of £22,424 ($29,516) is barely more than the base price of $28,745. I doubt the
dealership discounts are that generous.
Somehow I think the Queens 10M limo price is way over estimated and the price of The Beast is way under estimated……
The Beast is way more armored and custom built than a Pullman 600 Guard, which is listed as almost the same price, this is a total garbage article not worth the time to post on this site, find better content……
I agree Mr.R.
The Bentley limousine is from 2002 so it’s rather old now and there are only two of them. It has none of the extensive fortifications of the US President’s car so it’s hard to see it costing ten times more.
Also, for what it’s worth, the last time I met the Queen (about five years ago), and I really did meet her, she was still using an even older car, a 1960s Rolls Royce Phantom V, which she is said to prefer. I didn’t get the impression that protection was high on the list of necessary functions for Her Majesty’s transport.
Contrast that with the Presidential Limousine where the car is brand new as of 2018 featuring the latest protective technologies. Additionally I believe the Secret Service actually has 16 Presidential Limousines. Currently as the Obama era cars are cycling out and the new design is being phased in, you’ll still sometimes see Trump in an Obama-era car.
So 16 cars versus 2 and heavy fortification versus mostly an elegant parade car and I can’t see the Queen having a more expensive fleet than the American president.
Yeah there are a few dark red and black Royal limos, there is another 1977 Phantom VI that has a high roof and glass section over the rear seats that was made for the Queens Jubilee, I think this is the one that got paint thrown at it when British students were protesting for more free stuff…..
I don’believe this 10 million price tag for this one off Bentley.
Neither the Windsor company nor the British state paid for it, since it was a gift by Bentley (then the layest subsidiary of the VW corporation), and Bentley did not disclose ehat it did cost them to design and build the two cars.
The en.Wikipedia article on this car links as source for the price to an article in The Daily Telegraph reporting on an incident where the engine of this car did not start (unfortunately behind a pay wall).
So no reason for me to believe.
OTOH, the total development cost for a new type of car is the same, independently if they actually build 1, 2, 12 or 120’000 units. But the development cost per vehicle depends on by how many copies this total development cost is being divided.
For the new owner of the Bentley brand this was well spent as one of the most succesful means to move the Bentley brand out if the shadow of Rolls Royce.
I thought it was XTS Canadian built and shipped foe Car armerer in the USA?
This has no XTS in it at all, its 100% a unique vehicle, the last 2 Presidential Limousines have been, the previous 2000 and 2004 Bush era ones were still loosely DeVille/DTS based using front and rear treatments from the production cars, but they were 100% unique underneath and not FWD .
tRump belongs in a yugo!
Trump didn’t want the money. usually the president is paid $400k
God, you are the perfect representative of all that is wrong with country.
This is a car website. You preach your rethoric on the FOX News message board.