How does Trump’s US$1.5 million Cadillac, ‘the Beast’, stack up against Putin’s new Russian limo?
- The US set the bar for enormous luxury armoured limos, as Trump’s ‘the Beast’ can attest, but Putin’s huge new sedan may be just as remarkable
For world leaders, the limousine is an important element in making a grand entrance.
For much of the 20th century, various Lincoln limos have been the vehicle of choice for the US president. That changed in the early 1980s when the Reagan administration went with Cadillac. And it’s been Caddys ever since.
The latest version of the presidential vehicle, nicknamed “the Beast”, debuted in September 2018. Once again, it’s a Cadillac. The limo was originally commissioned in 2014 by the Obama administration but didn’t go into service until two years into Trump’s presidency.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently debuted a new presidential limo of his own called the Aurus Senat. Aurus is a new Russian luxury auto brand that debuted the Senat Limo at the 2018 Moscow International Auto Show.
Here it is: Trump’s new US$1.5 million limo. It's the latest version of “the Beast”.
It joins the 2009 Cadillac DTS bodied limo used during the Obama years.
The Secret Service uses both the 2009 and the 2018 limo.
“The Beast” may carry the Cadillac branding, but it has little in common with the production sedan it's designed to resemble. In fact, the limo is built on a General Motors truck chassis.
