Spotted during a service call: Checkers, anyone?

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I remember...

<span style="font-size: medium;">when they were so prevalent here in NYC. Amazingly spacious and comfortable. One note though, when Pedi-cabs came along here, Checkers were long gone from the streets of NYC. </span>

 

<span style="font-size: medium;">And this is the latest incarnation of the NYC Yellow Cab...a damn Nissan!</span>

 

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The Checker came with chrome bumpers until the 1970's I think. Then they just went with silver painted ones.

At one point in time is was pretty difficult to call a taxi in a large city and NOT get a Checker! I remember seeing those horrid last model Chevrolet Caprice's turned into cabs. You'd also see them as police cars too. But it wasn't the same.

Ed Cole was behind Checker in the later years of the company. He was the engineer who designed to Corvair & Vega for Chevrolet as well as the one who put the horsepower behind the Corvette in the 1950's. Quite brilliant actually. But his final iteration of Checker was an idea to buy Volkswagen's that were made in the Pennsylvania and stretch them into limos. But that never happened.
 
Coule it be a Checker Aerocab? Those came with the factory with 4 doors on each side of the car. They were used mainly at airports & train stations for large crowds. I think they would seat 12-14 people at a time.
 
There was one of these in Temple, Texas when I lived there in the late 80s through the mid-1990s. I always loved them, and couldn't believe they kept this body style into the eighties.
 
Whirlcool, no it only has four doors, 2 front 2 back. It was a regular Checker Cab that he stretched himself. Here's the link to his site. The owners name is Simon, he's a very cool guy with a thick British accent. He specializes in Jaguar sedans and limos as well. His cars are beautiful.

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bigcitylimo.com
 
I never liked the concept of "art cars". We have a huge art car movement here in Houston with an annual parade. To say that most of the people associated with that event are "strange" is an understatement. It's the height of the "artsy-fartsy" movement.
 
Chicago was a big Checker city, you never saw cabs driving anything else. They were even moderately common in some neighborhoods, people would always try to flag them down when they were "civilian" models.
 
There's an old movie from the late 80's or early 90's called Second Sight with John Larroquette and Bronson Pinchot (Cousin Balki) and John's character drives a Checker. It was in very nice shape too.

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www.imcdb.org
 
I saw a fairly clean if slightly faded Checker wagon this morning. Not sure of the year, but probably '76 or later as it had historic vehicle plates which are mostly meaningless except they exempt the car from smog checks that are required for cars made after '75.
 
Used to have neighbors around the corner who had one. It started out dark blue, and then they had it painted maroon. I used to call it the taxi car.

They were a unique older couple who liked unusual things. Their house was a mid-century modern style redwood and glass building with a flat roof. It has since been renovated and looks like a conventional house now.
 

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