A limousine or a limo is the name of a special, long, luxury car and is usually black (the traditional black limo is considered suitable for funerals as black is a color of mourning in most of the western societies) or white (the traditional white limo is fitting for wedding ceremonies in western societies) in color. Employed drivers called chauffeurs mostly drive these cars.
The design of these vehicles may change from one manufacturer to another. They are usually custom made. Depending on the client's needs they may be even armored. , being a special luxury one have a partition in between the driver and passenger compartments, which is usually a sliding glass window. The partition is there so that any conversation between passengers can be kept confidential from the chauffeur. The seat arrangement in these cars are different depending on the manufacturer's design. Usually it is forward facing (for passengers) with a considerable amount of foot room or foot space. They may have multiple doors for easy access. There are two "jump seats", that are mounted backward, of the driver, and they can be kept folded when not in use, but in some modern versions of limousine cars this feature is not found anymore. A can carry anywhere from 4 passengers up to 25-30 passengers in some limo buses in addition to the driver. In most limousines there are items of entertainment for the passengers like cd/dvd players, flat screen tvs, and even bars along with refrigerators.
Some of the popular limousine cars are Mercedes S600, BMW 74Il, VOlvo, Hummer H2 , Jaguar XJ, Maybach 62, Cadillac Deville, Lincoln Town Car and others.
In general limos are owned by wealthy people. But in many cases governments for their officials, big coperations for their executives and guests, might buy a limousine and put it in use. These cars are believed or observed as symbols of wealth.
Though limousine cars are considered to be a symbol of wealth and are thus thought to be owned by rich individuals, in most of the times it has been seen that only limousine service or rental companies own limos. Even those rich people who include limos as their major means of transport do not always possess a limousine. Because of the maintanence and some other costs it may be more cost effective for them to have a contract with a limousine service or rental company for a long-term basis to get the availability of the vehicle on a lease agreement.
Apart from prosperous and well off persons, anyone in need of these cars can hire it by making contact with any rental firm or organization, which offers or provide limos on lease on a short term basis (as going for long term could be very expensive for them to afford). The most frequent necessities or demand for these limos are for going to airports, sporting events, proms, weddings, birthday parties and even to funerals.
