A photo from President John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession shows three Cadillacs. Could one of them be the tidy 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine for sale on eBay, as the seller suggests? The owner, who had it for seven years, says it was also the personal transportation of the governor of Tennessee.
It’s hard to confirm the vehicle’s place in presidential history. But we know this limousine on the 75 Series shows 86,448 miles on the odometer. It sports a period vinyl roof with a signature tiny oval back window.
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The pristine condition of the 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine indicates that somebody was preserving this vehicle for history. The limo still features the hard-to-restore cloth-upholstered passenger compartment. Chrome and paint are sparkling, there’s no visible (or claimed) rust, and the dash is crack-free with the gauges intact.
The interior looks clean.
What’s more, the original emergency funeral lights work. So was this a funeral home car at some point before or after its political service?
Imagine driving something this elegant on a daily basis. While most people would never commute in a limousine, this one has been preserved well enough that you could pilot it around town—if you can park it.
Lots of Kennedy Cars
The 1963 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine is in tidy condition.
There are a bunch of Kennedy vehicles out there. For example, the white 1964 hearse that transported the president’s body from Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas to Air Force One on November 22, 1963, was sold at auction in 2012 for $160,000. It had been in a private collection for more than 40 years.
An even older Cadillac, a 1949 75 Series Fleetwood that the archbishop of Boston had owned, was put up for sale in the UK in 2016. It had reportedly been at several Kennedy family events, including the president’s wedding, inaugural, and funeral. Cadillac built only 220 of these sedans.
Another vintage transporter, the Lincoln that supposedly transported Kennedy to the airport in Fort Worth just before the Dallas tragedy, was recently on sale in Connecticut, with results unknown. That one was a sedan, but a convertible that the president and first lady rode in that morning in Dallas—before the fatal trip—was sold at Bonhams’ The American Presidential Experience auction in 2020 for $375,000. A 1960 Continental that was the President’s personal car failed to move.
A Dark History
The Cadillac Fleetwood limousine sports a handsome vinyl roof with an oval rear window.
As to the Kennedy assassination car, we know where that one is—in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.
The museum explains:
e midnight blue, un-armored convertible was rebuilt with a permanent roof, titanium armor plating, and more somber black paint. The limousine returned to the White House and remained in service until 1977. The modified car shows the fundamental ways in which presidential security changed after Kennedy’s deat
There is a long history of presidential cars, with collectors going to great lengths to maintain these cultural touchstones in the condition in which they ferried our leaders. Whether this particular car was actually in Kennedy’s funeral motorcade or not, it’s a reminder of a time when American luxury cars were the world’s gold standard.
These big Cadillac limousines had V-8 power. This one reportedly runs well.
The modern presidential limo—commonly dubbed The Beast—is less about luxury and more about security. It’s an armored vehicle based on a heavy-duty truck but styled like a modern Caddy. We’re enamored with the 1963 limo that might have carried President Kennedy. It makes us wonder if times have changed—or if we will one day see vehicles from current presidential fleets in the hands of private collectors.
