Hummers, Cadillacs, and More of the Biggest Cars Ever Made

The biggest car or SUV isn't necessarily the best, but that doesn't make it any less impressive when it pulls up curbside. The United States had some monstrous cars patrolling its roadways during the 1960s and 1970s, but they faded away as multiple fuel crises made them seem inefficient and pointless. The full-sized SUV seemed headed in the same direction when gas prices reached more than $4 a gallon over a decade ago, but the emergence of crossovers and brief drop in gas prices revived it, trimming smaller (and sometimes tiny) cars from U.S. lineups. Despite current gas prices, we are once again in the era of the land yacht — but history shows these vehicles can always get bigger.

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At 239 inches, the extended-wheelbase version of this bespoke luxury vehicle is just under 20 feet in length. But if you don't want to spend extra for a slightly larger car, the 230-inch sedan starts at roughly $460,000. Even in its slimmest form — without extras such as armor or retracting hood ornaments — the Phantom still weighs in at nearly 3 tons. It also makes an appearance in several enviable celebrity car collections.

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You're going to see Cadillac a lot on this list, largely because making huge vehicles is what it does best. Weighing more than 2.5 tons and measuring 233.7 inches (about 19.5 feet) in length, this car was built to be a limousine or town car. Fitted with a 7.7-liter or 8.2-liter V8 engine, airbags, automatic level controls, and rear reading lamps, it was the height of U.S. luxury in the mid-1970s. But it had an unusually small wheelbase that made it tough to maneuver.

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To get from the train station to your home in the automobile’s early days, you took a station wagon: a car with a wooden box on the back to hold luggage. To take more passengers and gear far away from the city, you took a "suburban": A station wagon mounted onto a van or truck frame. Chevrolet invented several family cars at once by debuting the Suburban in 1936; but it's rolled into the modern day as an extended, truck-based SUV.

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If you want to talk about actual land yachts, let's take a stroll back to 1962 and look at this 17.8-foot monster. Dodge wanted to keep up with General Motors, so it made a version of the already goliath Chrysler Newport with a standard 5.9-liter, 265-horsepower V8 engine and an optional 6.3-liter, 305-horsepower V8. It didn't work, and the 880 was gone by the end of 1965.

The L wouldn't have been at home in the '70s heyday of big, boaty cars — at 17.25 feet long, it would've been undersized, and its V6 engine would've been considered small despite the fact it produces 335 horsepower that its predecessors couldn't touch. But this Audi is one of the biggest cars you can get today starting at less than $100,000, which is saying something in an executive vehicle market that still prizes efficiency.

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That's “Extended Wheelbase”: At 229.5 inches (or just over 19 feet), this 3-ton luxury vehicle has room and heft to spare. A 6.75-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine provides 506 horsepower to minimize the weight, but what do you do with that room? Fill it with a custom bottle cooler with room for two champagne bottles, hand-cut lead crystal champagne flutes, and duck down seating cushions and electric privacy curtains. How do you maneuver this more than $310,000 vehicle? Ask your driver.

We aren't talking about the muscle car of today, or even the one Richard Petty won races with in the early 1970s: We're talking about the ugly, god-forsaken “luxury” vehicle cursed with the Chrysler Cordoba's body and vinyl landau roof. When the fourth generation of this car was introduced in 1975, it came in at a shocking 18 feet and had shag carpeting. It was the car that would kill the Dodge Charger name until a brief comeback in the '80s and a full overhaul in 2006.

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The Excursion was just massive. Built from 1999 to 2005, it was the largest SUV Ford had made to that point. Weighing in at nearly 4 tons and stretching close to 20 feet, it was somehow an even larger version of the F-250 Super Duty pickup it was built on. True to the large SUVs of its time, it got 15 miles per gallon on its best day.

Russian vehicle fabricator Dartz builds armored vehicles for the global elite. In the more than $250,000 T-98, there was a V-8 that could go 110 mph — tough to reach with steel plating and 3-inch-thick windows meant to withstand a direct hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. The $1.1 million Prombron adds bulletproof wheel hubs, not to mention gold-plated windows, and ruby- and diamond-encrusted gauges.  

This is now the biggest Ford-branded SUV available, which should give some indication of just how far SUVs have downsized in recent years. Introduced in 2017, the Ford Expedition MAX (which is really overcompensating with the all-caps name) is 221.9 inches long — or more than a foot shorter than the Excursion. Built in the United States to compete with the Chevrolet Suburban, it's a reminder that the game has changed for SUVs in a crossover world.

In the 1970s, this car came in two sizes: big and enormous. This is the biggest car Ford ever offered, and it was roughly 18.6 feet long in sedan form and nearly 19 feet as a station wagon. It weighed more than 2 tons and, because it wanted to be like the Thunderbird, got hidden headlights and a choice of V8 engines ranging from 4.9 liter to 7.5 liter. It was bulky, it was a gas guzzler, and it was exactly the type of U.S. car that wouldn't be able to handle the oil crises to come.

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The Newport served as a two-year, one-off vehicle in the '40s and '50s, then as an entry-level sedan and wagon in 1961. Then, 50 years ago, it was transformed into an absolute boat of a vehicle and the heaviest Chrysler ever made. This car is a big reason Chrysler sales plummeted after the 1973 oil crisis, but the company sold more of this car than any other. Too bad a complete retooling in 1979 couldn't save it.

Before "Hummer" was simply a brand of SUVs, it was High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, or Humvee) built for the U.S. military during the 1991 Gulf War. Arnold Schwarzenegger owned one, '90s R&B groups drove them in videos, and civilians acted as if they didn't have a 10-foot wheelbase, nearly a foot and a half of ground clearance, and nearly 4 tons of curb weight. Fewer than 12,000 were sold before sales halted in 2006 — but now the Hummer's back as an electric vehicle. 

This is Pontiac's designation for each of its wagons: The Star Chief, Astre, Bonneville, Catalina, Executive, Grand Ville, LeMans, Parisienne, 6000, Sunbird, and Tempest. The Grand Safari built on the Bonneville and Grand Ville body was the most impressive — more than 19 feet long, with 5.5 feet of interior space from side to side, and weighing nearly 5,300 pounds at its peak, wow factors that doubled as its greatest drawback.

This 3-ton behemoth (basically the Toyota Hummer) was sold exclusively in Japan in the 1990s and was supposed to be used strictly for police, fire, and rescue as a test for Toyota's SUV designs. But a few made their way into civilian hands, and some even made their way over to the states. They occasionally find their way onto the market, and their four-wheel steering, four-cylinder diesel engine, central tire inflation, and civilian-friendly suspension might be worth the fuss ... if you can acclimate yourself to the right-hand steering wheel. 

Rolls-Royce has an SUV because many of its newest customers don't buy luxury sedans. It's named after the Cullinan Diamond, which explains the 3-ton, 17.5-foot SUV's $348,500 starting price. So does the 6.75-liter, 563-horsepower twin-turbo V-12 Rolls-Royce engine; bespoke key, lowering stainless steel door handle, heated steering wheel; night-vision "Wildlife and Pedestrian Warning"; four-camera viewing system with helicopter perspective; elevating seating; coach doors, and an off-road setting.

Close to 19 feet and more than 2 tons, the Royal Monaco should have been far more impressive. Yet vinyl seats, multiple ashtrays, a digital clock, and hidden headlights were about the greatest luxuries the Royal Monaco offered. Best known as police cruisers in “The Blues Brothers,” “Smokey and the Bandit II” and “CHiPs,” the Royal Monaco was simply another oversized fleet vehicle in a market that seldom wanted them. Its run lasted from 1976 to 1978.

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From 1986 to 1993, Lamborghini turned the popular Countach supercar into an SUV/pickup called the LM002. The 450-horsepower V-12 engine from the Countach was mounted onto an off-road suspension, the body had its fenders squared off, and was given a cargo bed. Roughly a decade after its demise, this ridiculous-seeming vehicle would become the template other luxury sports cars would emulate.

A gorgeous convertible, practical sedan, and serviceable wagon since 1958, the Impala has spent the better portion of its past 50 years as Chevrolet's bestseller and the last link to its overpowered commuter cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The Impala, with its high-performance, big-block V8 engine, super-sport package, and enormous body, was built for families that loved the road. Rising fuel costs forced an ugly redesign in the late '70s, and the Impala limped its way into the '80s before quitting in 1985. The version seen today was built as a fleet vehicle, but may not survive the switch away from sedans.

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This $200,000, 17-foot, 2.5-ton truck truck isn't some flashy bauble for celebrities: It's built to get people out of blinding, Siberian snowstorms and through mountain passes without calling in air support. It's an amphibious vehicle, watertight, with a water jet on its back, and it’s able to do at least 6 miles per hour in lakes and rivers.

Again, the '70s had a strange effect on vehicles. The stylish, sporty Thunderbird of Ford's past took a turn with the sixth generation in 1972. It was a nearly 19-foot boat with chromed-out bumpers, a 7.7-liter V8 engine, an available eight-track tape player, and exactly 2.5 tons of ground weight. Sales peaked in 1973, never coming close afterward. 

The tires on these $80,000-plus vehicles are what make this vehicle noteworthy. They can be used to float vehicles or even run over people without killing or severely injuring them. Flexible and low-pressure, they can handle Siberian tundra without tearing up the ground.

Before carmakers covered station wagons in fake wood paneling, Chrysler had the first real “woodie” — actual wood went on the doors and side panels. The Town & Country had evolved into a mass-market wagon with tailgate and rear washer by 1968, and it got fake wood paneling in the 1970s, but it was still nearly 19 feet long. By 1990, the car was a wood-paneled minivan.

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This 6-ton armored SUV is built to protect NBA players, politicians, and anyone else who lives in fear of the proletariat lobbing artillery their way. It comes equipped with a 400-horsepower Ford V-10 engine that can run on biofuels; a six-seat leather interior with wool carpeting; navigation and Bluetooth equipment; and a dual-screen rear console and rear laptop stations. But none of that is why you buy this $800,000 vehicle. You get it for front and rear night-vision cameras; ballistic glass windows and aluminum, composite, and ceramic armor; firewalls; and bulletproof run-flat tires. If you'd like, you can install upgrades including large flat-screen TVs; satellite television; bars and cigar humidors; external listening devices; and a black box recorder.

It had wood doors and side panels. Its “magic doorgate” flipped down like a truck tailgate or swung open like a door. At 19 feet, powered by V8 engines, the Country Squire sold hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year. Kids of its era are likely to remember it for side-facing seats, a magnetic checkerboard, optional CB radio, and hidden rear cargo compartment — it’s the wagon that introduced kids to “the wayback.” v

Why spend more than $278,000 on a truck? Well, Terradyne's Gurkha has a 6.7-liter V-8 turbo-diesel engine that generates 660 pound-feet of torque and can still go 70 mph on flat tires. With its configurable interior, protective window mesh, thermal imaging camera, fire suppression system, and extreme off-road capability, it’s particularly valuable to people who value security.

By the start of the 1970s, the broad “fuselage” design has stretched the full-sized Polara out to more than 18 feet (the longest since its introduction in 1960). But even a range of engines stretching from a 230-horsepower, 6.2-liter V8 to a 375-horsepower, 6.5-liter V8 wasn't enough to save the Polara from the 1973 fuel crisis. Its run would end, but Dodge always had another oversized vehicle waiting for uninterested customers. 

Commercial truck maker International gave hardcore truck folks what they wanted here, at least from 2004 to 2008: a 7-ton, 21-foot semi rig with a Ford Super Duty pickup bed in the back. If owners were going to customize their vehicles with semi-style exhaust pipes and horns anyway, why not just give them a 14,500-pound medium-duty commercial truck, and give it four-wheel drive and a 12,000 pounds of payload capacity? After all, if you were willing to pay up to $100,000 to buy it, you'd probably find a use for 20 tons of towing power.

The ugly, utilitarian Gran Fury was for boring, spendthrift grandpas. Once the police and taxi car of choice, it was also one of the last cars longer than 18 feet well after multiple oil crises. In 1980, it measured 221.5 inches and its 5.9-liter V8 engine was hopelessly inefficient and out of date. The land yacht had become the land barge, and Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge still hadn't towed themselves out of trouble.

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This six-wheeled desert beast isn't a modification: Mercedes-Benz sold it straight from the factory. This nearly 4-ton vehicle has independent axle suspensions, a V-8 bi-turbo engine with nearly 600 horsepower, and independent tire pressure control — meaning it's built strictly for off-roading and playing around in the sand. It can cost nearly $1 million on the secondary market.

There have been iconic Cadillac Eldorado models since 1953, but if you were looking for the opulent, swanked-out ’70s vehicle of choice, this was the car that drove “Super Fly.” By 1976, the Eldorado had grown to more than 18.5 feet in length, had “opera” windows, weighed 2.5 tons, and had an 8.2-liter V8 engine that still somehow managed to generate only 235 horsepower.

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When the Electra was introduced in 1959, car size was so important to customers that General Motors was just putting it in the name. The Electra measured 233 inches at its largest, but always hovered around 225 inches — or 18.75 feet. At its heaviest, it was 2.5 tons and had to be powered by a 7.5-liter, 370-horsepower V8.

The "UNIversal-MOtor-Gerät" machine may be the most significant working vehicle in history. It emerged out of World War II as a self-propelled machine for sawing trees and harvesting fields, but by now the Unimog has been a military vehicle, firetruck, camper, delivery vehicle, among other things.

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Hey, if GM isn't going to treat this vehicle and the Suburban as the same thing, neither are we. Never mind that there was a GMC Suburban until 1999, when its name was changed to the Yukon XL. In 2013, the GMC got a facelift that gave it a bigger chrome grille, but reduced its length to 224.3 inches from the Suburban's 224.4. But it gets a more powerful 6.2-liter V8 engine to the Suburban's 5.3-liter V8. At nearly 3 tons, the Yukon Denali can use all the power it can get.

The name alone conjures images of continent-sized, ridiculously opulent ’70s dream cruisers. The decade began with the Mark IV, a 228.1-inch cruiser that offered designer special editions from Bill Blass, Gucci, Givenchy, and Cartier, had a bespoke color palate, and mounted a gold-plated plaque on the dashboard. That decade ended with the Mark V: A nearly 19.5-foot behemoth with a vinyl roof, opera windows, Cartier clock, padded vinyl, gold grille inserts, and a crystalline hood ornament. It was 2.5 tons of swagger with a 6.6- to 7.5-liter V8 engine, and it was glorious. 

Chrysler hasn't made an Imperial since 1983, and it's easy to see why: The name was a bit on the nose. At its maximum length of nearly 230 inches — or roughly 19 feet — the Crown was a small empire unto itself. These weren't pretty, either. At best, they looked like Chryslers with more vinyl. At worst, they were a reminder that the Imperials designed by Ghia in the 1960s were gorgeous and had a lot more to offer drivers than a 7.2-liter V8 engine.

Cadillac hasn't stopped making land yachts: It just makes the ones people want. Though demand for the Escalade in the United States dropped from a peak of more than 62,000 in 2006 to little more than 22,000 in 2013, It rebounded to nearly 37,000 vehicles in 2021. At 224.3 inches long (just like its sibling, the GMC Yukon Denali XL), Escalade provides 94.2 cubic inches of cargo space, a General Motors 6.2-liter EcoTec3 V8 engine with 420 horsepower, the Cadillac CUE infotainment system, lane assistance, and a rear-seat DVD entertainment system.  

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Cadillac stopped making the Coupe DeVille only in 2005, but it was about 30 years earlier that the vehicle reached its peak. At 231 inches — or 19.25 feet — the Coupe de Ville was the embodiment of its era. Whitewall tires, patterned velour interiors, a full vinyl roof, traction control, cornering lights, and driver and passenger airbags were all packed into this 2.5-ton package. But if the skirted rear wheels in these versions made from 1971 through 1976 didn't convey enough size for you, the 8.2-liter V8 engine and pickup versions made it very clear just how monstrous this '70s luxury icon was.

Completely overhauled in 2018, the Navigator still has its chrome grille, long wayback windows, and luxury amenities. But at 221.6 inches, it's still as big as the Ford Expedition MAX and the truck each is based on: the F-150. It now comes in a Black Label edition that makes it a $110,000+ Ford, but is still a more-than-3-ton SUV that can handle the roughest elements you can throw at it. 

We gave the Pontiac Safari wagons their own space because they were the lumbering dinosaurs of the station wagon era. But from 1971 to 1976 the Grand Safari “clamshell” design made its way onto the largest versions of the Chevrolet Kingswood, Belair and Caprice Estates; Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser; and the Buick Estate. They also had a "glide-away" tailgate that glided away only if you exerted 35 pounds of pressure to lower it. Getting it back up was no dream, either. Having a tuck-away tailgate did solve a problem that even SUV and minivan liftgates haven't figured out, though: How to open a cargo door in a tight space like a closed garage.

What did this, the Imperial, the Newport, the Dodge Monaco, and the Plymouth Gran Fury all have in common? Yes, the parent company and the 7.2-liter V8 engine, but also Chrysler's “C-body” from about 1974 through 1978. Chrysler blew right past the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and just kept pumping out these big vehicles with vertical grilles, hidden headlights, a vinyl roof, opera windows, a stereo with a foot switch for changing stations, and a CB radio. At 231 inches, it was the size of a Coupe de Ville, but it was one of the few Chryslers that tried to be not only as large as a Cadillac, but as luxurious.

The Armada has seating for eight, 8,500 pounds of towing power, and impressive off-road credentials. Safety features coming standard include adaptive cruise control, forward-collision mitigation with automatic emergency braking, and "Rear Door Alert," which helps ensure you didn't leave anything precious in the back seat, such as pets or kids. With a V8 engine and a lofty 9.1 inches of ground clearance, the Armada starts at $50,000.

Take a Nissan Armada, throw in luxury features such as leather seating, wood grain, a better sound system, and some LED lighting, and what do you get? A more than 3-ton Infiniti SUV. 

The woodgrain-paneled Colony Park wagon was a somewhat snazzier version of Ford's Country Squire, with the same “magic doorgate” tailgate and sideways third-row seats. The Colony Park was ventilated all the way to the rear, had covered headlights, and got a driver-side airbag and three-point seatbelts as the years went on.

The eight-cylinder Ninety-Eight started its run in 1941 and from 1971 through 1976 became something Chuck D would rhyme about. Another C-body cousin of the Coupe DeVille and Buick Electra, the Ninety-Eight had a massive 7.5-liter “Rocket” V8 engine, opera windows, cornering headlights, rear wheel skirts, vertical taillights, an egg-crate grille, and massive front and rear bumpers. In 1972, Oldsmobile sold 2,650 Regency models celebrating the automaker's 75th anniversary. Each vehicle was registered at Tiffany's, included the specially styled interior with black or covert gold "pillow effect" velour upholstery, Tiffany Gold paint, a Tiffany clock, and a sterling silver key. At 23 feet long, it was the biggest Oldsmobile ever produced. 

Chrysler didn't spend the '80s cranking out minivans and utilitarian K-cars because Lee Iacocca was a genius: It did so because it kept digging itself 19.5-foot graves throughout the '70s. For some idea of the monument to hubris that was 1970s Chrysler, the automaker released its biggest vehicle — the 235.3-inch (or 19.6-foot) 1973 LeBaron — during the exact year of the OPEC oil embargo. At 2.6 tons of curb weight and with a 7.2-liter V8 as standard equipment, this car didn't stand a chance against an oil crisis. Imperial never recovered, and would be shut down in 1975. Iaccoca tried to bring it back as an efficient luxury vehicle in 1981, but even a “Frank Sinatra package” of features couldn't overcome inflation. Imperial was finally put to rest in 1983, ending the “land yacht” era.

At nearly 8 feet tall with 17.2 inches of ground clearance and 36.1-inch tires, this ridiculous off-roader was built to be big — with military-grade portal axles, and requiring a 4-liter V8 twin-turbo engine pushing out 422 horsepower just to get around. At 3.3 tons, it has some serious heft to it, but it's the vehicle's remarkably nimble off-road acumen that earned it a nearly $300,000 price tag. 

Yes, this 3-ton SUV is basically a Tundra pickup with a roof, but that's been such a good thing for Toyota that it hasn't refreshed this vehicle since 2008. The boxed frame, the independent rear suspension and even the 4.6-liter to 5.7-liter V8 engine give the Sequoia all the early 2000s SUV-era brawn without sacrificing crossover-style amenities such as multi-zone climate control, navigation, and seating for up to eight people. 

Is it big for Ford or the Lincoln brand? No, but it's bigger than the Ford Flex and Ford Explorer it's based on, while giving buyers a huge chrome grille, a comparatively efficient V6 engine, and a spacious third row of seating. More than 17 feet might be small for this list, but the MKT is still bigger than the majority of non-Ford SUVs out there.

Hyundai's luxury brand has been making its name slowly here in the U.S. with a quiet ride, leather appointments, tech toys — and a lot of extra space. This long-wheelbase version of the G90 extends its length to 18 feet, which is longer than any SUV Hyundai makes. In fact, the only cars bigger than it in the U.S. market are made by Rolls-Royce and Bentley. 

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