When Kira and Rayburn Gosney went on a 13-state road trip last summer with their four kids and mother-in-law, they did it in style.
They bought a slightly-used stretch limousine with a full bar and two TVs.
“We kind of figured out that a limo was as affordable for that as getting a big suburban or a van or something, which of course is the coolest thing ever for our teenage kids,” Kira Gosney said. “The big one thinks he’s Justin Bieber getting out of the limo everywhere we go. It’s hilarious.”
They also realized that after the trip, they could keep the Lincoln Town Car and start a small business in Durango.
“It’s been slow to start,” Kira Gosney said. “But it’s picking up all the time. It is a specialized thing in this small market. There are not many people needing full, stretch limos.”
Indeed, hanging out of a sunroof while sipping Champagne and shouting at commoners seems more akin to Times Square or Las Vegas than outdoorsy Durango. That’s not to say Durango is without special occasions that call for a stretch limousine: think weddings, funerals and proms. Limousines are part of a growing array of transportation options in Durango, including Uber, which arrived last month.
But who does one call to class it up?
Buck Horn Limousine has been carting people around for 13 years. The Durango company started with four-wheel drive Grand Wagoneer limousines – a good fit for the mountain terrain, said Owner Dave Galus.
Since then, Buck Horn bought a GMC Yukon, a Ford E-350 14-passenger van and three Mercedes-Benz E350s. The company had a stretch limo for about a year, but there wasn’t much demand for it, Galus said, so he sold it to a Pagosa Springs family with nine children.
“You’re more likely to be spit on,” he said of showboating in a stretch limo. “It’s not PC to be driving a gas-guzzling vehicle that’s ostentatious. That’s just not Durango style.”
The trend has shifted to luxury sedan or car service, he said.
“It’s not so much about the vehicle anymore as it is about the type of service you get from a professional car service versus the type of service you would get from a taxi or Uber or Lyft,” he said. “They’re in completely different categories.”
Buck Horn offers a spectrum of services, including picking up intoxicated bar patrons, formal business travel, and providing a get-away car for bride and groom, he said. For the formal service, drivers wear black suits, speak only when spoken to, and won’t be caught on a cellphone, Galus said. The car will be spotless, and passengers receive bottled water and a daily newspaper.
Buck Horn provided service for former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson and his entourage this summer. It will do proms, but “now the requests that we get for prom are just absolutely ridiculous – 28 people that want to fit in one car,” Galus said.
People complain and say there’s a “transportation crisis” if they can’t get a ride at 1 a.m. New Year’s Day, but with the arrival of Uber and the expansion of a local taxi company, Durango is “oversaturated” with transportation, he said.
“Try to buy a snowblower during a blizzard,” Galus said. “My biggest challenge is keeping my drivers busy.”
Aztec resident Joe Barela is trying to sell his father’s stretch limo for $11,500. It has a full bar, stereo, DVD player and televisions. His father bought the 2001 Lincoln Town Car about three years ago with plans to drive it as a side business. But his father died about a year ago, and Barela says he doesn’t have time to keep the limo business running.
“A lot of people just don’t know there are limos around here, that’s the biggest problem,” he said.
His father used to cart people to proms, homecomings, weddings, funerals, Christmas parties and father-daughter dances. He charged $75 per hour, from the minute the limo left the driveway to the minute it returned. For Durango residents who live an hour north, that meant an extra $150. But that didn’t stop prom kids from pooling their money and renting the limo for the night, Barela said.
Driving the limo is easy, he said. No special driver’s license is required. Barela said he doesn’t wear the chauffeur hat and suit, but he does open and close doors for his customers. He brings a laptop and movie if he’s going to be sitting in a parking lot for hours.
Two years ago, a Farmington group rented the limo on New Year’s Eve and ran up a $900 tab, he said. They tipped his father $2,000 on top of that.
“He went back to them the next day after they all sobered up to try to give it back to them, and they said, ‘No, that’s for you,’” Barela said.
shane@durangoherald.com
