8-Door Wagon! 1972 Checker Aerobus
We’ve featured a few 8-door Checker Aerobuses here on Barn Finds over the years. They were made by Checker Manufacturing Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and were a great way to transport 12 passengers in comfort with room for luggage in the back. Often used as taxi cabs, some were used by hotels as airport shuttles, while others were used for business promotion. This one is from 1972 and can be found here on eBay with a current bid of $5,000 and a buy-it-now price of $25,000. Located in Bremerton, Washington, you’ll need quite the trailer to haul this one home. Check it out.
The driver’s compartment looks fairly comfortable with all the car controls centered around the steering wheel. The seller doesn’t say much about the interior, but I’m guessing it is probably original. Under the hood lies a 327 cubic inch Chevrolet V8 with an automatic transmission.
Uncle Ike is a Marijuana distributor in Washington and from some of the photos, it appears this car has been vandalized at some point. There are scratches on quite a few of the windows along with scratches on the body. The seller doesn’t say anything about the damage, but they show quite a few photos of it. There are also quite a few spots of rust on the roof, which will need to be addressed at some point.
According to Hemmings.com, “…Aerobus made automotive history as the longest regular production car ever built – it was massive at 22.5 feet in length.” The high stance helps prevent the car from getting high-centered, but you’d want to keep this car on pavement for the most part. Overall, these cars are interesting attention-getters. What do you think?
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Comments
I was on a field trip my senior year in high school when I came across one of these being used in a national park no doubt for tour duty. Pretty versatile for that type of work. I could see a renovated historic hotel buying one for their transport shuttle. Better use than advertising for a 420 dispensary.
Was it Glacier National Park? At least as of 2012 the Glacier Park Lodge was using one of these as their shuttle. I wonder if that was what you saw.
Maybe a Mormon family will buy it.
ha ha!
I was thinking a camper conversion with a lumpy camshaft & headers you know help it get better milage (that’s what we said to the spouse) & fun to drive to your camping destination . It’s already got a LS or sort of anyhow!
Two things keep me from buying it:
1) Not enough money
2) The climate here in South Dakota means I couldn’t use it daily for hauling around the family. I’m afraid of me being responsible for it’s demise from rust.
I like to buzz around the back roads on my ’20 Honda Monkey and there’s a dirt road near Auburn, WA that has one of these cars parked in some guy’s field. I think it even has an Uncle Ike’s decal on the side.
I like the “Start a religion ” idea from the seller. Of course I assume it’s a sly reference to the, in my opinion, noted bible thumping scammer, Rev Ike , of the Sixties and Seventies who plucked his followers like chickens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5VzT44Kdpo
This Checker would really make you feel like someone was following to close. Where I grew up I had a friend whose family bought only Checkers. I always thought that was weird when all the other folks were driving Ford wagons with dinoc paneling.
This was recently on BaT and was offered at the Luckies car auction before that in Tacoma. Ike had several of these.
That’s a 350 under the hood, not a 327. 1969 was the last year for that engine.
The college I went to had a couple of these, green. I remember going down to Boston to take our Third Class Radio Operator test so we could DJ. On the way back one of the rear axles decided to start to pull out. We had to wait 3 hours on the side of the interstate for the other one to pick us up.
I remember the Checker catchphrase:
“Be sure you like them before you buy one;
they last a long, long time.”
& this 1 is long, long… one.
Luv ’em (but the wagon AND the pint size).
Been told U can put a sheet of ply in the back when seat is folded down.
Was the vehicle attacked? Who’d scratch it like that, shame on them !
Y do folks do that. Same asa racial epithet or some other indecency~