With 19 other companies in the world doing the same thing you do, how do you win contracts with the likes of singer Mariah Cary, the King of Thailand and the producers of the television show “The West Wing?” You stand apart from the pack. At least, that’s what San Antonio’s own LCW Automotive Corp. does. LCW manufactures limousines, adding 6 to 140 inches of length to the vehicles. With more than 40 years of automotive experience, the company maintains one of the highest ratings in the industry for safety, quality…

LCW Automotive Corporation is a family owned-and-operated limousine coachbuilding company, and is certified with Cadillac, Ford, Lincoln and Mercedes-Benz (Sprinter and Metris). LCW has been in the limo coachbuilding business for over 45 years, having been founded in 1972. Originally based in New York City, LCW began working with another limousine coachbuilding company across the Texas-Mexico border, in Nuevo Laredo, in 1979. The partnership imported limos from Nuevo Laredo and sold them in the United States…

Fans of NBC-TV’s hit drama series “The West Wing,” take note: That limousine you’ll see President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) tooling around in during this fall’s fourth season of the show was built by a San Antonio-based limo manufacturer. In fact, LCW Automotive at 3603 Fredericksburg Road has built two of these long, black 2002 Cadillac Sedan DeVille limos for the show, both of which were completed last week at the company’s factory in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and shipped from…

Limousines do not have easy lives. They must be inviting and luxurious for the passengers, and rugged enough for daily abuse. In the old days, reverse engineering a production car into a limo was done by cutting and inserting longer body panels for a stretched ride. But considering the complexities of modern cars and SUVs, who in their right mind would want to undertake such a task? That’s what LCW does. Cadillac’s Escalade ESV is already plush from the factory, but for an executive who demands only the best, LCW has focused their coachbuilding prowess into the Escalade CEO.

Ken Boyar, founder of LCW, passed away on November 8 after a short battle with cancer.

He was 74. Boyar’s love of cars began with his father and grandfather who ran a locksmith and auto glass shop in Brooklyn. Even before he was old enough to drive a car, his grandfather had him sweeping floors and working around the shop. Because he was a small guy, he would often be volunteered to climb into the trunk to test for leaks—which once landed him in the Bronx after they forgot he was in there and the car was delivered!

If you look up the definition of “recreational vehicle,” you won’t see luxury anywhere expressed or implied. That’s because the leaders of the RV world consider their audience to be utilitarian. Someone who will buy a vehicle because it performs as designed with little regard to pleasantries. The market for Class B vehicles is dominated by only a handful of players who offer variations on a theme. But with more owners choosing to make it their chosen class, luxury should be the first priority.