One of the most recognisable cars ever made yet most people don’t know what it’s called. It made billions of trips carrying millions of passengers over its 22 year production run. The classic New York city taxicab is a Checker Marathon. For decades it was the cabbies car of choice due to it’s size, robustness and the fact the car changed very little from year to year. The design really only changed if legislation or the availability of parts required it to and these changes were made in the ‘design office’, a curtained off corner of the factory.
Probably every film ever set in New York has shown a Checker Marathon although film makers haven’t always been accurate with the right model for the right era, as most of us couldn’t tell one years Marathon from the next. The marathon was also passed off as a soviet made Chaika 13 in Gorky Park and the original Mission: Impossible TV series. Model years were not a relevant concept at Checker.