23 bulletproof cars from around the world

This so-called Xtreme Utility Vehicle boasts a standard 3.6-liter, V6 engine, a price tag that starts at $155,000 -- and an optional ballistic-armor package. Hardcore or no, its California manufacturer says the TANK is street legal.

Today, there are a reported 100,000 armored vehicles on streets worldwide. Some, like the TANK, are built like tanks. Others are more deceptively invincible. Would-be kidnappers, assassins and terrorists, beware.

"The Beast" is the nickname for the specially built (and then some) 2009 Cadillac limo that served President Barack Obama, and now ferries President Donald Trump. It's got plate armor of at least 5 inches. It's one of a fleet -- and it's on its way out. As of late 2017, General Motors was at work on a new model.   

Unveiled in 2009, this Latvian-made, gold-plated, diamond-encrusted, vodka-stocked, $1.5 million SUV was billed as the world's most expensive. It has Kevlar coating.

About the only thing that the fortified Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition wasn't built to withstand was criticism from animal-rights activists: Its planned whale-penis-skin seats were scrapped when Pamela Anderson, Greenpeace and others balked. 

The Iron Diamond features bulletproof armor and a three-door design; the passenger door was eliminated, Dartz said, to help thwart "kindnapping [sic], hijacking and other problems which can meet rich and lonely lady on the street." 

The electric hatchback is getting the armored treatment via International Armoring Corp. The Utah-based company, which developed the lightweight passenger-car armor known as Armorex, says it's bulletproofed more than 8,000 cars since its founding in 1993. 

Here's another bulletproof offering from International Armoring Corp. Standard armoring details on the luxury SUV include ballistic glass, run-flat tires and an armor-encased passenger compartment.  

In 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin was spied taking the wheel of his bulletproof Mercedes-Benz in the Russian city of Sochi.  

Putin may have a thing for Mercedes, but at a 2000 business conference in London, he went the traditional route for a Russian leader by rolling up in a bulletproof limo made by Russia's own ZiL. 

This is no mere passenger van. This is a discrete armored vehicle from Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing. It's designed to withstand fire from 7.62-mm caliber or .308 Winchester full-metal-jacket ammo. 

Standard security features on this handcrafted, luxury, bio-fueled SUV from Canada's Conquest Vehicles include night-vision cameras, run-flat tires and an armored, tinted moon roof. 

While Pope Francis has eschewed the bulletproof-glass-encased Popemobile, his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI (pictured), toured in a modified Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV. The Popemobile entered the armored age after the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

Introduced as a concept car (pictured) in 2013, the X5 Security Plus is billed by BMW as the first vehicle specifically designed to protect against the AK-47.

This 1928 Caddy, long linked to the legendary mobster, is way O.G. -- it's said to be one of the earliest armored cars. It was sold at auction for $341,000 in 2012. Per auctioneer RM Sotheby's, it was equipped back in the day with inch-thick glass, and 3,000 pounds of armor plating.  

CIT stands for "cash in transit," meaning this is an SUV that's been armored to transport cash and other pricey things. Its everyday Chevy Tahoe-ness gives the vehicle, as Isotrex Manufacturing FZE's social-media hashtag says, a "#lowprofile." 

The Town Car's Ballistic Protection Series (or BPS) was introduced in 2004. Originally priced at $145,000, the armor-plated vehicle was designed to stand up to grenades.

This bulletproof Mercedes-Benz was once the ride of China's most-wanted fugitive, an entrepreneur turned smuggler. It sold at a 2004 auction in China for $151,000.

As rolled out by Texas Armoring Corp. in 2012, this full-size SUV, typically associated with families and weekend soccer games, was armored, ready and, per Texas Armoring, capable of defeating high-power rifle rounds from an AK-47 or M-16. 

This 1992 Peugeot 605 boasted a leather interior and armor plating when it was listed on eBay by far-right French leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2004. 

Vintage, bulletproof versions of the Indian luxury-car brand, now owned by Peugeot, are displayed at a government factory that produces everything from armored cars to rocket launchers.

This understated, but armor-bolstered, limousine helped Polish President Andrzej Duda make the scene in his homeland in 2016.  

Violence in Karachi, Pakistan, drove up demand for bullet- and bomb-proofed vehicles, like this Toyota SUV that gets the once-over at an armoring factory. 

The European Union donated 20 of these specially equipped Mercedes G-Class SUVs to the war-torn Ukraine in 2016.  

Here's one more for the road. This almost entirely bulletproof car, as Lexus puts it, is so cutting edge, it doesn't exist. It's a concept coupe tied to Marvel Studios' forthcoming "Black Panther."

The design was revealed alongside Lexus' 2018 LC Inspiration Series. According to Lexus, the Black Panther Inspired LC gets its invincibility from comic-book-land's vibranium.